topic Re: Point cloud file in AutoCAD Map 3D Forum

Point cloud file

ctnycc — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 14:05:03 GMT

Good day,

I have a file that has approx 150,000 points in 3D, what is the best way to have these plotted, i have tried taking the poinst from the text file and inserting into an excel spreadsheet formwhere i have added the point command which has then plotted the points in batches but it is taking forever, there must be a quicker way to do this.

I did wonder about a script file but i am not familiar with using this.

I have attached the file with the point coordinates.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance

Re: Point cloud file

Pointdump — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 15:27:29 GMT

CT,

"...what is the best way to have these plotted..."

Need a little more information here. Is your data dense enough to turn it into a Point Cloud in ReCap? What are you going to do with the NEZ (or ENZ) file? Make contours? Export as a DEM? Who will be next-in-line to receive your data? What do they need? In what format?

Dave

Re: Point cloud file

Murph_Map — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 23:28:47 GMT

Take a look at this old blog posting.

https://map3d.wordpress.com/2006/06/25/points-from-a-text-file/

Re: Point cloud file

ctnycc — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 07:06:49 GMT

The image is that of a bone, i am just wanting to see how quickly one can create the image and get the data in, as it turns out converting the data into a format to paste into the command line under the point command is extremely slow, the PC we have is a HPZ420 with Xeon processors and 16Gb memory, it does not work very well and i wondered if there was a quicker way to import these coordinates.

Obviously there are other parts of the system whcih may need looking at to speed this up as well as the processor, e.g. graphics, hard drive to SSD.

I see the other response to my query has proposed the way i was doing it in the first place, unless another option is proposed i suppose this is the only way to do it in Autocad.

Thanks

Colin

Re: Point cloud file

braudpat — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 10:22:46 GMT

Hello

What is the basic speed of your Xeon processor ? Which type of Xeon ?

Because with very fast Core i7 like Core i7 4790K or Core i7 6700K (basic speed = 4.0 Ghz) you are faster than any Xeon ...

Today you must have a Xeon with a basic speed like 3.4-3.7 Ghz !

Then if you are reading huge Point files, a SSD will be much faster than a classic SATA hard disk !

Regards, Patrice

Re: Point cloud file

ctnycc — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 10:33:01 GMT

Hi Pat,

As i suspected we are not fortunate enough to have a system powerful enough to deal with the data generated. i have attached a snip which hsows the processor.

Thanks

Colin

Re: Point cloud file

braudpat — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 10:38:22 GMT

Hello

1) Your Xeon E5-1620 with its basic speed of 3.6 Ghz and 10 Mb cache, is OK ! ... It's a very good "OLD" choice !!

2) You can't do really better with a NEW PC except using a SSD for very fast reading / writing on hard disk ...

Regards, Patrice

Re: Point cloud file

ctnycc — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 10:48:38 GMT

Hi Pat

Yes it was a good choice 3 years ago but as time ahs gone on and the bloating of windows and systme demands it is slow especially when downloading data over a network. We are not fortunate enough to have the money to upgrade etc.

It took just over an hour to load the 150K points into Autocad this morning.

Anyhow at least i know it is the PC and not a problem with the data.

Thanks

Colin

Re: Point cloud file

braudpat — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 11:07:18 GMT

Hello Colin

How do you load the 150K 3D points into ACAD ?

1) Script file "*.SCR" with someting like :

multiple point

x1,y1,z1

x2,y2,z2

etc

2) DXF loading

3) Lisp/VLisp file reading a CSV file

4) Other solution ?

Regards, Patrice

Re: Point cloud file

ctnycc — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 11:23:40 GMT

Hi Pat,

I tried it by pasting the data straight into the command line via ctrl +V, i have just done it using a script and it is "chugging" away probably fo rthe next hour again.

Other methods, not tried as i am not sure as no one has suggested anything apart from Murph.

Regards

Colin

Re: Point cloud file

O_Eckmann — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 20:31:37 GMT

Hi,

with this little piece of code I've loaded 145000 points in 15 seconds.

(defun C:LOADPTS ()
  ; sélection du fichier CSV
  (setq sFileName (getfiled "Points File" "C:/XYZ.TXT" "TXT" 0))
  (setq sLayer (getvar "CLAYER"))
  (setq f_open (open sFileName "r"))
  (setq l_read (read-line f_open))
  (while (setq l_read (read-line f_open))
    (setq sXCoord  (substr l_read 1 (vl-string-position 59 l_read)))
    (setq l_read   (substr l_read (+ 2 (vl-string-position 59 l_read))))
    (setq sYCoord  (substr l_read 1 (vl-string-position 59 l_read)))
    (setq l_read   (substr l_read (+ 2 (vl-string-position 59 l_read))))
    (setq sZCoord  (substr l_read 1 (vl-string-position 59 l_read)))
    (entmake (list (cons 0 "POINT")
		   (cons 8 sLayer)
		   (cons 10 (list (atof sXCoord) (atof sYCoord) (atof sZCoord)))
	     )
    )
  )
  (close f_open)
)

Point file must have TXT extension and must use semicolon as separator

X;Y;Z

Olivier

Re: Point cloud file

braudpat — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 06:58:27 GMT

Hello Olivier

1) THANKS for your routine !

2) I know that creating many many entities from a GOOD Lisp/VLisp routine OR from a GOOD DXF file is FAST ...

But I am not a Programmer, so thanks for your work !

3) Your routine has 2 very small "problems" :

31) A line has to be added to your code (at the beginning or at the end) ...

(vl-load-com)

32) Your routine forgots the LAST line !! ... Curious ...

Happy WE, Regards, Patrice

Re: Point cloud file

ctnycc — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 07:27:34 GMT

Thanks Olivier u haqve restored my faith, it just took nearly 30s to load in. I have made the changes suggested by Pat below regarding (vLoad-com), not quite sure what he meant by the last line?

Re: Point cloud file

braudpat — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 07:36:45 GMT

Hello

1) You have added the line (vl-load-com) to the Olivier Routine ---> OK !

2) When I said that the last line is missing ...

This means that the routine has a very small bug: the last line of the XYZ file is not interpreted by the routine !

So for example with your test file which has 34 points (or lines) : ONLY 33 points are created on my PC !

3) So you have to add by hand the last point ... A small work ...

Regards, Patrice