LiDAR point cloud (LAS) data in 3DSMax ... buy ReCap?

[robains]

I'm getting USGS LiDAR point cloud data from a specific location where it's available.  I notice that 3DSMax (default) has not native option to work with point cloud (LAS) data.  Will ReCap (https://www.autodesk.com/products/recap/overview) work with LAS data and get it into 3DSMax?

Are there other tools/plugins that can work with LAS?

How much work is it to convert the point cloud data into an editable poly?

Cheers, Rob.

[senorpablo]

Max will load a point cloud as an .rcp or "recap" file. Autodesk bought a point cloud plugin which had wide support for different standard file formats and promptly made it proprietary in order to sell seats of Recap. Max won't convert your point cloud to a mesh. Recap used to have that ability, but they removed it. Thanks Autodesk!

http://www.meshlab.net/ is free. I don't think it will save out a rcp file, but you might have some luck generating a mesh from a point cloud which you could import into Max. 

Faro Scene is another option that deals with point clouds and will save an rcp file as well as generate a mesh. It's more expensive than recap,  though you might be able to get a demo. Recap also has a demo.

https://blenderartists.org/t/point-cloud-visualizer/684180/5

Blender also seems to have an option to deal with point clouds in PLY format. You may be able to use Meshlab to convert your Lidar data to PLY.

[robains]

Thanks for the response.

Seems very odd that Autodesk would essentially make ReCap useless if it can't converted point cloud to a mesh??  Why would Autodesk do that??

Looks like MeshLab stopped any development around 2016 ... will it output to a .max file?  Can it read LAS/LAZ LiDAR obtained from USGS?

Thanks for the links, was hoping for a more 3DSMax native solution ... since I'm not see much information on point cloud is there some more "political" and/or "copy protection" concerns around using point cloud data?  Or is the technology just not evolved enough to be useful?  Theoretically the technology would be a huge time saver and speed up workflows provided good implementation.

Very odd indeed.

Cheers, Rob.

[senorpablo · Accepted solution]

Point clouds come in a large array of formats depending on their application and origin. Mostly, they're typically very simple text file formats which contain a position and a color. The file formats are fairly open, except when companies like Autodesk reinvent the wheel in order to try and make a buck. 

Creating meshes from point clouds doesn't seem to be a common practice. 

Don't worry that meshlab hasn't been updated since 2016. It's still a very powerful tool. Lidar file formats probably haven't changed significantly in decades. Meshlab won't output to .max--that's an Autodesk proprietary format. It will output to obj or stl, which you can import to max. If you're wanting color or texture information, that's going to be much more difficult. 

https://www.cloudcompare.org/ is another option for dealing with point clouds. 

[robains]

Hmmmm, odd, why would someone NOT (i.e. not common) want to use point cloud for conversion to editable poly?  Is the problem not being able to remove undesirable vertices in order to achieve nice working polys?  I would have thought this technology would have been zapped up as it could drastically reduce modeling time.

Don't need texture/color information as I would UV them from textures I have.  The source is USGS world mapping data which would present buildings at the correct position allowing me be more exacting in my real world location and to provide a more accurate 3D model place without having to resort to guessing or obtain blueprints.   Again, this is output content for gaming/simulation so model complexity (not to be confused with accuracy) is limited to viable poly count and there is no "rendering" required for what I'm doing.

Anyway, many thanks for your information, I'll checkout those two products and see how it works.  I guess Autodesk view point cloud as some sort of business market share threat??  If so, embrace the technology Autodesk, you'll find more rewards than trying to "detune" ReCap/point Cloud.

Cheers, Rob.

[senorpablo]

Making a mesh from a point cloud is non trivial. They are completely different types of data, as point clouds are just collections of points in space, with various associated data such as color. This kind of data is often very noisy, with stray points from echos and reflections, as well as large voids from shadows. 

If you are just using the point cloud data as reference, which is what it sounds like, you can import and use the point cloud as is. It will display fine in Max. You still need to convert it to an rcp file, which can be done with a demo of Recap. Then, under the create tab, choose 'point cloud objects' from the dropdown, create a new point cloud and select your file. This is a very common use for point clouds in Max--as a reference for a model, etc.

[dgorsman]

First, point clouds are not exclusive to visualization work.  Most of the original use was, and still is, with civil design.  That expanded into what some vendors describe as "reality capture" - scanning a facility so the actual as-built conditions can be referenced in design software.  That's better done (for now) with points rather than faces.

Second, watch the conspiracy theories.  Things make a little more sense without them.  ReCap should be available with most products, and certainly the collection licenses.  There's a few extra features in the Pro version but most users don't need it.  It's presence isn't to lock out/in/whatever users.  There's a wide variety of point cloud formats, most of them proprietary databases, maintained by various third parties.  Different Autodesk programs from different teams were implenting these in various ways.  So now, there is one common front-end program which can handle many different formats.  When the third party teams update their format, it only needs updating at one Autodesk point, not several, the product teams can focus on their product, and there is a dedicated point cloud team to handle the finicky bits.