Extract individual points from a point cloud

[daniel.valasekY8ZAX]

Hi there,

I am getting my feet wet with LiDAR scans and the field-to-finish process for coming up with a deliverable. I am using a Trimble SX10 total station/scanner, Trimble Business Center, and Civil 3D 2020. 

I have gotten as far as successfully exporting an .xml surface and a separate .rcp file from TBC of the region I want to work with manually, as this seemed to be the most direct way to import point cloud data into C3D. It does not appear, however that though the point cloud acts like a block in C3D, I cannot explode or burst it, or do anything for that matter to handle the scan points individually. C3D seems only set up to handle extracting polygonal elements from a point cloud (i.e. lines, corners, and edges, section lines) but not individual points, although it would seem they should each have grid information (x, y, z). 

Is there any way to explode these point clouds, convert them to autocad or 3d points, or re-export in another format (.csv, etc.) where they can be manually manipulated as if they were normal survey points?

Thanks in advance!

[Pointdump]

Hi Daniel,
Welcome to the Autodesk Forums.
I don't know how TBC deals with point clouds. Have you tried running the point cloud through ReCap?
Dave

[neilyj666]

i'm not entirely convinved about the practical merits of point couds - they look good on screen but breaklines etc are what I want to use. I don't think the current toolsets allow for extracting individual points although Infraworks can do some linear feature extraction but from what I've seen it is a manual process.

CloudCompare (free download) can import a point cloud (las laz and other formats but not rcp/rcp i believe) and export to dxf which may assist you BUT it could be very tricky to identify what each point represents.

[ChicagoLooper]

You can’t ‘extract’ individual points as you suggest but, depending on the type of survey used to capture the points, you may be able to display points based on POINT CLASS. (Not all point clouds are ‘classified’ so whether or not you can classify is not under your control.)

Here’s a >>VIDEO<< by Seiler Solutions that demonstrates how it’s done. 

 

[AllenJessup]

I'm not familiar with the Trimble workflow. We use Leica and have their Cloudworx add-in for Civil 3D. While that can draw some lines. I usually end up snapping to the points with a Node osnap.

[rl_jackson]

Welcome to the world of Reality Capture, you're in for a ride. We're everything looks pretty, but you have to extract the data manually. Currently the only tools available are those that have been mentioned Recap with its new cloud classification feature for ground & Infraworks also classifies, but adds feature extraction, traverse & transection, but is cumbersome and not CAD like IMO. As far as the data goes, I'm in the same park with the comment @neilyj666 made regarding the value of the data. It's only true value is that it moved all the line drawing to the office vs. coding the breaks in the field. The thing is at the end of the day it's still got to be done, it's just where it gets done. Now you'll have the title of photogrammetrist to add to CAD Tech or Designer.

[TerryDotson]

Is there any way to explode these point clouds, convert them to ... points.

DotSoft LidarTools Freeware on Autodesk App Store contains a LIDARPLOT command that lets you specify two points to form a window and designate a classification (2 for ground) and it then draws the results as plain AutoCAD points.  Save your drawing before using it and don't select a large area or it can bring the CAD engine to a halt.

[AllenJessup]

Hi Rick,

We've seen some advantages doing scans. One is shooting areas where access might be difficult. Another is that the Engineers often end up wanting more than they originally asked for. If it's in the scan there's no need for another trip to the field.

An example. A few months ago we scanned a short tunnel to check the clearance at both ends. Last week there was a question on the width between guiderails that run along each wall. I simply had to open the scan and measure between a few point on them.

One thing I've learned is that working with point clouds is  that you need to clip the cloud down to only what you want to deal with. I've literally clipped down to a single Utility Pole or Catch Basin.

[daniel.valasekY8ZAX · Accepted solution]

All,

Thank you for the quick responses! I knew it was going to be a good deal joining this forum, I've already scoured it many times finding solutions to questions I had in the past - a great resource.

I appreciate all the suggestions, it sounds like a lot of shortcomings in the current major players in software has been attempted to be solved by third party programs. I think this is great, however I should have specified that I work for the federal government (USDA) and they are very stringent about what programs we can download and use. Though I am able to export .rcp files from TBC, I am not able to download ReCap as a whole unfortunately, otherwise I would.

However, I did find a solution to my particular issue that I figured I would post up here in case anyone else who uses Trimble comes along looking for the same answer. I was asking a popular YouTube surveyor who uses Trimble and posts a lot of tutorials online (Surveying With Robert), and he said most of that point extraction needs to be done prior to importing to CAD. I was able to dig a little deeper into the "Deliverable" section of the Point Cloud tab, and found a utility called "Scan To CAD". This takes whatever scan points you have selected and converts them into Autocad points. I did however have to go into my selection and pare it down a lot as I initially had 134,000 points selected and it really caused some bogging down. With some manual sampling I was able to get that number down to 19,000 and it was much more manageable. I was then able to export these Autocad points from TBC as a .csv file and use them successfully in Civil 3D. 

If anyone has a similar issue, hopefully this will help steer them in the right direction, and thanks again everyone for the help.

[AllenJessup]

Glad you found a workflow that works for you. Thanks for posting the answer.

I take it from your answer that the USDA only subscribes to Civil 3D and not the AEC Collection. Otherwise you'd have full Recap. Penny wise and Pound(£) foolish.

[daniel.valasekY8ZAX]

Correct, none of those programs are available in our host environment's "Software Center". You can download a program from the internet, you just have to call in to the Help Desk and have a tech remote in to your machine and install it for you after they make sure it's approved, so it's kind of a pain.

The nice thing about using stuff pre-approved in the software center is that all the licensing has already been paid for so there is nothing you have to purchase to have full operability. It seems USDA has contracts with Trimble and Autodesk already set up.

[AllenJessup]

Yes. I understand your pain. I work for a local government and have to get IT to approve and install software. My point is it looks like you only have a contract for Civil 3D. The AEC Collection includes Civil 3D, Recap and much more. We have a 10 user licence for it.