I have been trying to download this project (Point Cloud Free Viewer). It will only let me “open in Unity” option. I tried that and the project doesn’t show up in the project list. nor can I find it on my hard drive. How do I get it and use it? I am a newbie at this so I could use the help. Thanks in advance.
So you know, that is an asset and not a project. You’ll need to add it to an existing Unity project. If you read the reviews on the asset, I believe you’ll find some instructions on how to use it. If you are new to Unity, I would recommend going through the tutorials at Learn
I guess I understated my abilities a bit. I have been through a couple of tutorials so I do know a little bit, but just that. I haven’t really built anything of mine yet. But thanks. You pointed me into the right direction. I am able to import it into a project. I am not sure of the format of the point cloud being used vs the one I am getting as a resource from the client. I need to look into what format(s) it will take and what I can get as an output from the client.
Thanks again.
Ask your client how the point cloud was generated, I might be able to point you to a proper viewer.
What I have gotten so far is a set of navisworks and recap files with the point cloud scans in them. I am not sure what the raw scan files look like. I will get with them to see what they produce.
What hardware/process was used to generate them? They are often produced with a 3D/depth camera like the Intel RealSense cameras, Microsoft Kinect, and many others.
They are a scanning company used for scanning gas/oil plants for new piping that might have been added. Not sure of the equipment. I am just getting familiar with Unity and how it all works with Occulus. We are able to export what we have to a scene from them to different formats such as obj, fbx. Looks like the raw file is a .zfs file. What is the format being used with this example? I might be able to convert the .zfs to some other format.
May I ask, what are you trying to accomplish? It sounds like you are trying to import a point cloud into Unity to recreate a 3D environment in VR for subsequent analysis perhaps? I believe Recap supports the zfs file format .zfs file format - Autodesk Community
Yes! that is exactly what I am trying to do. I looked at Re-Cap and Navisworks. It appears they don’t support VR. I am trying to get the cloud into a VR environment so measurements and the like can be taken. the export from recap is .e57, .pts, .rcp and .rcs.
Navisworks exports to an .obj, .fbx or .dwf file.
Understood, good luck with your project. The point cloud viewer sounds like you are on the right track.
@gwhitcher_unity Did you manage to do it?
Coz I am trying to do it now and can’t find the solution…
I was able to complete my project. I used the free cloud viewer found in the Unity Store to view .xyz files. I used a few pieces of software to get Recap files to .xyz files.
I added the scan files to new Recap project. I used the Ctrl-E keyboard command to export the project to an .e57 file.
Then used CloudCompare software to import the .e57 file. This CloudCompare project can be saved as a .xyz file.
Things I have found along the way:
Coroutine(s) are the only way to do this if you have a large cloud. Waiting for the process to complete before being able to view the cloud is frustrating. Partial loading of the cloud between yield returns makes the experience much better.
In my case, all of my clouds need to be loaded dynamically. I don’t save them as an asset as it shows in the example cloud viewer project since the editor is not available at run-time.
On my system (Alienware) Point Clouds of 100 million points or less are manageable. beyond that, things get a bit choppy and not fun to interact with.
.xyz files are just text files. I read that reading binary files is faster than reading text files. I processed all of the .xyz files I have created into binary files. There does seem to be a bit of improvement in performance.
Sorry to bring back an old thread, but do you have a link to the “free cloud viewer” that you used from the asset store? The only viewer I can find that supports .XYZ is $100, and the only free viewer that I have found exclusively supports .OFF files (so far I cannot to find a way to convert an .XYZ to an .OFF, or even an .e57 to an OFF).
Looks like this viewer is now called “Point Cloud Viewer and Tools” that cost $100. I was lucky enough to get it while it was free.
Edit:
Now that I think of it, I did pay the $75 dollars for it when I got it. It wasn’t free.