Importing Point Clouds

[c_rowland]

HI all,

I am attempting to import point cloud data (simple XYZ co-ordinates) into maya as a mesh. The questions are:

1. Can Maya import Point Cloud data?
2. If not, are their any recommended packages that can import point cloud and then produce a polygon surface?

I have looked at Rapid form etc but they seem a bit too overkill for such a simple job.

I welcome any advice

C

[joojaa]

maya can import point clouds asuming you can parse the point cloud file format. ist just that dafault maya has no good way of converting it to a mesh.

[c_rowland]

QUOTE(Joojaa @ 10/03/05, 03:04 PM)
maya can import point clouds asuming you can parse the point cloud file format. ist just that dafault maya has no good way of converting it to a mesh.
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My point cloud data is in the form of simple xyz co-ordinates in a text file, is it possible to import these as poly points into maya. I have had a go at cutting and pasting them into a maya ascii file containing one poly triangle but that doesnt seem to work. I am not experienced with MEL so I am probably barking up the wrong tree.

Chris

[joojaa]

Use particles instead of points! particles are the closest thing to freestanding points in maya.

[c_rowland]

QUOTE(Joojaa @ 10/05/05, 10:36 AM)
Use particles instead of points! particles are the closest thing to freestanding points in maya.
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OK, I'm interested, how do I import point cloud data as particles? Sounds like a MEL script thingumajig!

C

[segmoria]

Yeap you could write a MEL script that would read your text file and save the vertex XYZ coordinates into an array of vector variables. Then it would create a particle system with the same number of particles as the vertices of your point cloud and use the XYZ coordinates to input the world positions of the particle objects (an expression in per particle attributes). Shouldn't be very tricky to do.

As for the generating a polygonal mesh out of that point cloud, well thats the tricky part, and I think you might wanna do some research/reading on such algorithms.
Is your point cloud the result of a laser scanning process?