cloudComPy: a Python interface for CloudCompare
Release: CloudComPy 2.14.beta 2026/05/28 based on CloudCompare 2.14.beta
Introduction
cloudComPy User Manual: basics
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Loading clouds and other entities from files
- 3. Saving Clouds and other entities to files
- 4. Clouds, meshes, scalar fields: introspection, manipulation
- 5. operations on coordinates, scalar fields, colors, normals, meshes with Numpy
- 5.1. Read, modify or create cloud coordinates with Numpy
- 5.2. Read, modify or create a scalar field with Numpy
- 5.3. An example of point cloud with scalar field created from Numpy arrays
- 5.4. Access to the indexes of triangles nodes in a mesh
- 5.5. Access to the array of colors in cloud
- 5.6. Read, modify or create normals with Numpy
Some use cases
- 1. Create a point cloud with numpy
- 2. Cut a cloud or a mesh with a polyline
- 3. Compute distances between clouds and meshes
- 4. Cloud registration
- 5. Cloud triangulation: create a mesh
- 6. Fitting ccPlane
- 7. Searching points in neighbourhood
- 8. Cloud sampling, noise filter, filter by scalar field
- 8.1. Noise filter
- 8.2. Resample cloud spatially
- 8.3. Subsample cloud randomly
- 8.4. resample cloud with octree at level
- 8.5. resample cloud with octree
- 8.6. Statistical Outliers Removal (SOR) filter
- 8.7. subsample cloud with octree at level
- 8.8. subsample cloud with octree
- 8.9. filter by scalar field values
- 9. Generate histograms
- 10. Compute a 2.5D volume
- 11. Cloud rasterization
- 12. Interpolate scalar fields from one cloud to another
- 13. Finding an optimal bounding box
- 14. Working with quaternions for rotations
- 15. Cloud comparison with plugin M3C2
- 16. ShadeVIS (ambiant occlusion) with Plugin PCV
- 17. Compute Hidden Point Removal with plugin HPR
- 18. Boolean operations on meshes with plugin MeshBoolean or plugin Cork
- 19. Finding primitives on a cloud with plugin RANSAC-SD
- 20. Compute Cloth Simulation Filter on a cloud with CSF plugin
- 21. Classify a point cloud with Canupo plugin and a trained classifier
- 22. Compute distance between a cloud and a surface of revolution, with SRA plugin
- 23. Surface Mesh reconstruction, with Poisson Reconstruction plugin
- 24. Compute normals on a cloud with plugin HoughNormals
- 25. Sclices and contours
- 26. Extract Sections (generate cloud slices and profiles)
- 27. Extract or Label Connected Components
- 28. Merge several entities (clouds or meshes)
- 29. Avoid memory leaks in an iterative process
- 30. Render a 3D scene to an image file
- 31. choosing a specific color scale for a scalar field rendering
cloudComPy Reference documentation
- 1. cloudComPy module, functions
launchCloudCompareGUI()launchDoc()launchTests()computeApproxLocalDensity()computeCurvature()computeFeature()computeLocalDensity()computeMomentOrder1()computeNormals()computeRoughness()ComputeVolume25D()deleteEntity()ExtractConnectedComponents()extractPointsAlongSections()ExtractSlicesAndContours()filterBySFValue()GetPointCloudRadius()getScalarType()ICP()importFile()initCC()initCloudCompare()interpolateScalarFieldsFrom()invertNormals()isPluginCanupo()isPluginCSF()isPluginCork()isPluginDraco()isPluginFbx()isPluginHPR()isPluginHoughNormals()isPluginM3C2()isPluginMeshBoolean()isPluginPCL()isPluginPCV()isPluginPoissonRecon()isPluginRANSAC_SD()isPluginSRA()LabelConnectedComponents()loadMesh()loadPointCloud()loadPolyline()MergeEntities()RasterizeGeoTiffOnly()RasterizeToCloud()RasterizeToMesh()SaveEntities()SaveMesh()SavePointCloud()setTraces()unfoldPointsAlongPolylines()addToRenderScene()removeFromRenderScene()render()setOrthoView()setCenteredPerspectiveView()setViewerPerspectiveView()setGlobalZoom()zoomOnSelectedEntity()setFrontView()setBottomView()setTopView()setBackView()setLeftView()setRightView()setIsoView1()setIsoView2()setCustomView()setCameraPos()setBackgroundColor()setTextDefaultCol()setColorScaleShowHistogram()ccBBoxCC_DIRECTIONCC_FILE_ERRORCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_BAD_ARGUMENTCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_BAD_ENTITY_TYPECC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_BROKEN_DEPENDENCY_ERRORCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_CANCELED_BY_USERCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_CONSOLE_ERRORCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_FILE_WAS_WRITTEN_BY_UNKNOWN_PLUGINCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_MALFORMED_FILECC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORYCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_NOT_IMPLEMENTEDCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_NO_ERRORCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_NO_LOADCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_NO_SAVECC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_READINGCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_THIRD_PARTY_LIB_EXCEPTIONCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_THIRD_PARTY_LIB_FAILURECC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_UNKNOWN_FILECC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_WRITINGCC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_WRONG_FILE_TYPECC_FILE_ERROR.__init__()CC_FILE_ERROR.nameCC_FILE_ERROR.value
CC_SHIFT_MODECurvatureTypeEmptyCellFillOptionEmptyCellFillOption.FILL_AVERAGE_HEIGHTEmptyCellFillOption.FILL_CUSTOM_HEIGHTEmptyCellFillOption.FILL_MAXIMUM_HEIGHTEmptyCellFillOption.FILL_MINIMUM_HEIGHTEmptyCellFillOption.INTERPOLATE_DELAUNAYEmptyCellFillOption.KRIGINGEmptyCellFillOption.LEAVE_EMPTYEmptyCellFillOption.__init__()EmptyCellFillOption.nameEmptyCellFillOption.value
ExportableFieldsExportableFields.PER_CELL_AVG_HEIGHTExportableFields.PER_CELL_COUNTExportableFields.PER_CELL_HEIGHTExportableFields.PER_CELL_HEIGHT_RANGEExportableFields.PER_CELL_HEIGHT_STD_DEVExportableFields.PER_CELL_INVALIDExportableFields.PER_CELL_MAX_HEIGHTExportableFields.PER_CELL_MIN_HEIGHTExportableFields.__init__()ExportableFields.nameExportableFields.value
ICPresinterpolatorParametersLOCAL_MODEL_TYPESOrientationOrientation.MINUS_BARYCENTEROrientation.MINUS_ORIGINOrientation.MINUS_SENSOR_ORIGINOrientation.MINUS_XOrientation.MINUS_YOrientation.MINUS_ZOrientation.PLUS_BARYCENTEROrientation.PLUS_ORIGINOrientation.PLUS_SENSOR_ORIGINOrientation.PLUS_XOrientation.PLUS_YOrientation.PLUS_ZOrientation.PREVIOUSOrientation.UNDEFINEDOrientation.__init__()Orientation.nameOrientation.value
ProjectionTypeReportInfoVolTRANSFORMATION_FILTERSTRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_NONETRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_ROTATIONTRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_RXYTRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_RXZTRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_RYZTRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_TRANSLATIONTRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_TXTRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_TYTRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_TZTRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.__init__()TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.nameTRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.value
CONVERGENCE_TYPE
- 2. Points Clouds
- 3. Polylines
- 4. Octrees, descriptors and neighbourhood
- 5. Meshes
- 6. ccPrimitives
- 7. transformations
- 8. Sensor
- 9. Scalar Fields
- 10. Distance Computation Tools
- 11. Geometrical Analysis Tools
- 12. Cloud Sampling Tools
- 13. 2D Polygons
- 14. Neighbourhood
- 15. Colors
plugins Reference documentation
- 1. Canupo plugin
- 2. CSF plugin
- 3. HoughNormals plugin
- 4. HPR plugin
- 5. M3C2 plugin
- 6. MeshBoolean plugin
- 7. PCL plugin
- 8. PCV plugin
- 9. PoissonRecon plugin
- 10. RANSAC_SD plugin
RansacParamsRansacParams.__init__()RansacParams.allowFittingRansacParams.allowSimplificationRansacParams.bitmapEpsilonRansacParams.createCloudFromLeftOverPointsRansacParams.epsilonRansacParams.getPrimEnabled()RansacParams.maxConeAngle_degRansacParams.maxConeLengthRansacParams.maxConeRadiusRansacParams.maxCylinderLengthRansacParams.maxCylinderRadiusRansacParams.maxNormalDev_degRansacParams.maxSphereRadiusRansacParams.maxTorusMajorRadiusRansacParams.maxTorusMinorRadiusRansacParams.minCylinderRadiusRansacParams.minSphereRadiusRansacParams.minTorusMajorRadiusRansacParams.minTorusMinorRadiusRansacParams.optimizeForCloud()RansacParams.probabilityRansacParams.randomColorRansacParams.setPrimEnabled()RansacParams.supportPoints
computeRANSAC_SD()initTrace_RANSAC_SD()
- 11. SRA plugin
- 12. minimalBoundingBox Python plugin
Indices and tables