cloudComPy: a Python interface for CloudCompare

Introduction

• 1. cloudComPy: a first example
• 2. license

cloudComPy User Manual: basics

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. Set the CloudComPy environment
    • 1.1.1. Windows
    • 1.1.2. Linux
    • 1.1.3. macOS
  • 1.2. Python3: CloudComPy import
• 2. Loading clouds and other entities from files
  • 2.1. Known formats
  • 2.2. Load without explicit shift parameters
    • 2.2.1. Loading a point cloud
    • 2.2.2. Loading a mesh
    • 2.2.3. Loading a polyline
    • 2.2.4. Loading a file containing several entities
  • 2.3. Select the scans to load in a .E57 file
    • 2.3.1. Loading the file structure
  • 2.4. Getting the shift value
  • 2.5. Load with explicit shift parameters
• 3. Saving Clouds and other entities to files
  • 3.1. Known formats
  • 3.2. Saving a Point Cloud
  • 3.3. Saving a mesh
  • 3.4. Saving several entities in one file
• 4. Clouds, meshes, scalar fields: introspection, manipulation
  • 4.1. Clouds and scalar fields
    • 4.1.1. cloud introspection
    • 4.1.2. cloud transformations
    • 4.1.3. cloud copy, destruction
    • 4.1.4. cloud normals
    • 4.1.5. cloud colors
    • 4.1.6. scalar fields
    • 4.1.7. sensors
  • 4.2. meshes
    • 4.2.1. create a mesh from a cloud
    • 4.2.2. meshes introspection
    • 4.2.3. meshes modifications
    • 4.2.4. Generate a cloud from a mesh
    • 4.2.5. mesh copy, destruction
  • 4.3. primitives
    • 4.3.1. Box
    • 4.3.2. Cone
    • 4.3.3. Cylinder
    • 4.3.4. Plane
    • 4.3.5. Quadric
    • 4.3.6. Sphere
    • 4.3.7. Torus
    • 4.3.8. Dish
  • 4.4. polylines
  • 4.5. 2D polygons (facets)
  • 4.6. octrees
• 5. operations on coordinates, scalar fields, colors, 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

Some use cases

• 1. Create a point cloud with numpy
• 2. Cut a cloud or a mesh with a polyline
  • 2.1. Cut a cloud with a polyline
  • 2.2. Cut a mesh with a polyline
• 3. Compute distances between clouds and meshes
  • 3.1. Compute distances between a cloud and a mesh (C2M)
  • 3.2. Compute distances between two clouds (C2C)
  • 3.3. Compute split distances between two clouds (C2C)
• 4. Cloud registration
  • 4.1. Cloud registration with the CloudCompare implementation of ICP algorithm
  • 4.2. Cloud registration with the PCL plugin
• 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
  • 9.1. histogram as a figure
  • 9.2. histogram as a csv file
• 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. Cloud comparison with plugin M3C2
• 15. ShadeVIS (ambiant occlusion) with Plugin PCV
• 16. Compute Hidden Point Removal with plugin HPR
• 17. Boolean operations on meshes with plugin MeshBoolean
• 18. Finding primitives on a cloud with plugin RANSAC-SD
• 19. Compute Cloth Simulation Filter on a cloud with CSF plugin
• 20. Classify a point cloud with Canupo plugin and a trained classifier
• 21. Compute distance between a cloud and a surface of revolution, with SRA plugin
• 22. Surface Mesh reconstruction, with Poisson Reconstruction plugin
• 23. Sclices and contours
• 24. Extract Sections (generate cloud slices and profiles)
• 25. Extract Connected Components
• 26. Merge several entities (clouds or meshes)
• 27. Avoid memory leaks in an iterative process
• 28. Render a 3D scene to an image file

cloudComPy Reference documentation

• 1. cloudComPy module, functions
  • computeApproxLocalDensity()
  • computeCurvature()
  • computeFeature()
  • computeLocalDensity()
  • computeMomentOrder1()
  • computeNormals()
  • computeRoughness()
  • ComputeVolume25D()
  • deleteEntity()
  • ExtractConnectedComponents()
  • extractPointsAlongSections()
  • ExtractSlicesAndContours()
  • filterBySFValue()
  • GetPointCloudRadius()
  • getScalarType()
  • ICP()
  • importFile()
  • initCC()
  • initCloudCompare()
  • interpolateScalarFieldsFrom()
  • invertNormals()
  • isPluginDraco()
  • isPluginFbx()
  • isPluginHPR()
  • isPluginM3C2()
  • isPluginMeshBoolean()
  • isPluginPCV()
  • isPluginRANSAC_SD()
  • 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()
  • ccBBox
    • ccBBox.maxCorner()
    • ccBBox.minCorner()
  • CC_DIRECTION
    • CC_DIRECTION.X
    • CC_DIRECTION.Y
    • CC_DIRECTION.Z
    • CC_DIRECTION.name
    • CC_DIRECTION.value
  • CC_FILE_ERROR
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_BAD_ARGUMENT
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_BAD_ENTITY_TYPE
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_BROKEN_DEPENDENCY_ERROR
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_CANCELED_BY_USER
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_CONSOLE_ERROR
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_FILE_WAS_WRITTEN_BY_UNKNOWN_PLUGIN
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_MALFORMED_FILE
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_NO_ERROR
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_NO_LOAD
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_NO_SAVE
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_READING
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_THIRD_PARTY_LIB_EXCEPTION
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_THIRD_PARTY_LIB_FAILURE
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_UNKNOWN_FILE
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_WRITING
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.CC_FERR_WRONG_FILE_TYPE
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.name
    • CC_FILE_ERROR.value
  • CC_SHIFT_MODE
    • CC_SHIFT_MODE.AUTO
    • CC_SHIFT_MODE.FIRST_GLOBAL_SHIFT
    • CC_SHIFT_MODE.NO_GLOBAL_SHIFT
    • CC_SHIFT_MODE.XYZ
    • CC_SHIFT_MODE.name
    • CC_SHIFT_MODE.value
  • CurvatureType
    • CurvatureType.GAUSSIAN_CURV
    • CurvatureType.MEAN_CURV
    • CurvatureType.NORMAL_CHANGE_RATE
    • CurvatureType.name
    • CurvatureType.value
  • EmptyCellFillOption
    • EmptyCellFillOption.FILL_AVERAGE_HEIGHT
    • EmptyCellFillOption.FILL_CUSTOM_HEIGHT
    • EmptyCellFillOption.FILL_MAXIMUM_HEIGHT
    • EmptyCellFillOption.FILL_MINIMUM_HEIGHT
    • EmptyCellFillOption.INTERPOLATE_DELAUNAY
    • EmptyCellFillOption.KRIGING
    • EmptyCellFillOption.LEAVE_EMPTY
    • EmptyCellFillOption.name
    • EmptyCellFillOption.value
  • ExportableFields
    • ExportableFields.PER_CELL_AVG_HEIGHT
    • ExportableFields.PER_CELL_COUNT
    • ExportableFields.PER_CELL_HEIGHT
    • ExportableFields.PER_CELL_HEIGHT_RANGE
    • ExportableFields.PER_CELL_HEIGHT_STD_DEV
    • ExportableFields.PER_CELL_INVALID
    • ExportableFields.PER_CELL_MAX_HEIGHT
    • ExportableFields.PER_CELL_MIN_HEIGHT
    • ExportableFields.name
    • ExportableFields.value
  • ICPres
    • ICPres.aligned
    • ICPres.finalPointCount
    • ICPres.finalRMS
    • ICPres.finalScale
    • ICPres.transMat
  • interpolatorParameters
    • interpolatorParameters.algos
    • interpolatorParameters.knn
    • interpolatorParameters.method
    • interpolatorParameters.radius
    • interpolatorParameters.sigma
  • LOCAL_MODEL_TYPES
    • LOCAL_MODEL_TYPES.LS
    • LOCAL_MODEL_TYPES.NO_MODEL
    • LOCAL_MODEL_TYPES.QUADRIC
    • LOCAL_MODEL_TYPES.TRI
    • LOCAL_MODEL_TYPES.name
    • LOCAL_MODEL_TYPES.value
  • Orientation
    • Orientation.MINUS_BARYCENTER
    • Orientation.MINUS_ORIGIN
    • Orientation.MINUS_SENSOR_ORIGIN
    • Orientation.MINUS_X
    • Orientation.MINUS_Y
    • Orientation.MINUS_Z
    • Orientation.PLUS_BARYCENTER
    • Orientation.PLUS_ORIGIN
    • Orientation.PLUS_SENSOR_ORIGIN
    • Orientation.PLUS_X
    • Orientation.PLUS_Y
    • Orientation.PLUS_Z
    • Orientation.PREVIOUS
    • Orientation.UNDEFINED
    • Orientation.name
    • Orientation.value
  • ProjectionType
    • ProjectionType.INVALID_PROJECTION_TYPE
    • ProjectionType.PROJ_AVERAGE_VALUE
    • ProjectionType.PROJ_INVERSE_VAR_VALUE
    • ProjectionType.PROJ_MAXIMUM_VALUE
    • ProjectionType.PROJ_MEDIAN_VALUE
    • ProjectionType.PROJ_MINIMUM_VALUE
    • ProjectionType.name
    • ProjectionType.value
  • ReportInfoVol
    • ReportInfoVol.addedVolume
    • ReportInfoVol.averageNeighborsPerCell
    • ReportInfoVol.ceilNonMatchingPercent
    • ReportInfoVol.groundNonMatchingPercent
    • ReportInfoVol.matchingPercent
    • ReportInfoVol.removedVolume
    • ReportInfoVol.surface
    • ReportInfoVol.volume
  • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS
    • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_NONE
    • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_ROTATION
    • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_RXY
    • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_RXZ
    • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_RYZ
    • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_TRANSLATION
    • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_TX
    • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_TY
    • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.SKIP_TZ
    • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.name
    • TRANSFORMATION_FILTERS.value
  • CONVERGENCE_TYPE
    • CONVERGENCE_TYPE.MAX_ERROR_CONVERGENCE
    • CONVERGENCE_TYPE.MAX_ITER_CONVERGENCE
    • CONVERGENCE_TYPE.name
    • CONVERGENCE_TYPE.value
• 2. Points Clouds
  • 2.1. ccPointCloud
    • ccPointCloud
  • 2.2. bases classes for Points Clouds
    • PointCloudTpl_ccGenericPointCloud_QString
    • ccGenericPointCloud
    • ReferenceCloud
    • GenericIndexedCloudPersist
    • ccShiftedObject
    • ccHObject
    • DEPENDENCY_FLAGS
    • CLONE_WARNINGS
• 3. Polylines
  • 3.1. ccPolyline
    • ccPolyline
  • 3.2. bases classes for ccPolyline
    • Polyline
• 4. Octrees, descriptors and neighbourhood
  • 4.1. Octrees
    • DgmOctree
  • 4.2. Descriptors structures
    • PointDescriptor
    • CellDescriptor
    • IndexAndCode
  • 4.3. Neighbourhood structures
    • CylindricalNeighbourhood
    • ProgressiveCylindricalNeighbourhood
    • BoxNeighbourhood
    • NearestNeighboursSearchStruct
• 5. Meshes
  • 5.1. ccMesh
    • ccMesh
  • 5.2. bases classes for Meshes
    • ccGenericMesh
    • GenericIndexedMesh
    • TRIANGULATION_TYPES
• 6. ccPrimitives
  • 6.1. Box
    • ccBox
  • 6.2. Cone
    • ccCone
  • 6.3. Cylinder
    • ccCylinder
  • 6.4. Plane
    • ccPlane
  • 6.5. Quadric
    • ccQuadric
  • 6.6. Sphere
    • ccSphere
  • 6.7. Torus
    • ccTorus
  • 6.8. Dish
    • ccDish
  • 6.9. Generic primitive
    • ccGenericPrimitive
• 7. transformations
  • 7.1. Rotation Translation Matrix
    • ccGLMatrix
    • ccGLMatrixd
    • ccGLMatrixParams1_float
    • ccGLMatrixParams2_float
    • ccGLMatrixParams1_double
    • ccGLMatrixParams2_double
• 8. Sensor
  • 8.1. ccGBLSensor
    • ccGBLSensor
    • ROTATION_ORDER
  • 8.2. ccSensor
    • ccSensor
    • CC_SENSOR_TYPE
• 9. Scalar Fields
  • 9.1. ccScalarField
    • ccScalarField
  • 9.2. bases classes for ccScalarField
    • ScalarField
• 10. Distance Computation Tools
  • 10.1. Distance computation
    • DistanceComputationTools
  • 10.2. Distance computation parameters
    • Cloud2CloudDistancesComputationParams
    • Cloud2MeshDistancesComputationParams
• 11. Geometrical Analysis Tools
  • 11.1. Geometrical Analysis
    • GeometricalAnalysisTools
    • Density
    • ErrorCode
• 12. Cloud Sampling Tools
  • 12.1. cloud sampling
    • CloudSamplingTools
  • 12.2. cloud sampling parameters
    • SFModulationParams
    • RESAMPLING_CELL_METHOD
    • SUBSAMPLING_CELL_METHOD
• 13. 2D Polygons
  • 13.1. ccFacets
    • ccFacet
• 14. Neighbourhood
  • 14.1. Neighbourhood
    • GeomFeature
• 15. Colors
  • 15.1. QColor (from Qt)
    • QColor
  • 15.2. Other Useful Color classes (from Qt)
    • QRgba64
    • QColorSpec

plugins Reference documentation

• 1. Canupo plugin
  • Classify()
  • CORE_CLOUD_SOURCES
• 2. CSF plugin
  • computeCSF()
  • initTrace_CSF()
• 3. HPR plugin
  • computeHPR()
  • initTrace_HPR()
• 4. M3C2 plugin
  • computeM3C2()
  • initTrace_M3C2()
  • M3C2guessParamsToFile()
• 5. MeshBoolean plugin
  • CSG_OPERATION
    • CSG_OPERATION.DIFF
    • CSG_OPERATION.INTERSECT
    • CSG_OPERATION.SYM_DIFF
    • CSG_OPERATION.UNION
    • CSG_OPERATION.name
    • CSG_OPERATION.value
  • computeMeshBoolean()
  • initTrace_MeshBoolean()
• 6. PCL plugin
  • FastGlobalRegistrationFilter
    • FastGlobalRegistrationFilter.compute()
    • FastGlobalRegistrationFilter.getAutoRadius()
    • FastGlobalRegistrationFilter.getTransformation()
    • FastGlobalRegistrationFilter.setParameters()
  • NormalEstimation
    • NormalEstimation.compute()
    • NormalEstimation.setParameters()
  • MLSSmoothingUpsampling
    • MLSSmoothingUpsampling.compute()
    • MLSSmoothingUpsampling.getOutputCloud()
    • MLSSmoothingUpsampling.setParameters()
  • initTrace_PCL()
• 7. PCV plugin
  • computeShadeVIS()
  • initTrace_PCV()
• 8. PoissonRecon plugin
  • PR
    • PR.PoissonReconstruction()
  • BoundaryType
  • initTrace_PoissonRecon()
• 9. RANSAC_SD plugin
  • RansacParams
    • RansacParams.allowFitting
    • RansacParams.allowSimplification
    • RansacParams.bitmapEpsilon
    • RansacParams.createCloudFromLeftOverPoints
    • RansacParams.epsilon
    • RansacParams.getPrimEnabled()
    • RansacParams.maxConeAngle_deg
    • RansacParams.maxConeLength
    • RansacParams.maxConeRadius
    • RansacParams.maxCylinderLength
    • RansacParams.maxCylinderRadius
    • RansacParams.maxNormalDev_deg
    • RansacParams.maxSphereRadius
    • RansacParams.maxTorusMajorRadius
    • RansacParams.maxTorusMinorRadius
    • RansacParams.minCylinderRadius
    • RansacParams.minSphereRadius
    • RansacParams.minTorusMajorRadius
    • RansacParams.minTorusMinorRadius
    • RansacParams.optimizeForCloud()
    • RansacParams.probability
    • RansacParams.randomColor
    • RansacParams.setPrimEnabled()
    • RansacParams.supportPoints
  • computeRANSAC_SD()
  • initTrace_RANSAC_SD()
• 10. SRA plugin
  • qSRA
    • qSRA.doComputeRadialDists()
  • loadProfile()
  • exportMapAsCloud()
  • exportMapAsMesh()
  • initTrace_SRA()
  • FillStrategyType
    • FillStrategyType.FILL_STRAT_AVG_DIST
    • FillStrategyType.FILL_STRAT_MAX_DIST
    • FillStrategyType.FILL_STRAT_MIN_DIST
    • FillStrategyType.INVALID_STRATEGY_TYPE
    • FillStrategyType.name
    • FillStrategyType.value
  • EmptyCellFillOption
    • EmptyCellFillOption.FILL_INTERPOLATE
    • EmptyCellFillOption.FILL_WITH_ZERO
    • EmptyCellFillOption.LEAVE_EMPTY
    • EmptyCellFillOption.name
    • EmptyCellFillOption.value
  • DEFAULT_SCALES
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.ABS_NORM_GREY
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.BGYR
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.BROWN_YELLOW
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.BWR
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.DIP_BRYW
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.DIP_DIR_REPEAT
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.GREY
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.HIGH_CONTRAST
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.HSV_360_DEG
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.RW
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.RY
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.TOPO_LANDSERF
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.VERTEX_QUALITY
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.VIRIDIS
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.YELLOW_BROWN
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.name
    • DEFAULT_SCALES.value
• 11. minimalBoundingBox Python plugin
  • dist2()
  • findRotation()
  • isocahedron()
  • section()
  • zinv()

Indices and tables

• 1. general index
• 2. module index