CloudCompare
User’s Manual for version 2.1

Authors: DGM, AB, RM
Translator: Rosemary Le Faive
Funding for Translation Provided by Vehiclemetrics Inc.
www.cloudcompare.net

iTable of Contents
Introduction
0.1.
0.2.

............................................................................................................... 1

License ................................................................................................................................ 2
Installing the binary ............................................................................................................. 3

Chapter 1. Interface .................................................................................................... 4

1.1. Main Window....................................................................................................................... 4
1.2. Available Objects ................................................................................................................ 5
1.2.1. Navigation tree ............................................................................................................. 5
1.2.2. Selecting Objects ......................................................................................................... 6
1.3. Object Display ..................................................................................................................... 7
1.3.1. 3D view......................................................................................................................... 7
1.3.2. Multiple 3D views ......................................................................................................... 8
1.3.3. Interactivity ................................................................................................................... 9
1.3.4. Display Options .......................................................................................................... 10
1.4. Properties of Objects ........................................................................................................ 11
1.4.1. Common properties.................................................................................................... 11
1.4.2. Point Clouds ............................................................................................................... 12
1.4.2.1.
1.4.2.2.

Common Properties ................................................................................................... 12
Scalar fields ............................................................................................................... 12

1.4.4.1.
1.4.4.2.

Description ................................................................................................................. 16
Display ....................................................................................................................... 17

1.4.3.
1.4.4.

Meshes / groups of meshes ....................................................................................... 15
Octree ......................................................................................................................... 16

1.5. Interactive modification of entities..................................................................................... 18
1.5.1. Manual segmentation ................................................................................................. 18
1.5.2. Manual rotation/translation......................................................................................... 19
1.6. Progress bars .................................................................................................................... 19
1.7. Toolbars ............................................................................................................................ 20
1.8. Keyboard shortcuts ........................................................................................................... 21

Chapter 2. Functions ................................................................................................ 23

2.1. 'File' Menu ......................................................................................................................... 23
2.1.1. Open (file)................................................................................................................... 23
2.1.2. Save (file) ................................................................................................................... 24
2.2. 'Edit' Menu ......................................................................................................................... 24
2.2.1. Colors > Set Unique ................................................................................................... 24
2.2.2. Colors > Colorize........................................................................................................ 25
2.2.3. Colors > Height Ramp................................................................................................ 26
2.2.4. Normals > Compute ................................................................................................... 26
2.2.5. Normals > Invert ......................................................................................................... 26
2.2.6. Normals > Resolve direction ...................................................................................... 26
2.2.7. Octree > Compute ...................................................................................................... 27
2.2.8. Octree > Resample .................................................................................................... 27
2.2.9. Mesh > Compute ........................................................................................................ 27
2.2.10. Mesh > Sample Points ............................................................................................. 28
2.2.11. Mesh > Measure Surface ......................................................................................... 28

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Table of Contents

2.2.12. Mesh > Scalar Field > Smooth................................................................................. 28
2.2.13. Mesh > Scalar Field > Enhance ............................................................................... 29
2.2.14. Sensor > Ground-Based Lidar > Show depth buffer ............................................... 29
2.2.15. Sensor > Ground-Based Lidar > Export depth buffer .............................................. 29
2.2.16. Sensor > Create ....................................................................................................... 29
2.2.17. Sensor > Modify ....................................................................................................... 31
2.2.18. Scalar Fields > Gradient .......................................................................................... 31
2.2.19. Scalar Fields > Gaussian Filter ................................................................................ 32
2.2.20. Scalar Fields > Filter by Value ................................................................................. 33
2.2.21. Scalar Fields > Difference ........................................................................................ 33
2.2.22. Scalar Fields > Multiply ............................................................................................ 33
2.2.23. Scalar Fields > Convert to RGB............................................................................... 34
2.2.24. Clone ........................................................................................................................ 34
2.2.25. Fuse ......................................................................................................................... 34
2.2.26. Translate .................................................................................................................. 34
2.2.27. Multiply ..................................................................................................................... 34
2.2.28. Subsample ............................................................................................................... 35
2.2.29. Synchronize ............................................................................................................. 35
2.3. Tools Menu ....................................................................................................................... 36
2.3.1. Tools > Projection > Unroll......................................................................................... 36
2.3.2. Tools > Projection > Height Grid Generation............................................................. 37
2.3.3. Tools > Registration > Align ....................................................................................... 38
2.3.4. Tools > Registration > Register ................................................................................. 40
2.3.5. Tools > Distances > Cloud/Cloud dist........................................................................ 42
2.3.6. Tools > Distances > Cloud/Mesh dist. ....................................................................... 44
2.3.7. Tools > Distances > Closest Point Set ...................................................................... 45
2.3.8. Tools > Statistics > Compute stat. params ................................................................ 45
2.3.9. Tools > Statistics > Statistical test ............................................................................. 46
2.3.10. Tools > Segmentation > Label Connected Components......................................... 48
2.3.11. Tools > Segmentation > K-Means ........................................................................... 48
2.3.12. Tools > Segmentation > Front propagation ............................................................. 48
2.4. Display Menu .................................................................................................................... 49
2.4.1. Display > Full Screen ................................................................................................. 49
2.4.2. Display > Refresh ....................................................................................................... 49
2.4.3. Display > Test Frame Rate ........................................................................................ 49
2.4.4. Display > Toggle Centered Perspective .................................................................... 50
2.4.5. Display > Toggle Viewer Based Perspective ............................................................. 50
2.4.6. Display > Render to File............................................................................................. 50
2.4.7. Display > Light and Materials > Set Light and Materials ........................................... 51
2.4.8. Display > Light and Materials > Toggle sun light ....................................................... 52
2.4.9. Display > Light and Materials > Toggle custom light ................................................. 52
2.4.10. Display > Console .................................................................................................... 53
2.5. Plugins Menu .................................................................................................................... 53
2.5.1. Plugins > PCV ............................................................................................................ 53
2.5.2. Plugins > HPR ............................................................................................................ 55
2.6. 3D Views Menu ................................................................................................................. 57
2.6.1. 3D Views > New ......................................................................................................... 57
2.6.2. 3D views > Close ....................................................................................................... 57

iii
2.6.3. 3D Views > Close all .................................................................................................. 57
2.6.4. 3D Views > Tile .......................................................................................................... 57
2.6.5. 3D Views > Cascade.................................................................................................. 58
2.6.6. 3D Views > Next......................................................................................................... 58
2.6.7. 3D Views > Previous .................................................................................................. 58
2.7. Help Menu ......................................................................................................................... 58
2.7.1. Help > Help ................................................................................................................ 58
2.7.2. Help > About .............................................................................................................. 58
2.7.3. Help > About plugins .................................................................................................. 59

A Appendix ............................................................................................................. 60

A.1 File Formats ....................................................................................................................... 60
A.1.1 Recognized 2D/3D file types ...................................................................................... 60
A.1.2 Opening and Saving ................................................................................................... 61
A.1.3 Special Formats .......................................................................................................... 61
A.1.3.1
A.1.3.2

ICM files ..................................................................................................................... 61
Depth Map Export file ................................................................................................. 62

1

Introduction
CloudCompare is an application for managing and comparing 3D point clouds (and, to someextent, surface meshes). Its development began in 2004 as part of a CIFRE thesis, funded by EDF
R&D and housed at the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST – Telecom
Paris, TSI Laboratory, TII team). Work has continued after the thesis was completed in 2006. It is aplatform to demonstrate algorithms that were studied in the thesis, and developed thereafter. In thissense, it is not designed for commercial use.
This program was primarily created to deal with point clouds. It was largely developed by Daniel
Giradeau-Montaut, with the participation of:–––Salma Bougacha (intern at EDF R&D in 2004)
Aurélien Bey (PhD student at EDF R&D since the start of December 2008)
Raphaël Marc (research engineer at EDF R&D)

along with elements graciously provided by Florent Duguet, then a PhD student at Telecom Paris.
CloudCompare has been mainly used to deal with interiors of power plants, mapped by EDF
surveyors using laser scanners, and it has occasionally been used to deal with readings from dams
or cooling towers.
This software can, among other things:–––

calculate the local distances between two dense point clouds (figure below, left);filter out the measurement noise of the laser scanner to identify true differences (figure
below, center);
identify the individual objects (or parts of objects) that differ between two data sets (figure
below, right).

The originality of CloudCompare comes from many aspects:–

the data structures used: an "octree" that allows large point clouds (many millions of points in3D) to be stored in memory and displayed, as well as allowing the differences between two

2

Table of ContentsIntroduction

–
–
–
–
–

large data sets to be calculated rapidly (that is to say, in a few seconds); as well as a "Kdtree" which is used to quickly align two point clouds.
two novel distance measurements between point clouds: a precise measure based on a
Hausdorff distance (distance to the nearest neighbour); and a very fast though less precise
measure based on the chamfer distance;measurement noise filtering;accounting for the sampling differences between the compared data sets;accounting for the visibility of the scanner for each data set;graphically mapping the PCV (Portion of Visible Sky) onto the point cloud, which improves
the display of point clouds on the screen.

Even though CloudCompare is able to manage triangular meshes or sets of 3D polylines, these
entities are primarily, to CloudCompare, point clouds (sets of vertices) that have particular
structures, in addition to numerous other structures (octree, kd-tree, colors, normals, scalar fields,
calibrated photos, etc.). The user is therefore advised to keep this aspect in mind while using
CloudCompare; and should in particular pay attention to the role of each type of 3D entity in theprocessing tools offered by this software.

0.1. License
The CloudCompare software is comprised of the two following programs:––

the CClib library;
the qCC executable which uses the CClib library.

Installing and using the two component programs of the CloudCompare software signifies thatyou accept the terms and conditions of their respective licenses. Version 2, dated March 2007, andprevious versions of the two component programs are the property of EDF and TELECOM
ParisTech.
License for the CClib library:
The CClib library is distributed under the GNU LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License) as
published by the FSF (Free Software Foundation) at: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
License for the qCC executable:
The qCC program is distributed under the GNU GPL (GNU General Public License) as published by
the FSF (Free Software Foundation) at: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html
EDF and TELECOM ParisTech grant the user the rights to install and to use the CloudCompare
software after having downloaded it from the site http://rd.edf.com. The software is provided as-is,with no explicit or implicit warranties. The authors take no responsibility for any harm caused directly
or indirectly. The user assumes all risks and responsibilities with regard to the quality of the
CloudCompare software and its use.

0.2. Installing the binary3

0.2. Installing the binary
CloudCompare works under the Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems. It is nolonger being ported to Linux. The binary distribution of CloudCompare does not have an installer.
Simply decompress the .zip archive containing the executable and the DLLs. Listed below are thefiles (.exe or .dll) that you will find after expanding the archive:
For CloudCompare version 2.0 (IHM based on Fltk/Flu):– CloudCompare.exe (primary executable)– CC_Dll.dll (CClib library)– cv100.dll (DLL of the openCV library used for image processing)– cxcore100.dll (DLL of the openCV library used for image processing)– DevIL.dll (DLL of the Developer’s Image Library which permits importing numerous image
formats)– glew32.dll (DLL of the OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library)– highgui100.dll (DLL of the openCV used for image processing)– ILU.dll (DLL of the Developer’s Image Library which permits importing numerous image
formats)– ILUT.dll (DLL of the Developer’s Image Library which permits importing numerous image
formats)– libguide40.dll (allows linking to Intel®'s DLL Math Kernel Library)– xerces-c_2_7.dll (C++ library for parsing XML)
Remark: it is possible that running CloudCompare 2.0 will require the presence of the msvcp71.dll
and msvcr71.dll DLLs. These DLLs are part of the Microsoft C++ Runtime Library (available fordownload on the Microsoft web site).
For version 2.1 of CloudCompare (IHM based on Qt 4):– qCC.exe (primary executable)– CC_Dll.dll (CClib library)– FreeImage.dll (a library from the open source project FreeImage, which enables reading andwriting of the latest image formats)– mingwm10.dll (DLL for the minGW compiler which allows multi-threading)– QtCore4.dll (DLL required by Qt)– QtGui4.dll (DLL required by Qt)– QtOpenGL4.dll (DLL required by Qt)
And the optional components, in the plugins directory:– qHPRPlugin.dll (plugin for the "Hidden Point Removal" function)– qPCVPlugin.dll (plugin for the PCV (portion of visible sky) rendering function)

4

Chapter 1. Interface
1.1. Main Window
The main window of CloudCompare has the following sections:

–

–

–

–
–

1: Application menu bar. This bar provides access to the functions available inCloudCompare. Sometimes, as a function of the selected objects, certain menus may not be
available. For example, the "Edit" and "Tools" menu are inactive if no object is selected(visible in the screenshot above).
2 and 3: Toolbars. The different icons visible on these toolbars provide quick access toselected functions. These functions are also available through the appropriate menus in themenu bar (1). The toolbar (2) provides functions related to processing of objects, while thetoolbar (3) is purely for changing the visualization parameters.
4: Navigation Tree. This area provides a tree visualization of the set of objects imported or
created by the program. Objects can be selected by clicking on them in this area.
Subsequently, we will use the term "list" for the set of elements grouped under the same tree
structure (on the screenshot above, we can see two lists).
5: Current object properties window. If a single object is selected, this area lets you viewand edit some properties of this object.
6 and 7: 3D views. These areas let you visualize the objects available in memory "in 3D". In
CloudCompare, objects can be visualized together in a shared 3D view, or in separate
windows (in the screenshot above, two 3D viewers are open).

1.2. Available Objects––

5

8: Console. This zone contains the log of information generated by the execution of
CloudCompare (typically, supplementary non-essential information produced by thealgorithms). It can be displayed or hidden via the "Console" command on the Display menu.
9: Status bar. Quick help messages related to certain functions of CloudCompare aredisplayed here. When you position the mouse cursor over a control button in the menus, therelated help message will appear in this bar. However, not all the controls necessarily havesuch a message.

All the entities available in CloudCompare can therefore be accessed via the navigation tree (4)and possibly in the 3D view(s) (6,7).
It is possible to move or remove the different toolbars. To do this, simply grasp the manipulable
part situated at the end of the bar by clicking on it, then move it while holding down the mousebutton:The bar can be left floating, or docked in a new position, in which case the neighboring toolbars
will rearrange themselves. The toolbars can also be displayed or hidden via the Display / Toolbar
submenu: the checked items correspond to the visible toolbars; unchecked items are hidden.
Similarly, it is possible to move the navigation window and the properties window by grasping
their title bars and dragging them to the desired position.
In the rest of this document, we will describe the basic functionalities of CloudCompare, anddescribe all the available manipulations that affect the visualization of entities. The user can refer tothe next part of this document (Chapter 2) to get detailed information on the advanced functions.

1.2. Available Objects
1.2.1. Navigation tree

As previously seen, CloudCompare displays the set of available objects (loaded into or createdby this application) in the navigation tree window, which is located by default on the left side of themain window. We can find the following elements there:

6

Chapter 1. Interface

A group of entities. If this corresponds to an open file, it will group all the elements loaded
from this file, and will be named with the source file path.
A point cloudA simple mesh
A group of meshes, treated here as a standard mesh (we can also find the vertices ofthese meshes as point clouds within this element type).
A structure
An object
A photo (possibly calibrated).

Note: groups of entities are not, technically speaking, manipulable entities. Typically, they cannot
be used as entities for CloudCompare functions: they serve only as a "folder".
In the usual way, the tree can be opened by clicking on the buttons [+] and [-] situated at the leftof the junctions of the tree (that respectively show or hide the sub-entities that are attached there).
The checkbox situated at the left of an element activates or deactivates the corresponding entity(respectively, when it is checked or unchecked). The concept of deactivation is stronger than simply
showing/hiding an entity (the active status is a generic property of any 3D object -- see further). The
inactive entities (and all their attached sub-entities) are not displayed, but further they are neither
affected by the interactive operations like graphical segmentation, and more generally, they can nolonger be selected (and can therefore not be used as inputs for CloudCompare functions).

1.2.2. Selecting Objects
To select an entity, the user can do one of two things: click with the left mouse button either on
the entity in the navigation tree, or on its representation in the 3D view. In both cases, the selected
object appears underlined in the navigation tree, and highlighted by a surrounding box in thegraphical context or object figure. When an entity is selected, the information corresponding to it
appears in the Properties window. Some properties displayed in this window can be modified;others are presented for information only.
It is possible to select multiple entities, by using the classic multi-selection commands in
Windows: clicking multiple objects (in the navigation tree or in a graphical context) while holding
down the CTRL key. To de-select one object while keeping the others already selected, click once
more on that object while holding down the CTRL key. Alternately, while holding the SHIFT key
down, then selecting two objects (in the navigation tree only), all objects visible between the two
selected objects will also be selected. A final possibility is to hold down the left mouse button whilemoving the cursor over the objects to select in the navigation tree.
The majority of functions in CloudCompare only apply to selected entities. Their commands are
therefore deactivated until the user has selected the appropriate number and type of objects.

1.3. Object Display

7

1.3. Object Display
1.3.1. 3D view

Figure 1.1 – Standard elements of a 3D view

The 3D views (or "graphical contexts" - see figure 1.1) are the sub-windows in which the entities
can be visualized. They are all arranged in the following manner:
–
–
–
–
–

1: Scale. Provides a reference to estimate distances. The scale is displayed using the
distance units in which the coordinates are expressed (CloudCompare does not use explicit
distance units).
2: Orientation triad. The three displayed axes represent the X axis (red), Y axis (green) andZ axis (blue). The triad indicates the current orientation of the viewer.
3: Bounding box. This is the smallest parallelepiped (rectangle) that contains the entirety ofthe selected objects. The axes of the box are aligned on the X, Y, and Z axes, as per theorientation triad (2).
4: Name of active scalar field (refer to section 1.4.2.2 for more information about scalar
fields).
5: Temporary information concerning the display. It may be the current dimension of thecontext (in pixels, after resizing the window), the type of projection used, etc.

8

Chapter 1. Interface–

6: Color gradient. Identifies the values associated with the colors when a scalar field isactive and displayed.

1.3.2. Multiple 3D views
The majority of entities loaded in memory (and visible in the navigation tree) can be displayed in
3D views. Any number of these visualization windows can be created, and the entities can each be
assigned individually to a different window.
To create a new 3D view, click on the command New in the 3D Views menu, or simultaneously
type CTRL and F3. A new window will then appear (by default it will fill the entire area dedicated tothe 3D views).
To divide the display area between the different open windows, different methods exist:–––

Partitioning: each window occupies a portion of the available space, and the windows do not
overlap. To partition the display, click on Tile in the 3D Views menu.
Cascading Display: each window occupies the same portion of the allotted space, and thewindows all overlap each other. To cascade the views, click Cascade in the 3D Views menu.
Resize every context "by hand", notably with the assistance of theandbuttons(minimize this window and reduce this window, respectively), available at the top right ofeach window.

It is also possible to navigate between the different open views, using the commands Next andPrevious on the 3D Views menu, or accessing a context directly by clicking on its name in the 3D
Views menu.
To close a 3D view window, click Close in the 3D Views menu after selecting the context, or
directly via the

button on the window.

Finally, to change the window in which an object appears, select the object, and then in theproperties window, choose the destination window in the Current Display dropdown list.

1.3. Object Display

9

An object will not displayed in any view if None is chosen as the destination display.

1.3.3. Interactivity
You can change the 3D point of view in a display by using the mouse:

Figure 1.2 – Mouse commands (L: select/rotate; M: zoom; R: pan)

–
–
–
–

L - left click: [SELECTION] click on an object in a 3D display to select it.
L - held down: [ROTATION] hold the left button down and move the mouse to perform arotation around the current center of the display (cf. sections 2.4.4 and 2.4.5).
M - scrolling: [ZOOM] scroll the mouse will forward (toward the top) to zoom in (get closer).
Conversely, scroll down ("backwards") to zoom out (move farther away).
R - held down: [PAN] hold the right mouse button down while moving the mouse to perform atranslation of the point of view in the plane of the screen.

By default, the center of the rotation of the point of view is located in the center of the scene, andthe visualization is done according to an orthographic projection (without perspective). Whilechanging the point of view (rotating the viewing vector), large point clouds are temporarily sampled
in a manner to permit interactive rendering of the movements.
The graphical displays (3D views) are independent from each other, and changes in the point ofview in one viewer don't necessarily have any repercussions in the others. All the same, it ispossible to synchronize the camera movements so they will be applied to all the windows at once.
To do this, simply check the Camera link option under the navigation window. To re-establish thenormal functioning of the graphical displays, un-check this box.

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Chapter 1. Interface

1.3.4. Display Options
The following commands allow the user to modify the display properties. Some of them arenotably visible via the Viewing tools toolbar.

Change the lighting parameters in the scene (details below).
Change the display size of the points.
Reset zoom and re-center the camera on the whole scene in the current 3D view.
Zoom and re-center the camera on the selected objects. This has no effect if no objects are
selected.
Use these 6 buttons to toggle between different predefined points of view (in the order thatthe buttons appear: top, bottom, front, back, left, right). The predefined points of view are
defined according to the orientation triad.
button opens the lighting and materials parameters window. In it, the user can modifyThethe mood of the light source, the default color of point clouds, the default color of meshes,
distinguish between "front" and "back" faces, and set the colors of various elements that make up
the graphical display. This functionality is described in more detail in section 2.4.7.
The
button permits you to access the point size parameter, via a dialogue box visible over
the top right of the graphical display area:

To change the displayed size of the points, simply slide the tracker: the farther to the right, thelarger the points will be. The display will update interactively. Click OK to confirm and close thedialogue box.
Other functions are accessible via the Display menu:– Full screen: show the main window in full-screen mode. To return to the normal display
mode, press the F11 key.
– Refresh: update the display.
– Test frame rate: start testing the frame rate (expressed in Frames Per Second) of the current
context. In theory, the more triangles or points to display, the slower the frame rate will be.
Between 10 and 20 images per second, a human perceives the display moving in discrete
steps; above 24 fps., the display is perceived as moving fluidly. If the refresh rate is too slow,
it is advised to limit the number of objects to render by only displaying the objects of interest.

1.4. Properties of Objects

–
–
–
–

11

Toggle viewer based perspective: switch to a perspective projection and position the centerof rotation of the point of view on the camera itself. To re-establish the center of rotation toits original position (in the center of the frame), click once more on this command.
Toggle centered perspective: switch to a perspective projection and position the center of therotation of the point of view on the center of the observed scene. To reset default projection(parallel orthographic) click once more on this command.
Light & Materials/Toggle sun light: turn on/off the global light source.
Light & Materials/Toggle custom light: turn on/off the personalized light source (which can be
moved by holding down the CTRL key while panning with the cursor over the screen).

Note: shadow effects are not visible unless at least one light source is active.
It is also possible to change the individual display color of a point cloud. The color is only visible if
no scalar fields are actively displayed (cf. section 1.4.2.2). To change the color of a cloud, select itthen open the Edit/Colors sub-menu.
––

The Set unique command lets the user select a single color to apply to all the points in thecloud (cf. section 2.2.1).
The Colorize command enables the user to combine a new color with the current color of thepoint cloud (cf. section 2.2.2). This operation consists of multiplying the colors component bycomponent, the colors being expressed in the form of a [Red, Green, Blue] vector. For
example, if the cloud is yellow at any point (), and we apply Colorize with a purple
color (–), we obtain a red cloud ().

The Height ramp command enables the user to apply a gradient of colors along one of the 3
principal axes (cf. section 2.2.3). The Clear command removes the current color of the cloud.
After applying this command, the points will display in the default color.

1.4. Properties of Objects
1.4.1. Common properties
Certain fields visible in the properties window are common to all entities in CloudCompare. We
find them in the CCObject section:––

Name: name associated with an object. It can be modified by double-clicking on the name(right side of the field) or by pressing the F2 key.
Entities: this field shows the number of sub-entities attached to the current object. In thescreenshot above, for example, the selected object is a group of meshes comprising 759

12

Chapter 1. Interface––

sub-meshes (and point clouds).
The sub-entities can be accessed independently by
expanding the current object in the navigation tree window (cf. section 1.2.1).
Visible: if this box is checked and if the object is not deactivated in the navigation tree (cf.
section 1.2.1), then the object is displayed in the 3D view selected as Current Display.
Otherwise, it stays hidden and only its bounding box can appear (when it is selected).
Current display: selects the 3D view in which the object is displayed (cf. section 1.3.2).

The next section presents the properties specific to each type of entity. There are certain fields(or even whole sections) that are available only after certain manipulations or for certain object
types.

1.4.2. Point Clouds
1.4.2.1.

Common Properties

Two fields are common to all point clouds:––

Colors: available in the CCObject section, it activates (when checked) or deactivates (whennot) the display of the color parameter for the point cloud (cf. section 1.3.4). Warning: do notconfuse the colors of points with scalar fields, which, though they are displayed as colors,
actually represent real scalar values associated with each point, for which color is merely amode of visualization – cf. section 1.4.2.2. It is therefore possible that the points remaincolored on the screen even though the "color" of the cloud is deactivated.
Points: available in the Cloud section, indicates the number of points composing the cloud.

Point clouds that have normals (normal vectors) have a Normals option for whether these vectors
should be used in rendering the graphical display (via a semi-realistic shadow effect).

1.4.2.2.

Scalar fields

Some functions, when applied to point clouds, associate a real value (a scalar) with each point.
The set of these scalars is saved in a structure called a Scalar field and is linked with the point cloud.
It is possible to link multiple scalar fields to the same cloud, but only one can be active at a given
time. The number of scalar fields associated with a point cloud can be seen via the Number entry in
the Scalar field(s) section.
To choose the active scalar field, you must select it in the Properties window of the cloud, in the
Current drop-down list in the Scalar field(s) section. We note in passing, that the scalar fields are
named automatically by CloudCompare as a function of the analysis from which they weregenerated. One field can be displayed at a time.

1.4. Properties of Objects

13

The user can visualize the values in the active scalar field by means of a color gradient, applied
to the points in the cloud. To do this, simply check the Scalar field box in the CCObject section. Eachpoint of the cloud will then be colored as a function of its value, according to the chosen color scale.
To return to the normal display for the point cloud, uncheck this same box.

Different color scales are available. Each corresponds to a gradient of colors, the first color being
associated with the minimum value of the point cloud, the last to the maximum value, and the rest
are associated with intermediate values according to a linear scale.
minimum value

maximum value

Blue to red:
Shades of grey:
Red to yellow:
Red to white:

To change the color scale of the scalar field visualization, select the desired gradient in the Color
Ramp drop-down list in the Scalar field(s) section:

You can display the color scale in the 3D view where the point cloud is displayed (cf. figure in
section 1.3.1), by checking the Display Scale box in the SF scale section. To hide the scale, uncheckthis box:

14

Chapter 1. Interface

Finally, CloudCompare offers the user the possibility to more finely adjust the visualization
parameters of the current scalar field, by manipulating the four sliders available in the SF scalesection (or by modifying the associated text fields which are found to their right). In case of doubt, toknow what a slider corresponds to, just position the cursor of the mouse over it and wait a few
seconds until a description appears (you can also read the help text visible immediately in the statusbar at the bottom of the main window). The role of each slider is defined in the following manner:

–
–
–
–

1: Minimum displayed value. All the scalar values below (1) are ignored in the display.
2: Minimum saturation value. All the points having an associated scalar value below (2) aredisplayed in the "weakest" color (here, in blue).
3: Maximum saturation value. All the points having an associated scalar value above (3) aredisplayed in the "strongest" color (here, in red).
4: Maximum displayed value. All scalar values above (4) are ignored in the display.

The display of the ignored values is governed by the NaN in grey property: if it is checked, points
associated with ignored values are displayed in grey. If not, the points are not displayed.
The four values presented above define two ranges:– values to be displayed, for which the points are effectively displayed in color. The behaviour
outside of this range depends on whether NaN in grey is selected.
– the saturation range, within which the gradient is used. The lower bound of this interval isassociated with the first color of the scale, the upper bound to the last color, and the rest of
the colors are distributed linearly onto the values comprising the interval.
CloudCompare verifies the chosen values in real time so you cannot have (1) > (4) or (2) > (3).
Any valid modification to one of these values is interactively reflected in the current display.

1.4. Properties of Objects

15

1.4.3. Meshes / groups of meshes
These two types of entities share the same properties:– Normals: available in the CCObject section, this field activates the use of the normals in theobject rendering. The normals permit us to create a semi-realistic visual rendering of objects,
as they serve to calculate the lighting of the faces. If this option is deactivated, the lighting
calculation cannot be performed and the surface of the object is displayed in a uniform color("silhouette" effect, losing the effect of depth).
– Faces: available in the Mesh section, indicates the number of faces composing the mesh. In
the case of a group of meshes, the number corresponds to the total number of faces in the
sub-meshes that are part of this group.
– Wireframe: available in the Mesh section, activates (if the box is checked) the "wireframe"
rendering of the object.
The "wireframe" displays only the edges of the facets that compose the mesh (as line segments).
It is created without masking hidden edges: all edges are displayed, even those which are not visible
from the point of view of the camera as a result of being hidden by faces (see figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3 – Example of a "wireframe" of a mesh

16

Chapter 1. Interface

1.4.4. Octree
1.4.4.1.

Description

The octree is a structure designed to speed up the processing of spatial data. It is a recursiveand hierarchical slicing of space (decomposing the space into cubes). In most cases, CloudCompare
constructs one of these structures over a point cloud in order to accelerate its functions. This type ofoctree is especially fast to construct.
From a general point of view, the octree is defined by its subdivision level:– The first level (level 0) is the smallest cube that entirely contains the point cloud.
– At level N+1, the octree is built by dividing each of the cubes in level N into 8 sub-cubes ofthe same size (in practice, we only store sub-cubes that contain at least one cloud point).
It is important that the user understands the principle of this structure, because it is a central partof CloudCompare. The higher the octree level is raised:
–

–

–
–

the higher the number of cubes to process: potentiallyinstance, though it is very improbable, we could have up to

cubes at level. For
cubes at the 7thlevel of an octree. At level 10, we havecubes, which would be a little over a billion(again, this is very unlikely, especially since it would require at least as many points). In
practice, many cubes are empty and are not stored in memory, resulting in a structure that is
generally relatively compact. Finally, CloudCompare uses a special coding for the octree,
which ensures that its size is always proportional to the number of points in the cloud, anddoesn't depend on the cloud's spatial distribution. It is also for this reason that the maximum
level of an octree is fixed at 10 in CloudCompare, so the encoding per point is not too large.
the smaller the cubes are: if [aN] is the length of the edge of a cube of level [N] (therefore a0
is the size of the initial cube), [aN = a0/2N]. In effect, each time we go down a level (increaseN), we half the lengths of the cubes along each dimension. For example, the cells of an
octree at level 5 are 32 times smaller (in side length) than the cloud's bounding cube (level0).
the fewer number of cloud points per cube: intuitively, the smaller the cubes are, the fewer
points they contain.
the closer the surface of the octree (the global surface formed by the collection of externalsurfaces of the cubes) is to the point cloud.

The 3 screenshots in figure 1.4 give an outline of the division and the size of the cells of theoctree at different levels of subdivision.
Many functions that apply to point clouds make use of an octree. As much as possible, theoptimal level of an octree for the chosen calculation is determined automatically and transparently by
the program. All the same, certain calculations ask the user to estimate a level to use. In somesituations, the user will have to find a level that provides the best compromise between the numberof cubes to deal with (not too large, therefore not too high a level) and the average number of points
per cube (as small as possible, therefore not too low a level). Finding the right level can require
some experience.

1.4. Properties of Objects

17

Figure 1.4 – Cells at different levels of octree construction: level 1 (left), 3 (middle), and 6 (right).

1.4.4.2.

Display

The octree is inseparable from the point cloud to which it is attached. It is an abstract structure,
available in the CloudCompare interface only as a visual. The display proposed by CloudCompare
only allows visualization of one level at a time. You can change the level of display of the octree by
raising/lowering the Display level field in the Octree section.
The display levels can be between 1 and 10. Level 0 can not be selected (it is never used inpractice, not even for calculations, because a level 0 octree is simply the entire cloud.
The display might slow down considerably at a certain level of subdivision (a function of thecapabilities of the computer on which the program is running) as a result of the number of elements
to display. In this case, choose lower display levels as much as possible.
The octree can be visualized in different forms:– Wireframe: only the edges of the cubes are represented.
– Points: each cube is represented by the center of gravity of the points contained within it.
– Plain cubes: the surface of the cubes is fully displayed.
To change the display of the octree, select a mode in the Display Type drop-down list in the
Octree section:

18

Chapter 1. Interface

1.5. Interactive modification of entities
1.5.1. Manual segmentation
This tool is accessible via theicon.

It is possible to manually "cut" the screen containing the selected entities. The user may define acontour by a successive series of clicks, and decide whether to "keep" the points inside or outside ofthis contour. The process is repeatable at will, and the rejected points are hidden. If the user
confirms this "trim", the current cloud is replaced by the points corresponding to the selected points,
and a new cloud with the remaining points is created.
This can also be done to meshes, but the triangles on the border are not technically "cut"(triangles completely within the border are kept, and the rest are considered to be outside of theselection).

The tool activates an icon bar, which appears at the top right of the screen:– the first icon pauses the selection (allowing the 3D entity to be rotated, for example, between
two "cuts"). Caution: if the segmentation is paused, the currently drawn contour will
disappear. If the cut is performed (see the next two points), the segmentation is automaticallypaused. If the tool is not paused, the user can define the contour by successive left-clicks on
the screen. The first will not appear to do anything, but the next ones will add line segments
connecting the current location to that from the previous click. A right click will close the1.6. Progress bars

–
–
–
–
–

19

contour (necessary to perform the selection). Also, any right click performed after closing thecontour will reset the contour.
The next icon corresponds to a selection of points inside the contour. The outside points are
hidden and the segmentation is paused. To do this, the contour must be closed.
The next icon corresponds to selecting points outside of the contour. The points on theinterior are hidden and the segmentation is paused. To do this, the contour must be closed.
The next icon resets the selection completely (all the points become visible again).
The second-to-last icon validates the trim, and quits.
The last icon cancels the cut and quits.

1.5.2. Manual rotation/translation
This tool is accessible via theicon.

It applies a rotation or a translation manually to the selected entities. When it is active, 3 icons
appear at the top right:–––

The first resets the transformation applied to the selected entities.
The second confirms the transformation, and quits.
The last cancels the transformation, and quits.

The transformation is done interactively with the mouse, using the same conventions as fortransforming the point of view (cf. section 1.3.3). The left button allows you to turn the entities(around the center of gravity of the bounding box of the selected items) and the right button
translates the entities on the plane of the screen.

1.6. Progress bars
Some functions in CloudCompare require a relatively long processing time, which can be
between several seconds to several minutes depending on the computer on which the program isrunning, as well as the parameters of the function and the complexity inherent in the particularfunction. The progress bar is a window that appears during non-immediate calculations, giving avisualization of the advancement of the calculation (when the bar is full, the processing is done).

Among the commands on the progress bar, some allow one to stop the calculation during its
execution – via the Cancel button (the stopping of the program isn't necessarily immediate; the20

Chapter 1. Interfacefunction will stop when it is able to do so). When this button is not visible, the calculation cannot beinterrupted before it finishes.

1.7. Toolbars
Listed below are the buttons available in the various toolbars in CloudCompare.
ButtonCommand

Description
Main Tools ToolbarOpencf. section 2.1.1

Save

cf. section 2.1.2

Clone

cf. section 2.1.24

Fuse

cf. section 2.1.25

DeleteDelete the selected objects

Registercf. section 2.3.4

Align

cf. section 2.3.3

Subsample

cf. section 2.2.28

Sample points

cf. section 2.2.10

Cloud/Cloud distancecf. section 2.3.5

Cloud/Mesh distancecf. section 2.3.6

Statistical test

cf. section 2.3.9

Label connected components

cf. section 2.3.10

Segment

cf. section 1.5.1

Translate/Rotate

cf. section 1.5.2

1.8. Keyboard shortcuts

21

Scalar Field Tools Toolbar

Show histogram

display the histogram of the scalar field

Compute statistical parameters

cf. section 2.3.8

Filter by value

cf. section 2.2.20

Gradient

cf. section 2.2.18

Gaussian filter

cf. section 2.2.19

Delete current scalar fieldremoves the active scalar field of the selectedcloud

Difference

cf. section 2.2.21

Hidden Points Removal

cf. section 2.5.2

Global enlightening

cf. section 2.5.1
Viewing Tools Toolbar

This toolbar is explained in section 1.3.4.

The toolbars are displayed or hidden according to whether they are checked or not in the
Display/Toolbars sub-menu. To change the visibility of a toolbar, click on its name in
Display/Toolbars.

1.8. Keyboard shortcuts
The following table lists the keyboard shortcuts available in CloudCompare:Key(s)

CommandFunction

F1

Help

Display the help documentation for
CloudCompare

F2

RenameRename the selected entity

Remarks

22

Chapter 1. Interface

Key(s)

CommandFunction

Remarks

F3

Toggle centeredperspective

Position the center of rotation of thepoint of view on the center of thescene;
activate/deactivatetheprojection perspective.

cf. section 1.3.4

CTRL+F3

New 3D View

Open a new 3D Viewer

F4

Toggleviewerbased
perspective

Position the center of rotation of thepoint of view on the camera / reestablish the default point of view

CTRL + F4

Close 3D View

Close the current 3D view window(before applying this shortcut, at least
one object in the window to close must
be selected)

F5

RefreshRefresh the display

F6

Toggle sunlight

Turn on/off the global light source

cf. section 1.3.4

F7

Togglelight

Turn on/off the secondary light source

cf. section 1.3.4

F8

Set unique color

Apply a color to the selected objects

cf. section 1.3.4

F11

Full screen

Display the main window in full screen/
return to the default display

F12

Test frame rate

Calculate the refresh rate of the current
3D view

cf. section n1.3.4

CTRL + O

OpenOpen an object from a filecf. section 2.1.1

CTRL + D

Delete list

Remove the selected list from theapplication

customcf. section 1.3.4

23

Chapter 2. Functions
In this section, we will describe the functions accessible through the main menu. They arearranged by sub-menu.

2.1. 'File' Menu
2.1.1. Open (file)Figure 2.1 – File selection interface

Loads a 3D entity into memory via the standard interface (figure 2.1).
Notes:– Keyboard shortcut: CTRL+O– If opening the file is successful, the entity will be automatically displayed in the active 3D
view.
– Use the Look in dropdown list (see above) to get access to the usual locations, as well as
recently used locations.
– Use the Files of type dropdown list (at the bottom) to choose a filter to apply to files in thecurrent folder (if the filter is "*.*", the format of the selected file is automatically detected by
CloudCompare according to its extension).

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Chapter 2. Functions

2.1.2. Save (file)
Saves the selected entity to file (or multiple entities, if the chosen file format permits). The file issaved using the standard interface (figure 2.1).
Notes:– Use the Look in dropdown list to access the usual locations, and the recently visited
locations.
– Use the Files of type dropdown list (at the bottom) to filter the currently displayed files and tochoose the file format in which to save.
– An extension will be automatically added to the file name according to the chosen file format(if the user does not specify an extension).

2.2. 'Edit' Menu
2.2.1. Colors > Set UniqueFigure 2.2 - Interface for selecting an individual color

Define a color that will be applied to all the points in the selected 3D entity. The choice is manual,
and is made using a classic interface allowing various modes of selection (figure 2.2):–––

One can choose a basic color (at the top left), or a previously saved color (custom colors - atthe bottom left)or one can click on the colored zone (at the top right) and can vary the intensity using thesliding indicator at the rightor one can manually enter the color parameters in the RGB or HSV fields (at the bottom
right).

2.2. 'Edit' Menu

25

Keyboard shortcut: F8

2.2.2. Colors > Colorize
Uses the same interface as the "Set Unique" function (2.2.1). This function lets the user modify
the current colors of the points (by multiplying the components of the current color with those of theselected color). If the entity does not have a color, then this function is equivalent to "Set Unique".

Figure 2.3 - interface to define a color gradientFigure 2.4 - Default color gradientFigure 2.5 - Example of a red-to-green gradient applied on the Z axis

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Chapter 2. Functions

2.2.3. Colors > Height Ramp
The user can choose between applying the default color ramp (figure 2.4) or a custom ramp forwhich he can define the two extreme colors (figure 2.3). In the latter case, the user must deselect theUse default ramp box. The two colors at the extremes of the gradient can be chosen by clicking on
the First color and Second color fields (which load the standard color selection interface as seen for
the Set unique method – cf. section 2.2.1).
In either case, the user can choose along which of the three principal directions (refer to the triad
in the bottom right of the display) to apply the gradient.

2.2.4. Normals > Compute
This function is no longer included in version 2.1 of CloudCompare.
This function calculates the normals (unsigned) of a point cloud that lacks normals, and can dothis via different methods. To get a signed field of normals, use the Resolve direction function.(cf.
section 2.2.6).
The two methods currently available are:– LS: obtained by local adjustment according to the least squares method (fast method, but
noisy)– HF: obtained by interpolation of the points by a function of quadratic height (more robust but
slower).

2.2.5. Normals > Invert
Invert the normals (for the components corresponding to the tridimensional unit vectors, we
replace each by its vector opposite).
Note: this usually fixes problems that have to do with the sense (direct or indirect) of the meshtriangles, because the normal is not shared by all programs that process or generate meshes.

2.2.6. Normals > Resolve direction
This function is no longer included in version 2.1 of CloudCompare.
This algorithm resolves the correct sense of the normal vectors associated with a point cloud.
The resolution is performed gradually, by propagating one or more fronts on the cloud (using theFast Marching algorithm).
The propagation follows a 3D grid (here, an octree) and one must therefore choose the level ofoctree on which to apply the algorithm. Choosing a good parameter may take some trial and error,
because too low a level will result in large cells, which propagate quickly but will miss local
convolutions, while too high a level will result in the opposite. Furthermore, the more difficult the
propagation - i.e. piece by piece - the higher the risk of having areas near each other take on

2.2. 'Edit' Menu

27

opposite senses. Try the algorithm at different levels of the octree, starting typically at 5 or 6, andraise the level until you find a satisfactory result. The algorithm is very rapid, and it can be executed
as many times as needed (it doesn't modify the normals, only their sense).
Note: the resolution is very fine; it may still be necessary to use the Invert function (cf. section
2.2.5) to obtain the final desired result.

2.2.7. Octree > Compute
This function calculates an octree structure (recursive spatial subdivision) on top of a selected
point cloud (or vertices, in the case of a mesh). Once the octree is successfully calculated, it is
attached automatically on top of the selected entity (cf. section 1.4.6).
Note: the maximum level of subdivision of an octree is 10 in this version of CloudCompare.

2.2.8. Octree > Resample
Function for (coarse) point cloud re-sampling. The user can specify an approximate number ofpoints (via the interface in figure 2.6), and CloudCompare will determine the level of octree having a
number of cells closest to this value. The re-sampled point cloud will be formed by replacing eachcell by a representative point (actually, the center of gravity of the points present inside that cell).

Figure 2.6 – Interface to select the number of points in the re-sampling

Note: this method is different than the Subsample method (cf. section 2.2.28) because it creates
points, unlike Subsample, which selects points that already exist in the source cloud.

2.2.9. Mesh > Compute
This function calculates a mesh in 2.5D on top of a point cloud (via Delaunay triangulation).
Because the method produces a 2.5D mesh from a 3D cloud, we must project it onto a plane before
calculating the triangulation. So the user has two choices (the function is available in two versions):––

Axis aligned plane: by default, CloudCompare estimates that the altitudes are carried by theprincipal Z axis and the points are then projected onto the XY planeBest LS plane: a more generic approach, which projects the points on the best plane byinterpolating the cloud in the least-squares sense (it is suited to clouds that are rather flat,with elevations not necessarily along the Z axis).

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Chapter 2. Functions

2.2.10.

Mesh > Sample Points

This function randomly samples points on a surface described by a mesh (see figure 2.7).

Figure 2.7 -- Illustration of sampling points on a mesh

A new point cloud is created. The user can specify, via the interface:– the total number of points desired.
– or a density per unit on the surface. Be aware that the surface is expressed in the same units(squared) that is used for the coordinates of the mesh points. To get the total surface area ofthe mesh, call the function Mesh > Measure surface - section 2.2.11.

Figure 2.8 -- Interface to choose the parameters for sampling the points of a mesh2.2.11.

Mesh > Measure Surface

Calculate the surface area of a mesh.
This surface is expressed in the same unit (squared) that is used for the coordinates of thevertices of the mesh.

2.2.12.

Mesh > Scalar Field > Smooth

Apply a smoothing of a scalar field that is associated with a mesh, by using the topology of themesh. The scalar value assigned to a vertex is replaced by a mean of the values at the neighboring
vertices.

2.2. 'Edit' Menu

29

Figure 2.9 -- Example of results obtained with the smooth and enhance options on a scalar field over amesh

Remark: this function is much faster than the Gaussian filter (section 2.2.19) for an approximate
result, but on one hand it requires a mesh associated with the cloud of points (which correspond tothe vertices of the mesh) and on the other hand, the size of the smoothing kernel cannot bechanged.

2.2.13.

Mesh > Scalar Field > Enhance

Applies a contrast enhancement on a scalar field associated with a mesh, by using the topologyof the mesh. The scalar value at a vertex is modified to augment the contrast between it and thevalues at neighboring vertices.
This function is the inverse of Mesh > Scalar Field > Smooth (section 2.2.12).

2.2.14.

Sensor > Ground-Based Lidar > Show depth bufferThis function is no longer part of version 2.1 of CloudCompare.
Display the depth map associated with a sensor.

2.2.15.

Sensor > Ground-Based Lidar > Export depth bufferThis function exports the depth buffer associated with a sensor as a text file. It is applied to a
cloud that "contains" the selected sensor (it is necessary to first select a sensor entity). The user isinvited to specify a filename under which all the information relating to the depth map will be saved(see section A.1.3.2).

2.2.16.

Sensor > Create

This function creates a sensor (a virtual representation of a laser scanner) associated with acloud.

30

Chapter 2. Functions

In general, the user wants to re-create the sensor that acquired the point cloud after the fact. In
particular, this allows applying smart filtering when calculating the distance between two point clouds(cf. section 2.3.5).

Figure 2.10 -- Configuration interface for creating a sensor

When creating a sensor, numerous parameters can be configured (via the different tabs ininterface 2.10):
–

–
–
–
–
–
–
–

rotation order: order of rotations of the scanner (motor, mirror). Here we use the angles θand φ as per the usual conventions for spherical coordinates: θ represents the horizontal
angle (the declination) of the scanner, φ represents the vertical angle. There are now two
choices: θ then φ (Trimble GS type) or φ then θ (Trimble SOISIC type).
Position (center)/(X,Y,Z): XYZ position of the optical center of the scanner (expressed in thereference frame of the point cloud)Position (center)/Sensor base: gap between the laser emitter and the receptor (used fortriangulation captures such as typical SOISIC)
Orientation: Reference point of the sensor expressed from the reference point of the cloud(three vectors). By default, the matrix formed by these three vectors is left as the identity
matrix, which makes it aligned with the current reference point.
Angular steps/dPhi: angular step (in degrees) of the sensor in the φ direction.
Angular steps/dTheta: angular steps (in degrees) of the sensor in the θ direction.
Other/Uncertainty: Uncertainty in the laser measurement, in percentage (calculated
automatically from the projection).
Other/Max. range: The maximum scope (deduced automatically from the projection).

Once the parameters are entered, CloudCompare creates a sensor object that it will associatewith the cloud. This sensor object contains, among other things, a map of the depth of the cloud(obtained by projecting the points along the reference angle of the sensor - and equivalent to a Zbuffer) which permits smart filtering when calculating the distances as mentioned above, but which
may also be viewed (section 2.2.14) or exported (2.2.15). Finally, the sensor object can be displayedin place in the form of a small schematic of a 3D sensor (see figure 2.11).

2.2. 'Edit' Menu

31

Figure 2.11 – Sensor object displayed in situ

2.2.17.

Sensor > Modify

Configure the parameters of the sensor.
The same dialog box as was shown in figure 2.10 for the creation of a sensor object appears for
its modification, but here, the configuration values of the sensor correspond to those which were
captured during its creation (and not the default parameters).

2.2.18.

Scalar Fields > GradientThis function calculates the magnitude of the gradient of the active scalar field.
When this function is called, CloudCompare asks the user to specify if the scalar fieldcorresponds to a Euclidean distance (such as distances calculated between two clouds or between
a cloud and a mesh). If yes, the algorithm will filter the outlying values, which in this case are easily
detectable (in fact, in this case the gradient in absolute value may never exceed 1 - c.f. D.
Girardeau-Montaut's thesis).
Remarks:–––

The algorithm creates a new type of scalar field (Gradient norms).
As in classic 2D image processing, the gradient notably highlights zones of strong variationin the scalar field, which may be taken as evidence of a zone boundary - see figure 2.12).
As in 2D image processing, it is often necessary to apply a Gaussian filter to the data before
and/or after calculating the gradient (cf. section 2.2.19).

32

Chapter 2. Functions–

The fact that the absolute value of the gradient is never greater than 1 is true in reality for all
scalar fields in which the values vary proportionally to the distance between the points (it isthus for the case of a distance field).

Figure 2.12 – Configuration interface for calculating the normals

2.2.19.

Scalar Fields > Gaussian Filter

Apply a Gaussian filter to the active scalar field.
The only parameter to define is the size of the sigma kernel of the Gaussian filter. To quickly
estimate this parameter, one can refer to the octree, taking for the size of the kernel the size of a cellat level 8 (for a soft filter), 7 (for a relatively strong filter), etc. The size of a cell is displayed at thelevel of the console when an octree rendering is displayed (cf. section 1.4.6).
Remarks:– Sigma gives us the radius of the sphere in 3D that delimitates the "neighborhood" which will
be considered around each point. What is actually calculated for each point is the weighted
average of the scalar values of the neighbors, weighted by their distance according to a
Gaussian law. Given that 3σ corresponds to an overwhelming 99.9%, it is not useful toconsider more distant points.
– The larger the kernel, the slower the calculation will be.
– This function is very useful for smoothing the result of a gradient calculation (section 2.2.18)
but also for a Portion of Visible Sky calculation (section 2.5.1) for example.

2.2. 'Edit' Menu

2.2.20.

33

Scalar Fields > Filter by Value

Figure 2.13 -- Configuration interface for filtering points by the value of their scalar field

This function segments a cloud by defining an interval of scalar values (figure 2.13). A new cloud
will be created with all the points for which the scalar values (for the active scalar field) are includedin this interval.

2.2.21.

Scalar Fields > DifferenceThis function is no longer part of version 2.1 of CloudCompare.
Tool for calculating the point-to-point differences between two scalar fields applied to identical
clouds. This function requires two spatially identical clouds, each with an applied scalar field, andcalculates the differences between the values of homologous points.
This algorithm requires selecting two (and only two) clouds. CloudCompare asks the user todefine the role of the clouds, via the generic interface for choosing roles - see section 2.3.4. The
calculation is signed, and the order for subtraction to take place, their order must be defined (fielddiff= fieldA – fieldB). The first cloud (cloud A) will receive a new scalar field corresponding to thisdifference.
Remarks:– The term "identical" is used loosely. It suffices that all the points in cloud A are found in cloud
B. That is, cloud A must be a subset of the points in cloud B.
– The algorithm creates a new type of scalar field (Diff), which is signed.

2.2.22.

Scalar Fields > Multiply

This function is no longer part of version 2.1 of CloudCompare.
This function multiplies the scalar fields of two clouds for the selected points. The two clouds
must have the same number of points. The scalar field of the first is updated with the result of themultiplication.
Remark: to call this function, one must select two (and only two) point clouds with scalar fields.

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Chapter 2. Functions

2.2.23.

Scalar Fields > Convert to RGB

Assigns a color to each point from the current scalar field values and the current display
parameters.
If the entity already has been assigned a color, it is possible to remove the existing color or to mix
the two values (CloudCompare asks the user when needed).

2.2.24.

Clone

Creates a new 3D entity that is point-for-point identical to (but independent from) the selected
entity. A modification to the cloned object has no impact on the original (and vice versa).

2.2.25.

Fuse

Fuse two (or more) selected entities.
Note: the fused lists are minimized when the function is executed.
All characteristics of the 3D entities are conserved. Lists that do not possess a particularcharacteristic will be given default elements (no normals, white color, etc.).

2.2.26.

Translate

Apply a translation to the selected entity or entities. The user supplies the three components ofthe translation (X, Y, and Z) via an interface.

2.2.27.

Multiply

Multiplies the coordinates of the points of the selected entities by constants. The user chooses
the 3 coefficients to multiply each component along its axis (fX, fY, fZ) via a dialog box.

Figure 2.14 – Dialog box for multiplication of coordinates2.2. 'Edit' Menu

35

Figure 2.15 – Configuration interface for sub-sampling of clouds

2.2.28.

Subsample

This function creates a subsample of a point cloud. Different methods are now available. The
choice (as well as the configuration) is accessible via the dialog box shown in figure 2.15:–––

Random: random subsampling
Space: spatial subsampling (the resulting local density is constant and configurable)
Octree: rapid subsampling via the octree (keeping one point per cell of the octree at thegiven level of subdivision)

Remarks:– The subsampling differs from re-sampling (cf. section 2.2.8) in the sense that it doesn't
create new points but only selects a sub-set of points from the source cloud.
– The quick method of subsampling via the octree (cf. section 2.2.8) chooses the point closest
to the center of each cell. Therefore the distance between the points is closer to constant (ifthe initial cloud is sufficiently dense)

2.2.29.

Synchronize

Aligning two selected entities: this function simply applies a translation to make the centers ofgravity of the two entities coincide.
Remarks:– To call this function, it is necessary to have selected two (and only two) entities.
– Again, we use the generic interface for choosing the role of each entity (see section 2.3.4),
which allows the user to specify which is the entity to displace and which entity is thereference.

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Chapter 2. Functions

2.3. Tools Menu
2.3.1. Tools > Projection > Unroll
This function will "unroll" a point cloud from a cylindrical (or conical) shape onto a plane. See
figure 2.17.

Figure 2.16 – Configuration interface for the cloud unroll tool

To do this, supply the parameters that define the object of revolution:– the type (cylinder or cone)– the dimension along which the axis is positioned (must be X, Y, or Z axis for the moment)– a point through which the axis passes (if the auto axis checkbox is checked, the point usedwill be the center of gravity of the cloud.
– the radius of the cylinder or base of the cone
– and the opening angle of the cone in the applicable case
Warning: to optimize memory usage, this function applies the transformation directly on theselected entity. It may be necessary to use the clone tool first - see section 2.2.24.

Figure 2.17 – Example of results: a cylindrical point cloud (left) and its unrolled version (right)

2.3. Tools Menu

37

2.3.2. Tools > Projection > Height Grid Generation
This function projects a point cloud onto a flat grid normal to the Z-axis.
An interface (figure 2.18) allows the user to choose various parameters:– grid step: size of a grid section expressed in the units of the point cloud coordinates– type of projection: this parameter may take one of the following two values:– maximum height: Let Eij be the subset of cloud points that is projected in the (i,j)th squareof the grid. For each grid square (i,j), we keep the Z altitude of the highest point in Eij.
– average height: for each grid square (i,j), we keep the mean Z-altitude of the points in Eij.
– fill empty cells with: some grid squares may remain empty after projection (no cloud points
were projected there). This parameter indicates the value with which to fill these squares andcan take one of the following three values:– minimum height: the empty squares are filled with the minimum Z altitude of all the points
in the cloud.
– average height: the empty squares are filled with the mean Z altitude of all the points inthe cloud.
– maximum height: the empty squares are filled with the maximum Z altitude of all the
points in the cloud.
This function creates two files (located by default in the binary folder of CloudCompare):– height_grid_image.tiff: the 2D raster image coded in 256 shades of grey corresponding to theZ-altitudes projected in the squares of the grid;– height_grid_text_file.txt: the height data of the grid in ASCII format (easily read by a programor script).

Figure 2.18 – Interface for configuring the height grid generation tool

See figure 2.19 for an example of the results produced by this function.

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Chapter 2. Functions

Figure 2.19 – Example results: 3D view at left, 2D height image at right

Figure 2.20 – Configuration interface for the coarse registration between two entities

2.3.3. Tools > Registration > AlignThis function coarsely aligns two point clouds (using the "4 points Congruent Sets For Robust
Registration" algorithm by Aiger, Mitra and Cohen-Or, Siggraph 2008).
A first input box (top left) lets the user specify the two clouds and their respective roles (Modeland Data: The Model is the cloud of reference (which does not move) on which the program willalign (if possible) the Data cloud (which will be moved if necessary). As the alignment calculated is arigid alignment, only translations and rotations can be applied to the Data cloud. Several otherparameters must be entered for optimal use of this method:
Sampling: this area relates to the prerequisite subsampling of the point clouds. This can give aperceptible improvement in the efficiency of the algorithm. Indeed, tens of thousands of points are
generally sufficient to obtain a good registration, while the complexity of the algorithm increases
rapidly with the number of points. The user should always seek to minimize the number of points
taken into account, restarting the algorithm with more points if needed. Here are the parameters of
the sub-sampling:2.3. Tools Menu

–
–
–

39

Method: subsampling method (see section 2.2.28). Select None to not sub-sample
Model: a slider and/or a variable field allows the user to choose the number of points kept for
the reference cloud
Data: same as above, a slider and/or a variable field allows the user to choose the number ofpoints kept for the adjusted cloud

Registration parameters: this zone corresponds to parameters of the registration algorithm itself.
We will explain these parameters in detail:– Number of trials: The algorithm proceeds by successive iterations and only retains the trialthat produces the best result. This field lets you choose the number of trials to perform. The
higher the chosen value, the longer the calculation will take, but the better the probability ofobtaining good results. It may therefore be necessary to adapt this parameter as a functionof the number of points in the clouds to obtain a good alignment in a reasonable time. To
give a general idea, to align two clouds of 5000 points each, about fifty tries will produce a
decent result in a few minutes (about 2-5 minutes, depending on the speed of the computer).
– Overlap: This parameter, which can be between 0.0 and 1.0, corresponds to an estimation of
the overlap between two clouds when they are correctly aligned. An overlap of 1 signifies
that the two clouds overlap completely; 0 signifies that they are disjoint (in this case,alignment doesn't make much sense). A very approximate estimation of overlap is generally
sufficient.
– Delta: This parameter is an estimation of the mean distance between points in the two clouds
when they are correctly aligned. This parameter functions like an error tolerance: the closer it
is to 0.0, the closer we constrain the clouds to be, but the likelihood of finding a good solution
is lowered. In principle, if the Delta is zero, the program can never find an alignment between
the two clouds. As a general rule, to obtain good results, Delta should correspond to theresolution (inverse of the density) of the reference cloud. The interface contains an Estimate
button that automatically estimates the parameter based on the mean density of thereference cloud.
– Limit max. number of candidates: when this field is activated (the checkbox is checked), it ispossible to constrain the maximum number of candidates that the program may calculate foreach trial. In the “4-points Congruent Sets” algorithm, the program chooses a set of 4
coplanar points in the reference cloud, and seeks congruent sets (under translation androtation) within the data cloud (candidates). These sets are calculated as a function of thepreviously mentioned parameters, and the program may find an enormous number ofcandidates (hundreds of thousands of sets). This parameter allows the algorithm to select
only those candidates which are considered to be the "best", and can therefore considerably
shorten the calculation time for each trial. As a result, you potentially deprive yourself fromfinding the best alignment as a result of the heuristic used to retain the best candidates.
When this field is deactivated, the maximum number of candidates is unlimited, which can
result in a very long calculation time.
The Delta and Overlap parameters require that the user have a prior idea of how the clouds will
be after alignment.
Figure 2.21 presents the results obtained from aligning two scans of a toy taken from two
substantially different angles. In theory, the Align function can be applied to clouds with much lessoverlap than is shown in the example.

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Chapter 2. Functions

Figure 2.21 – Alignment of two clouds with partial overlap. On the left is the initial configuration, and on
the right is the result of alignment with an estimated overlap of 90% (0.9) and 20 iterations

The calculated alignment using this function depends largely on the configuration of the initialclouds. Their geometry and degree of resemblance will make them more or less difficult to compare.
Therefore, it is possible that in some cases, the results will be fairly poor. In these situations, you canthen use the fine alignment function described in section 2.3.4. It is recommended, in the generalcase, to resort to the fine alignment after using this function.
This function creates a copy of the Data cloud aligned with the Model cloud. It is therefore notnecessary to clone the clouds beforehand, since they will not be modified directly.

2.3.4. Tools > Registration > Register
This function aligns two point clouds (using the "Iterative Closest Point" algorithm by Besl and
McKay, IEEE Trans. PAMI 1992).

Figure 2.22 – Configuration interface for the registration tool

2.3. Tools Menu

41

Warning: for this registration to work, it is necessary that the two clouds be more or less aligned.
This function cannot align clouds that are positioned and oriented haphazardly. Its role is primarily
to refine the registration of two clouds that are roughly aligned. The Align function described in
section 2.3.3 can ensure that the clouds are approximately aligned, and the Register function can beused on the resulting clouds.
In the top zone (Model and Data) of the configuration window, the user may interactively assign
roles to each entity. The Model is the reference cloud (which does not move) and the Data cloud isthe one that will be registered (and will move if necessary). To help the user, CloudCompare colors
the entities in their display (Model in red and Data in yellow) in the same way as in the interface forchoosing roles when calculating distances (see paragraph below). The Swap button switches theroles if needed.
The lower part (Registration parameters) corresponds to the parameters of the algorithm itself. In
detail:– Stop criterion: the user chooses either a fixed number of iterations (this prevents an excessively
long calculation times, but does not guarantee the quality of registration), or a minimal decrease in
the error between two iterations to justify more iterations (which guarantees a better quality but
potentially may take a long time).
– Enable furthest point removal: heuristics adapted to align entities that differ only slightly (while
CloudCompare is made to compare potentially different point clouds, this algorithm assumes theclouds represent the same objects!). This heuristic removes the farthest points at each iteration of
the alignment, to avoid that the differences between the clouds pull the final position from its properalignment.
Therefore this option should not be checked if the two clouds represent the same object.

Choice of roles (generic interface)This generic interface (figure 2.23) is used by all the distance calculation methods, and a few
other methods (which use it in a similar manner). It lets the user interactively assign a role to the twoentities which are selected at the same time. CloudCompare colors the entities according to theirassigned roles. In the distance case, for example, the reference cloud is represented in yellow andthe cloud to compare (which will be assigned a scalar field after calculation), in red. A Swap button
will invert the roles (and therefore the colors) of the two entities.

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Chapter 2. Functions

Figure 2.23 – Standard interface for choosing the roles of entities

2.3.5. Tools > Distances > Cloud/Cloud dist.
This function calculates the distances (approximate or exact) between two clouds of points.
When this function is called, and after having chosen the role of each cloud (see section 2.3.4), a
first approximate distance calculation between the clouds (chamfer distance, calculated via theoctree) is automatically performed. When this is done, the upper part of the display in figure 2.24
(Approx. results) shows various distance statistics that can help configure the refined distancecalculations.
This information includes:– Min. dist.: approximate minimal distance– Max. dist.: max. approximate distance– Mean dist.: approximate mean distance– Sigma: standard deviation– Max relative error: maximum relative error of the approximation (expressed as a function ofd, the distances, because this error is dependent on the actual distance between the points,
and generally decreases rapidly when d grows, which means that the approximation of theminimal distance is generally very bad, but that of the maximal distance can be reliable
enough.
The user can lastly display the histogram of approximate distances (by clicking theicon),
but these are usually not very detailed given that they are chamfer distances calculated via theoctree.

2.3. Tools Menu

43

Figure 2.24 – Configuration interface to calculate the distances between two point clouds.

The lower part (Precise results) configures the precise distance calculation. The user can choose
the following values:– Local model: indicates that a local model will be applied to the reference cloud to improve theprecision of the cloud-to-cloud distance calculation (to a certain extent). This technique
improves the overall precision (but not necessarily the local) This improvement depends onthe chosen model, and has the cost of slowing the calculation (the extent of which depends
again on the chosen model):– NONE: no local modeling (default), calculates distances from point to nearest point.
– Least Square Plane: local approximation of the cloud by a plane (adjusted to leastsquares) – less precise but fast.
– 2.5D triangulation: local approximation of the cloud by a 2.5D Delaunay triangulation(after projection of the points on a plane adjusted to least squares) – intermediate speed
and precision.
– Height Function: local approximation of the cloud by a height function of the type z = ax +by + cx2 + dy2 +exy (here again, after a projection of the points onto a least-squares
plane) – best precision but reduced speed.
– Max. dist: define a distance above which it is not necessary to calculate a precise distance.
This may greatly improve the calculation's performance, in particular on clouds having few
zones in common (by avoiding calculating the far distances - the most costly - while theirprecise knowledge is generally not useful). The points in question retain their approximate
distances. The information displayed in the upper part may be of help in choosing thislimiting value.
– Octree level: this parameter of the algorithm is normally optimized automatically by
CloudCompare, but it is possible to override it in cases where the determining heuristic fails.

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Chapter 2. Functions

Remarks:– This function adds a scalar field of C2C (cloud-to-cloud) distances to the reference cloud.
– To calculate the precise distances, click the red Compute button. Otherwise, only theapproximate distances are saved.
– All the distances calculated by this function or entered as parameters are expressed in thesame unites as the coordinates of the point cloud (there is no explicit unit in CloudCompare
2.1).

2.3.6. Tools > Distances > Cloud/Mesh dist.

Figure 2.25 – Example of the results of calculating the distances between a cloud and a meshThis function calculates the distance (approximate or exact) between a cloud of points and amesh.
This function is largely equivalent to the distance calculation between clouds (section 2.3.5)
except for a few details:– if one of the two selected entities is a mesh, the choice of roles (section 2.3.4) is notnecessary (the mesh is assigned as the reference entity).
– if the two selected entities are meshes, the vertices of the compared entity will be used as
the cloud. It may be of interest to use the sampling function for points on a mesh (section
2.2.10) beforehand, to have a better view of the differences between meshes (if this is the
expected result).
– this function adds a C2M Distances (Cloud-to-mesh) scalar field to the reference cloud.
– The choice of a local model is not possible because the reference entity here is already amesh.

2.3. Tools Menu

45

2.3.7. Tools > Distances > Closest Point Set
This function calculates the closest point in the compared cloud for each point in the reference
cloud. The set of these "closest points" forms a new cloud (Closest Point Set or CPS).
Remarks:– To call this function, you must have selected exactly two point clouds.
– We see again the generic role choice interface (cf. section 2.3.4, which lets the user choose
the cloud from which to extract the CPS points (compared cloud) and which is the reference
cloud.
– The result is a cloud which has exactly the same number of points as the reference cloud,and in which each point is a member of the compared cloud (by definition). By construction,
there may be duplicate points. This result is used, for example, by the alignment algorithm
between two point clouds (cf. section 2.3.4).

2.3.8. Tools > Statistics > Compute stat. params
This function calculates the parameters of the chosen statistical law (Gauss or Weibull) from thevalues of the active scalar field of the selected cloud. The function typically returns the mean andstandard deviation of the current scalar field if the Normal law is used, or the parameters (a,b) for a
Weibull law (in which case CloudCompare also displays estimates of the mean and standard
deviation in the console – see section 1.1).
The method graphically shows the adequacy between the calculated law (white line) and thehistogram of the scalar field in a window that appears at the end of the calculation (see figure 2.26).
The values of the parameters of the law are displayed at the top of this window. CloudCompare
returns lastly, in the console, the χ2 distance between the estimated distribution and the values ofthe scalar field.

Figure 2.26 – Example of the automatic estimation of the parameters of a normal fit for a scalar field

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Chapter 2. Functions

Remark: the parameters of the law thus estimated can typically be used in the local statistical test
function (see section 2.3.9), which permits a point cloud to be filtered based on the distances to areference cloud (or mesh).

2.3.9. Tools > Statistics > Statistical test

Figure 2.27 – Example of an automatic estimation of the parameters of a normal law for a scalar field

This function, central to CloudCompare, lets you apply a local χ2 test on a point cloud that has ascalar field. The χ2 test is applied to each point from the histogram of scalar values of its n neighbors(n being one of the parameters of the algorithm). The test compares this histogram with a theoretical
distribution with two parameters (μ and σ in the case of a normal law, for example).
Before specifying the parameters, the user should choose the type of theoretical distribution(currently, the choice is between Gauss and Weibull). The result is a new scalar field (one value foreach point - the χ2 value - which gives an indication of the local concordance between the scalarvalue and the tested distribution). The theory of the χ2 test gives us a threshold (calculated from themargin of error p(χ2), final parameter in the algorithm) which classifies points as a function of their
non-adherence to the tested law. This law will typically represent measurement noise, and we obtainfrom it a set of points where the distance (to the other mesh/cloud) is not accounted for by themeasurement noise. From this, we have the points that have actually undergone a change, and we
can ignore points that have not actually changed, but have non-zero distance measurements due tonoise. Once the cloud is separated into these two classes, one can keep the group of points outside
the distribution (see figure 2.28, red) and segment, for example, as a function of the relative
proximity of the points (by extracting the various connected components – cf. section 2.3.10).
Remarks:– To call this function, select a single 3D entity with an active scalar field.
– When adjusting the parameter p(χ2), it is important to understand that the χ2 test only allows
us to reject the hypothesis that the values of the scalar field in the neighborhood of eachpoint follow the tested law, but not the inverse. So, the smaller the margin of error, the higher
the threshold of χ2 will be (thus, we reject the aforementioned hypothesis less often, and weclass fewer points as not following the tested law, [i.e. fewer points show actual
displacement]).
– Inversely, the larger p(χ2), the more points will be found "outside the law", colored in red.
Note that this parameter serves uniquely to pre-position the sliders for adjustment of thecolors (cut-offs and saturation values of the scalar field) for displaying the result on thescreen (cf. section 1.4.2.2). These sliders can then be moved by the user before actually
extracting points by calling the function Scalar Fields > Filter by Value. This will create a new
point cloud composed of only the points presently displayed on the screen, which is to say,

2.3. Tools Menu

–

–

47

the points that do not follow the theoretical distribution. [In practical terms, these are thepoints that showed meaningful distance measurements, when you take noise into account.]
Furthermore, the χ2 distance is extremely divergent [amplifies significant differences in theoriginal] and this gives a lot of flexibility to the algorithm. Therefore, a relatively large change
to the cutoff value will only have a small effect on the classification. At worst, we risk missing
a small number of points (at the edges of the boundary zones).
On the other hand, to obtain precise results, one must know or measure the distribution of
measurement noise (as a first approximation it can be modeled as the average noise,
including the measurement error due to the sensor, due to the surface that was scanned, tothe lighting, to the ambient temperature during the measurement, to the creation of the meshin the case of comparing clouds/meshes, etc.). The parameters of the statistical distribution
can therefore be defined from a priori knowledge, but can also be determined from a scalar
field (typically, a portion of a cloud) with the function that computes statistical parameters of ascalar field (cf. section 2.3.8).
The algorithm creates a new scalar field named "Chi2 Distances". This field is assigned tothe current point cloud.

Figure 2.28 – Field of initial differences (top left), statistical filtering (top right), followed by extraction ofpoints out of the theoretical distribution (bottom left), and finally the extraction of the connectedcomponents (bottom right)

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Chapter 2. Functions

2.3.10.

Tools > Segmentation > Label Connected Components

Figure 2.29 – Configuration interface for extracting connected components

This function decomposes a point cloud into compact sub-clouds. If the selected cloud iscomposed of multiple groups of points sufficiently disassociated (distant) from the others, it ispossible to subdivide it fairly simply via the octree. This is done in CloudCompare thanks to an
approach for extracting connected components. This is a common algorithm, generally applied to 2D
binary images and which as been extended here to a 3D binary grid. This function outputs one entity
per sub-cloud of points (grouped in a new entity group in CloudCompare's navigation tree). Figure
2.28 (bottom right) is a good illustration of its use.
The user usually chooses the octree level at which the algorithm will be applied. This will roughly
define the distance threshold beyond which groups of points (connected components) will beconsidered disjoint. The larger the octree level, the smaller the distance threshold will be, the more
subgroups will be extracted (which is not necessarily desirable).
A second important parameter is the minimal number of points per connected component (Min.
points). If a group is composed of fewer points than this number, then it will not be extracted as a
new entity. This limits the number of clouds created by the algorithm.
Finally, the Random Colors option tells CloudCompare to generate random colors for each newcloud.
Remarks:– The larger the octree level, the more memory (RAM) is required. The octree level is therefore
a sensitive parameter which is difficult to adjust a priori, without experience. An approach bytrial and error might therefore be necessary (typically, starting at level 7). We can also
display the octree (Wire or Cubes display, c.f. section 1.4.6) to visually estimate the size ofthe cells at different levels.
– To call this function, you must have selected a single 3D entity.

2.3.11.

Tools > Segmentation > K-Means

This function is no longer part of version 2.1 of CloudCompare.

2.3.12.

Tools > Segmentation > Front propagation

This function is no longer part of version 2.1 of CloudCompare.

2.4. Display Menu

49

2.4. Display Menu
2.4.1. Display > Full Screen
This function displays the main window of CloudCompare in full screen mode. In this mode, theentire screen is taken up by the application. For the sake of visual comfort, the title bar of
CloudCompare and the Windows task bar are no longer accessible, though this also hides thewindow manipulation functions (minimizing, changing the active window, etc...).
To return to normal view, click again on the Full screen command, or use the keyboard shortcut(F11).
Note: it is still possible to change the active window, even when in full screen mode, by holding
down the ALT key, then tapping TAB until you have highlighted the desired application (cf. figure2.30). When ALT is released, Windows will activate the selected application window. This commandworks in all applications.

Figure 2.30 – Windows application selector

Keyboard shortcut: F11

2.4.2. Display > Refresh
The Refresh command refreshes the displays in the 3D viewers.
Keyboard shortcut: F5

2.4.3. Display > Test Frame Rate
This function estimates the refresh rate of the displays in CloudCompare, measured in frames per
second (fps).
The test will take about 10 seconds, and is characterized by a rotation around the objects visible
in the active 3D display. Once the test is finished, the result is displayed in the information zone of
the 3D viewer.
Note: this rate depends directly on the number of triangles and points to display. For reasons ofvisual comfort, it is preferable to have a refresh rate of about 25 fps or higher (cf. section 1.3.4).

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Chapter 2. Functions

Keyboard shortcut: F12

2.4.4. Display > Toggle Centered Perspective
In the display of objects, the projection defines the manner in which 3D objects are drawn to thescreen in a 2D visualization. CloudCompare offers two types of projections:–parallel orthographic: the points are projected orthogonally on the image plane. The field ofvision corresponds to a cylinder.
– perspective: the points are projected toward a single point that is not part of the image plane.
The field of vision corresponds to a cone.
The image plane can be considered to be the visualization screen.

In CloudCompare, the Toggle Centered Perspective command lets you toggle between theorthographic projection view, which is the default display view, and the projection perspective
display. When this command is activated, the center of rotation of the point of view is automaticallyplaced in the center of the observable scene. During the interactive phases (mouse movement in the3D viewer - cf. section 1.3.3) the camera will turn around the objects in the scene.
If clicked again, the command re-establishes the display mode to orthographic projection.
Keyboard shortcut: F3

2.4.5. Display > Toggle Viewer Based Perspective
This command toggles the 3D views between having a point of view centered on the camera anda point of view centered on the scene.
The first time it is called, it positions the center of rotation on the camera itself. This mode isassociated with a projection perspective. During the interactive phases (movement of the mouse in
the 3D viewer - cf. section 1.3.3) the camera turns around itself, maintaining its position.
If the command is activated again, it will re-establish the default display centered on the scene
and with an orthogonal projection.
Keyboard shortcut: F4

2.4.6. Display > Render to File
Creates a screen capture of the active 3D viewer in a BMP file. This function lets you specify azoom factor, via the window presented in figure 2.31.

2.4. Display Menu

51

Figure 2.31 – Zoom window for capturing screenshots of the 3D display

2.4.7. Display > Light and Materials > Set Light and Materials

Figure 2.32 – Lighting configuration window

This function sets the parameters of the lighting in CloudCompare, via the interface shown infigure 2.32. We see three sections:
The first frame (Light) changes the lighting parameters. The user can define a color for each of
the three components of light (ambient, specular, and diffuse):–––

The Ambient component is the constant lighting that bathes the scene: at night, for example,
the ambient component is black (no ambient light).
The Diffuse component defines the color reflected by objects independent of the position of
the camera.
Finally, the Specular component defines the color re-emitted by objects toward the camera:
the brighter this component, the glossier objects appear; the darker, the more they appear
matte.

The second frame (Default materials) configures the colors applied by default to meshes or point
clouds. In the case of meshes, the user can define a different color for each surface (front/back). The
Points button defines the color of points in point clouds, the same as the command in section 2.2.1.
The final frame (Others) modifies some general display options. Background sets the color of the
background of the 3D viewer. The background always appears in the form of a gradient from the52

Chapter 2. Functions

chosen color to black. Bounding-box changes the color of the box encompassing the selected
objects. Finally, Text changes the color of text in the 3D viewers.
Each of the buttons just described opens the color selection interface described in section 2.2.1.
At the bottom of the window are buttons that let you apply the selected parameters (OK and
Apply), re-set all the values to their defaults (Reset) or leave the interface without making
modifications (Cancel).

2.4.8. Display > Light and Materials > Toggle sun light
Turns the principal light source on and off. You must have at least one light source active to see
the lighting effects (shadow, color, ...)
Keyboard shortcut: F6

2.4.9. Display > Light and Materials > Toggle custom light
Turns the personalized light source on and off.

Figure 2.33 – Secondary light source (custom light)

This light source, unlike the principal light source representing "sunlight" - cf. section 2.4.8) is apoint light source. It appears as a small yellow star around the objects (see notes below). It has thesame properties as the main light source.
It is possible to move the light source by holding down the CTRL key while making a "PAN" withthe mouse (holding down the right mouse button).

2.5. Plugins Menu

53

Notes:– Keyboard shortcut: F7– The “star” only appears in the orthographic projection mode (see section 2.4.4. or 2.4.5).
– Sometimes, the star may have an initial position within the object itself.

2.4.10.

Display > Console

This command displays or hides the console, visible by default in the lower part of the main
window of CloudCompare (cf. section 1.1).

2.5. Plugins Menu
Plugins are extensions that offer advanced functionalities that are not covered by the main
program of CloudCompare. They correspond to ".dll" files or dynamic digital libraries (in Windows).
The application can perform perfectly well without these functions, as their domain is typicallyoutside of the core purpose of CloudCompare.
At the program's launch, CloudCompare searches for available plugins in certain pre-defined
folders, and only the .dll files (on Windows) are loaded and made available in the application's
interface. This manual presents the plugins available with the official version of CloudCompare.
It is nonetheless possible that, for one reason or another, you do not have these plugins in yourinstallation. Again, this will not hinder the functioning of CloudCompare.

2.5.1. Plugins > PCVThis tool rapidly calculates the illumination of points in a cloud or vertices in a mesh by using the"Portion of Visible Sky" (P.C.V., portion de ciel visible - see figure 2.36).
This lighting consists of calculating for each point the quantity of light it can "see", or in otherwords the quantity of light energy it would receive if the cloud had been lit uniformly. This colors
points as a function of their relative depth, and provides good relief to the micro-geometry. In
practice, this calculation is done with an algorithm equivalent to ShadeVis (originally proposed by
Cignoni et al. of the VCG).

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Chapter 2. Functions

Figure 2.34 – Classic rendering using normals (left) and "PCV" rendering (right)

The two principal parameters of the algorithm, modifiable via the associated dialogue box (figure2.35) are:– the number of light "rays". For each direction of lighting (ray), the algorithm projects agraphical map of the entities as seen from that direction and calculates the visibility of thepoints (or vertices of a mesh). This information is accumulated for each direction to calculate
the global lighting. The more rays that are used, the more differences between points will beapparent, and the more dynamic it will appear. On the other hand, the calculation time is
proportional to the number of rays.
– the resolution of the rendering buffer. The projection of entities in a viewing direction is donein a video buffer, of which the resolution contributes to the ability to distinguish between
points. The higher the resolution, the more distinctly the points will appear, with better
calculations of the individual lighting effects and a more the points will appear separate(enabling better lighting calculations and a higher quality of result). On the other hand, if theresolution is too high, calculation time and memory consumption will be unweildly (dependingon the performance of the graphics card). Also, be aware that the cloud may become"porous" and the light may shine through (see remark below). In the case of a mesh, thisdoes not pose any problem. Current graphics cards provide good performance in absoluteterms, so do not hesitate to use large values for these parameters (such as the default
values).

2.5. Plugins Menu

55

Remarks:– The algorithm creates a new scalar field of the type "PCV" and the color scale "Grey" isautomatically activated.
– The light simulated by the PCV algorithm is considered as coming from the "Z positive"
hemisphere. Z corresponds to the vertical direction, so the point cloud must be oriented
accordingly before the calculation. If the "360º mode" box is checked, the light will be applied
to all directions equally and direction will not play a part.
– As the illumination calculated by this algorithm is a scalar field, it is possible to adjust thesliders to control the saturation and contrast. In the case of a mesh, we can also use thesmoothing and enhancing functions (see sections 2.2.12 and 2.2.13). Once the correct
parameters are set, we can transform the scalar field into color using the Scalar fields >Convert to RGB function (section 2.2.23).
– The lighting coming from the sky is represented in a discrete manner by a limited number oflight "rays", which are sampled uniformly from the hemisphere (or the full sphere if 360ºmode is active). There is not much use of ray tracing in ShadeVis (rather, we should talk ofviewing angles - cf. the article by Cignoni et al. for more information).
– In the case of meshes, it is possible to accelerate the algorithm if the mesh is closed (see theoption "closed mesh", which is active by default).
– In the case of a point cloud, one must pay attention that the resolution is not too large,otherwise "holes" could appear between the points during the internal rendering: this issimply due to the fact that the density of a cloud is limited, and that for a sufficient level ofzoom, we always observe empty zones between the points.

Figure 2.35 – Configuration interface for the PCV rendering

2.5.2. Plugins > HPR
The Hidden Points Removal function, as its name indicates, filters the selected point cloud to only
keep the visible points (corresponding to the visible surface from the current point of view). The
points considered to be thus "masked" are therefore hidden. The result strongly depends on the
point of view.
The notion of visibility for points in a cloud is relatively complex to estimate. In reality, it is very
unlikely that a point will be actually hidden by other points in a cloud, because that would require
perfect alignment between pairs of points, or a density so high that the points are practically incontact. This function approximates the notion of visibility using a calculation of the convex
envelope. It is based on the article, Direct Visibility of Point Sets by Katz, Tal and Basri, SIGGRAPH
2007.

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Chapter 2. Functions

Figure 2.36 – Complete point cloud (top) and point cloud filtered by "HPR" (bottom)

To calculate the occlusions using this function, the 3d viewer must be using the projection
perspective (cf. section 2.4.4). Otherwise, an error message will warn the user and ask them toactivate projection perspective. The user must then choose the octree level to be used by thefunction (figure 2.37). The octree level speeds up the calculation of the convex envelope (a rather
large structure) by reducing the number of points used via subsampling. The higher the level, thefiner the calculation, but it will take longer.
Once the filtering is done, it is only valid for the current camera position (give or take a small
amount). The tool must be restarted to update the filtering for each new point of view.
Warning: the points hidden by this method cannot be re-displayed ad-hoc (for the moment). In themeantime, one must use a workaround: activate the tool to manually segment the cloud (the"scissors" icon - see section 1.5.1) which re-calculates the visibility information for each point), andthen quit this mode.

2.6. 3D Views Menu

57

Figure 2.37 – Interface to choose the octree level

2.6. 3D Views Menu
2.6.1. 3D Views > New
Opens a new 3D view (window).
Remarks:– Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + F3
– The name of the new 3D view is named as a function of the number of views opened since
starting CloudCompare. If n 3D views have been opened in the current session, thenregardless of the number of currently open views, the new element will automatically be
named "3D View n+1".
– 3D viewer windows created this way will be "virgin": they will not contain any objects, and it is
up to the user to display available entities as desired (cf. section 1.3.2)

2.6.2. 3D views > Close
Closes the active 3D view (window).
Remarks:– Keyboard shortcut: CTRL + F4
– The objects in the 3D view are not reassigned to any other window, so are no longer visible.
The user can, if desired, re-display the objects in any of the remaining windows (cf. section
1.3.2).

2.6.3. 3D Views > Close all
Close all the open 3D views.

2.6.4. 3D Views > Tile
This command partitions the display space between the different open 3D views. The windows
are arranged so that the entire display space is filled, and there is no overlap between them (theyform a mosaic).

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Chapter 2. Functions

Note: this arrangement is useful to see all 3D views at once.

2.6.5. 3D Views > Cascade
Organizes the 3D views in a cascade: they are superimposed according to the order in which
they were created.
Note: the cascade display is useful to navigate quickly between the current views.

2.6.6. 3D Views > Next
This command activates the next 3D view.
Note: the order of the 3D views is set by their names, and therefore by the order in which they
were created. The "next" view is therefore the open window that was created first after the current
window.

2.6.7. 3D Views > Previous
This command activates the previous 3d view in place of the current.
Note: the "previous" window is the last one created before the current window.

2.7. Help Menu
2.7.1. Help > Help
Display the user documentation for CloudCompare.
Keyboard shortcut: F1.

2.7.2. Help > About
Display the information window for the current version of CloudCompare (cf. figure 2.38).

2.7. Help Menu

59

Figure 2.38 – Information window

2.7.3. Help > About plugins
Display the plugin information window (figure 2.39). This window displays the available plugins in
the form of a tree. The folders in which CloudCompare searches for plugins are displayed at the topof the window.

Figure 2.39 – Plugin information window

60

A

Appendix

A.1

File Formats

A.1.1 Recognized 2D/3D file types

Extensionasc, txt,
neu, xyz,
etc.
bin

Type
ascii

P

M

RGB

LG

N

S

✓

✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

binary✓✓ply

ascii/binary

obj

ascii

soi

ascii

(c)binbinary✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓

pn

binarypv, pcv

binary

icm

ascii

P

:

PointsM:

Meshes✓✓RGB:

Colors (Red, Green, Blue)LG :Levels of GreyN:

NormalsS:

Scalars

Other

✓ ✓
✓

Description
ASCII point cloud
point cloud(s), binary
format specific to
CloudCompare
mesh (Stanford)
mesh (Wavefront)
cloud(s) (Soisic,
Mensi)
cloud (C,
Hernandez)
cloud (point +normal)cloud (point + value)✓✓✓

cloud/image
association

2.7. Help Menu

61

A.1.2 Opening and Saving

asc, txt, neu, xyz, etc.
bin
ply
obj
soi
(c)binpn
pv, pcv
icm

Open

Save

✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓

✓
✓
✓
✓

✓

A.1.3 Special Formats
A.1.3.1 ICM files
This type of file associates a point cloud with a VRML file – the latter defines calibrated photos(camera + image file).
Example:file: toto.icm#CC_ICM_FILE
FILENAME=pa4.asc
FILETYPE=ASC
IMAGES_DESCRIPTOR=photo_match.wrl// Header// Points file// Type of points file// VRML file describing the calibrated photos

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Chapter 2. Functions

file: photo_match.wrl#VRML v2.0 utf8
DEF photo1.jpg Viewpoint{fieldOfView 0.621379
position -10.5418 -15.6091 5.95961
description «VANNE + PETIT TUYEAU »orientation 0.70724 -0.37292 -0.600618 3.74252}//Header photo #1// FOV//Optical Center//Description//View vector

DEF photo2.jpg Viewpoint{fieldOfView 0.621379
position -3.9782 -21.276 5.95616
description «PORTE »orientation 0.572629 0.696275 -0.432778 2.02135}//Header photo #2//etc.

A VRML file like this can be generated quasi-automatically by a program such as RealWorks(Mensi).
A.1.3.2 Depth Map Export file

An export, in ASCII, of the depth map associated with a sensor. It may be generated by thefunction Sensor > Ground-based Lidar > Export depth buffer (section 2.2.15).
Example:file: ground based laser scanner.txt// CLOUDCOMPARE DEPTH MAP// Associated cloud : Cloud #0// dPhi = 0.005000 [ -0.383052 : 0.319331 ]// dTheta = 0.005000 [ -1.626588 : 0.137948 ]// pMax = 78823.398438// L = 353// H = 141/////////////////////////
0.000000 0.000000 18132.496094
1.000000 0.000000 15145.963154...
352.000000 140.000000 132135.321542

associated cloud name (as disp. in CC)
horizontal angular step
vertical angular step
max depth
number of horiz. pixels
number of vert. pixels
1st pixel coordinates (i,j) and depth (z)2nd pixel coordinates (i,j) and depth (z)L*H pixel coordinates (i,j) and depth (z)