Cineversity

Hi,

i’ve seen in “Cinema 4D R23 – COMPLETE FEATURE LIST” the new capability “POINT CLOUD IMPORT”
https://www.maxon.net/de/cinema-4d/cinema-4d-new-in-r23/cinema-4d-r23-complete-feature-list

I don’t get it. I was trying with merge option and cloner objet with no luck.

What it the right workflow? what pointcloud formats are available?

i know LAZPoint but i’d like to do it without plugins.

thanks

Hi,

i’ve seen in “Cinema 4D R23 – COMPLETE FEATURE LIST” the new capability “POINT CLOUD IMPORT”
https://www.maxon.net/de/cinema-4d/cinema-4d-new-in-r23/cinema-4d-r23-complete-feature-list

I don’t get it. I was trying with merge option and cloner objet with no luck.

What it the right workflow? what pointcloud formats are available?

i know LAZPoint but i’d like to do it without plugins.

thanks

Sorry, i’ve posted this topic in the right channel. i dont’t know how to delete it from here.

Hi a.salmon,

I have moved and merged the questions; I think that was what you wanted. I will only delete a post if you tell me exactly which one.

I would use Alembic for this and turn points into particles. Is this working for you?

All the best

Hi Sassi,

do you mean:
1- Convert pointcloud scene into alembic format using another application like Blender.
2- Import alembic file into cinema4d as (particle geometry or particle object ??)
3- Use “Thinking Particles Geometry” to convert points into particles??

Thanks for your help!
Alberto

Hi Alberto,

I’m not aware that Point Cloud is a fixed format. What I know is that there are several formats available.

ASCII and Binary: XYZ, OBJ, PTX (Leica), ASC, FLS (Faro), PCD (Point Cloud Library), LAS PLY, FBX, E5. (Are there more?)

The question would be, is there is a chance that the source application of the data could provide obj or alembic? Not that I think several “translations” of those numbers can do a lot of harm, but converting data usually is not improving the pipeline.

If you tell me what “point-producer” (e.g., Leica) is used, I’m happy to look into it.

Cheers

I’m using Leica Register 360 or Autodesk Recap depending of the scanner i’ve used to capture data.
Then i can export this pointcloud in several formats except alembic ( E57, PTX, PTS, PTG, RCS or RCP )
Also using CloudCompare i can open and convert this files in other except alembic ( LAS, LAZ, PLY, CSV, XYZ,..)
I’ve used Blender to transform .LAS into alembic.

That’s the only workflow i know..
Cheers

Hi a.salmon,

Would you mind checking this out: Go to the Structure Manager, while being in Mode> Point and having just an editable cube active, export an ASCI file.

Open any of your formats that you get as ASCI and compare those. Typically you can open those as Excel sheets and configure (format) the numbers quickly in any other way. Can you match the Cube’s ASCI?

If so, save your data accordingly. Then call up an empty Polygon and load all your point values in that selected Empty Polygon via Structure Manager.

If you have a workflow for that, it might be no problem to go that route.

Yes, that will no deliver colors for example, if that is part of the data.

Besides that, please open a support ticket as a Suggestion and make your needs heard.
https://www.maxon.net/en/support-center

Python allows to read values from a document, but that would be a question for Maxon’s Developer Café Forum.
https://developers.maxon.net/?page_id=1114

(FXPHD has a Python for Cinema 4D course, and in one class (#10), the instructor explains the procedure to read a document.
https://www.fxphd.com/details/339/
Please be aware that his course is in Python 2, it needs a conversion perhaps.

All the best

Thanks Sassi,

i see two problems with this workflow: work with millions of points and lose the color data, so maybe it’s not the right way.

In the first post you told me about use alembic files. I can create an alembic file from my pointcloud.
Can you help me to understand how to work with .abc files?

Thanks,
Alberto

Hi Alberto,

Color is just another vector information, which should be handled similarly. (XYZ or RGB)

The color must be stored in the Alembic file. I have no idea about your source application and how it handles Alembic.

Here is a short screen capture (Minute Clip #1352) of the few steps to get the color connected to the particles.
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/bkplxrexNoCoC1uXoAvhXwkbVM0Di58QIbwfIDB81Y6

I have filled a request for all the formats mentioned here in the thread.

All the best

P.S.: I found a script, but I have no idea if it is good or useful for your format. Perhaps you need to run it through Python 2-> three converters.

No guarantee; just pointing it out. He produced a course on FXPHD, and I got a good impression from it.

https://www.908lab.de/2019/09/12/cinema-4d-convert-xyz-data-to-point-cloud/