Pointcloud drawing sharing

amatt

How can I attach a Pointcloud to my drawing so that I can email the file to a person outside of my company? I have a pointcloud that I've broken out into sections and the client wants the dwg so that they can review it, but I haven't figured out how to embed/attached/insert the laz file into the drawing to share it.

Piet

Hi,

you will need to send the pointcloud separately. A pointcloud entity in Bricscad is just a reference to a cache folder. When the other user uses Bricscad, you can send him the Bricscad pointcloud cache folder, located by default in: \AppData\Roaming\Bricsys\BricsCAD\V24x64\en_US\PointCloudCache. This way he does not need to process it again.

When the user doesn't have Bricscad, you will need to send the original LAZ file and he needs to process it in his CAD software. (and probably re-insert)

zoomer

Hmmh,
not sure if that is a good idea.

It is not even only about exports from Bricscad to other DWG CADs.

It is already tedious if you open your file in a new Version of Bricscad.
Or if you want to open your file on Mac on a PC.

I propose that the Point Cloud data should be saved in the File.
Or at least beside the File in my Project Folder.
(OK, Bricscad still misses a Project Folder Setup. There are attempts
for generated Drawings but I miss Subfolder presetting for Image Textures,
References, Render output, Exports, Imports, …. and the Project Settings should
be able to use the main Project Folder with other Software. E.g. the Texture
Folder may be used by all and so sit parent or beside Bricscad's Folder)

The original Point Cloud file does also not really help if the Point Cloud
was moved or arranged.

Terry Dotson

If your needs are Civil, there is a free LidarTools application that will create a BricsCAD TinSurface directly from the .LAZ file content and neither the point could nor the .LAZ file needs to be provided. Otherwise, if your point cloud is small enough, that same app can draw your .LAZ file content as simple (colored) point objects inside the drawing. Be sure to save any open drawings in BricsCAD first, because several million points will bring any CAD engine to a halt.

Piet

hi Zoomer,

the drawing path is also used when a pointcloud cache is searched. Putting the pointcloud cache folder next to the drawing works. We did not chooses this method as the default behavior because pointcloud data is typically large. If you create a copy of the drawing, you would need to create a copy of the pointcloud data too. Bringing all the data inside the drawing would have the same issue: very large dwg files.

zoomer

OK, thanks, so drawing path is possible is possible.

I have a global Backup Folder for all my 3D Apps on the local SSD.
That is where I set App's paths when applicable.

Each Bricscad's Version Folder in my Backup Folder has a few Subfolders
like one for Point Cloud data which is set in Settings.
Usually I duplicate these for a new Bricscad Version and set paths in Settings.

Nevertheless with latest V23 upwards V5 upgrades it had never worked to open
files that had Point Clouds attached.
I always had to recreate everything again from Point Cloud sources.

Need to check/compare my path settings again.

And if I get that right,
in the Cache Folder, there are Folders, named like "POINTCLOUDSOURCENAME+DateTimeStamp",
- these are the processed Data for Bricscad from the Point Cloud Source ?
- the Bricscad file needs this complete Folder to be able to show attached Point Clouds ?
- if I add this Folder beside my Bricscad File it will show attached Point Cloud on another machine
or export ?

Piet

POINTCLOUDCACHEFOLDER sets the path to the cache (you can also change it in settings dialog and set multiple paths)

the Bricscad file needs this complete Folder to be able to show attached Point Clouds ?

yes

if I add this Folder beside my Bricscad File it will show attached Point Cloud on another machine
or export ?

Yes, when opened with Bricscad, each CAD application has it's own cache format, if they support pointclouds.