displaying point cloud data

see Shapeworks at

you scroll to the bottom of the page you will see they also have a conversion service for large point cloud files HTH

I wrote a point cloud utility a few years back that was hosted on the solidworks vb and macro library website. If you can't find it, e-mail me and I can find it and e-mail it to you.

snipped-for-privacy@productcreationstudio.com

Did you try a search here first? About 10 threads down from this one there is a "POINT INPUT FROM EXCEL" thread that should get you started.

Ken

I wrote a Point cloud input Macro a long time ago that still works in 2006. It essentially reads in an xyz txt table and plots the points on the screen. The Cool thing about this one is that you can read in a huge number of points fairly quickly because of one simple line of code that allows the points to be added directly to the database instead of showing them on the screen one by one. I would recommend filtering out enough points to not exceed 150,000 points or so. This takes about 2 minutes to bring in on my machine. (Duall 64bit 3.6Ghz, 4Gb Ram Quadro FX3450)

Make sure your point cloud data is in this format: And the filename is xyzpoints.txt.

-21.894799 33.314639 30.003743

-22.504399 33.345119 30.003743

-23.037799 33.340039 30.003743

-23.601679 33.223199 30.003743

-24.104599 33.182559 30.003743

-24.561799 33.248599 30.003743

-24.998679 33.075879 30.003743

-25.511759 33.065719 30.003743

-25.933399 32.887919 30.003743

-26.537919 32.715199 30.003743

Open a new part then run the macro from tools - macro - run. The txt file needs to be in the same directory as the macro.

If you want to plot less points then you can change the point plot step value in the script file from < 0 to something like < 10 and set the next lines step increment to 10 as well. This will only plot every 10th Point.

Hope this helps you out.

Copy the code below into a new text file and save it with the .swb file extension (pointcloud.swb) for instance. Then run the macro from within solidworks.

-----START COPY FROM NEXT LINE----- ' 11/19/01 ALS: Developed and documented...Adam Smith Product Creation Studio Seattle, WA USA (206) 297-7200 snipped-for-privacy@productcreationstudio.com ' ' This example will open and read a comma, space, or tab delimited datafile called xyzpoints.txt These ' points will then be used to generate a Point Cloud in a sketch of the currently open document. ' This program could also be modified to create a 3D spline using the InsertCurveFilePoint ' API function. ' Public Sub Main() Dim XVal(175000), YVal(175000), ZVal(175000) As Double ' Datapoints read from the datafile ' If hardcoded size unacceptable, use ReDim ' after determining number of lines in csv file. Dim numPts As Double ' Track the total # lines in the datafile 'Dim numa As Double ' Variable for Stopping Short - Not Used 'Dim numb As Double ' Variable 2 for Stopping Short - Not Used Dim Xvalc as Double ' Converted X Datapoint Dim Yvalc as Double ' Converted Y Datapoint Dim ZValc as Double ' Converted Z Datapoint Dim con As Double ' Variable to Store Conversion Factor Dim swApp As Object ' Variable to hold the SldWorks object Dim Model As Object ' Variable to hold the ModelDoc object Dim FileNum As Integer Dim activeSketch As Object

FileNum = FreeFile ' Grab the next available file number

con = .001 ' Set Conversion Factor Here

Set swApp = CreateObject("SldWorks.Application") ' Attach to or open SolidWorks session Set Model = swApp.ActiveDoc ' Grab the current document If Model Is Nothing Then ' If no active doc found swApp.SendMsgToUser "No active doc found!" ' Warning to the user Exit Sub ' Exit this app End If

Open "xyzpoints.txt" For Input As FileNum ' Optionally pop up dialog here to locate ' desired file.

Do Until EOF(FileNum) ' Until EOF is reached numPts = numPts + 1 ' Keep track of line number Input #FileNum, XVal(numPts), YVal(numPts), ZVal(numPts) ' Read each line from datafile Loop

Close #FileNum ' Close the datafile

swapp.sendmsgtouser "File read"

'numa = numPts - 10000 ' Number set for Stopping after X number of points

'numb = numa - 200 ' Number set for Stopping after y + X number of points

Set activeSketch = Model.GetActiveSketch if (activeSketch Is Nothing) then ' If a Sketch is not active, then

swapp.sendmsgtouser "No Sketch created. One will be created for you"

Model.Insert3DSketch ' insert a new sketch for our point cloud Model.SetAddToDB True ' Set to true allows data to be directly added to SW DB Model.SetDisplayWhenAdded False ' Set to False Deactivates display of data while plotting

end if ' This will fail if this is not the 1st sketch

'Do While numPts > numa Do While numPts > 0 ' For each data point down to specified number numPts = numPts - 1 ' Countdown from #Datapts by set number ie. plot every 5th point

XValc = XVal(numPts + 1) * con ' Convert Meters to Units needed see con value above YValc = YVal(numPts + 1) * con ' Convert Meters to Units needed see con value above ZValc = ZVal(numPts + 1) * con ' Convert Meters to Units needed see con value above

Model.createpoint2 XValc, YValc, ZValc ' Draw points

loop

swapp.sendmsgtouser "points plotted"

Model.Insert3DSketch

End Sub

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