A unique Point Cloud workflow

Rapidly import scan data, visualize as-builts, and guide 3D model creation

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View point clouds

BricsCAD uses an improved data representation to speed the performance of point cloud display, using half of the disk space versus the point cloud source files.

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import and view point clouds

Import and view point clouds

Attach point cloud data to your DWG files. Point Cloud data attachment triggers a pre-processing procedure that runs in the background of your BricsCAD session, leveraging multiple cores of your workstation. Once processed, you can move through massive point clouds in near real-time.

adaptive point display

Adaptive Point display

Adaptive display size determines the point display size, based on local point density. This technology lets you view point cloud information in a more photo-realistic way. Low density areas have larger points. This can be toggled on and off as desired, to facilitate snapping to point cloud data.

navigate with bubble views

Navigate with Bubble Views

When extended resolution point cloud data is available per scan position (via E57, PTX and some RCP formats), BricsCAD pre-processor creates view bubbles, denoted as semi-transparent spheres within the scene. Double-clicking a view bubbles raises a detailed spherical image, as seen from the original scan position.

align point clouds

Align point clouds with drawing coordinate systems

When BricsCAD’s point cloud engine detects a wall, it re-orients the point cloud to align the wall with the current drawing’s coordinate system.

5faster

Fast importing of point clouds

CPU thread parallelization, as well as improvements to the input algorithm, speed up point cloud pre-processing. For ASCII files (PTS, PTX), the speed is on average 5 times faster than BricsCAD V20.

Modeling with Point Cloud data

crop the point cloud data

Crop the point cloud data

You can limit the displayed point cloud data set to a specific volume within your drawing, using circular & rectangular crops along the view direction. POINTCLOUDCROP does not affect CAD entities in your drawings, only the displayed point cloud.

snap to points

Snap to points

When BricsCAD’s ESNAP “point cloud closest point” is switched on, you can snap to any point within a point cloud, in addition to existing drawing entities, to create new geometry.

create colormaps

Create colormaps

Create visual interpretations of point clouds using Colormaps. BricsCAD contains a pre-defined set of Colormaps, such as Spectrum (based on intensity or elevation), Earth, Hydro, etc.

point cloud properties panel

Point cloud properties panel

Select any point cloud and change its display properties and geometric properties (rotation scales, insertion XYZ, etc). You can also apply Colormaps to attached point clouds from the point cloud properties panel.

Scan to BIM

In BricsCAD BIM V21, we’re continuing the evolution of our Scan to BIM technology with scan alignment tools, planar surface geometry fitting and volume section generation from scan data.

create planar patches

Create planar patches & solids from point clouds

When a user selects a point in a point cloud, BricsCAD returns a planar patch that includes all points detected in the current plane. Users can then choose between a rectangular or polygonal boundary for the extracted patch. This rectangular surface can be extended to a planar solid, via automatic detection of nearby co-planar subsets of points.

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Automatic line detection in Point Clouds

BricsCAD detects lines in point cloud data sets, automatically generating 2D layouts from 3D point clouds. For example, this feature can be used to extract floor plans from scan data.

automatic story detection

Automatic story detection in Point Clouds

With POINTCLOUDDETECTFLOORS, you can automatically detect stories within the Point Cloud of a building. BricsCAD will automatically create a volume section for each of the detected floors.