Point Cloud for Bricscad 1.0

Point Cloud for Bricscad 1.0 offers you a great application which you can reconstruct the geometry of an object from a point cloud which describes it. Point Cloud for Bricscad can drape a surface over a point cloud or wrap a mesh around a point cloud. Draping a surface is similar to laying a piece of cloth over an object. The surface is deformed to take the shape of the object along the drape direction.

Installation & Usage:

Since Point Cloud for Bricscad is a plug-in for Bricscad, it must be loaded into the Bricscad environment before it can be used. Please follow the simple instructions in the Point Cloud for Bricscad ReadMe document which is copied into the installation folder. If you accept the default values in the installer, Point Cloud for Bricscad will be up and running within a minute. However, if you choose to modify the values (for example, install the software at a location other than the default) then you will have to take extra care to see that Bricscad and the Point Cloud for Bricscad plug-in are properly setup and recognize each other. For an easy and straight forward installation, simply run the installer and accept the default installation options.  After you have loaded the plug-in file into Bricscad, simply click on the menu items in the "PointCloud" submenu to run these new commands. Truly, software made simple!

The 'PointCloud' menu consists of the following commands:

• PCImportPoints - Imports a point cloud from a text file
• PCDrapeSurface - Drapes a surface over a set of a point cloud
• PCWrapMesh - Wraps a mesh around a point cloud
• PCHelp - Displays the Point Cloud for Bricscad help file
• PCRegister - Registers your copy of Point Cloud for Bricscad
• PCAbout - Displays the Point Cloud for Bricscad about box

The Point File Format

• A Point file format is basically a text file containing the x, y and z coordinates of a point on each line. Usually the coordinates are stored in the XYZ order.
• However, points are sometimes stored in the YXZ order. This is common in survey data where the YXZ order is referred to Northing, Easting and Elevation. Sometimes each point in the point file has a point number and/or description. An example of a point file with points stored in the XYZ order and has point numbers and descriptions.

Major Features:

1. Point Cloud for Bricscad can drape a surface over a point cloud or wrap a mesh around a point cloud. Draping a surface is similar to laying a piece of cloth over an object.
2. The surface is deformed to take the shape of the object along the drape direction. A surface can be draped along one of the six orthogonal directions (top, bottom, front, back, right and left) or a custom user specified direction.
3. Wrapping a mesh is similar to wrapping cloth all around an object to close it completely.
4. Point Cloud for Bricscad has the ability to wrap a mesh around a concave or a convex point cloud.
5. Point Cloud for Bricscad is designed to be extremely user friendly and easy to understand.
6. It adds new commands to Bricscad and also a sub menu called "PointCloud" which houses these commands.