Adding & Removing Point Clouds

Point Clouds

Point clouds are collections of data points that can be added, viewed, and shared to represent 3D spatial information.

Point clouds can be added to Trimble Connect for Windows by selecting the Add button in the Point Clouds Tab, and choosing a suitable potree folder or file containing point cloud data.

  • A Point cloud URL cache has been added and is stored in the default cache location: c:\users[username]\AppData\Local\trimble\trimble connect\import\PotreeURLCache.
  • Location uses the same setting as point cloud import (Settings > General > Point clouds).
  • Cache file max size is can be changed in registry: PointClouds.DiskCacheInGigabytes, default value is 10 gigabytes.
  • Setting cache size to 0 disables caching.
  • The registry settings are stored in the following hive: HKey_Current_User\Software\Trimble\Trimble Connect\Settings.

For a list of supported file formats, see Supported File Formats.

Add a Point Cloud

Follow these steps to add point cloud to Trimble Connect for Windows.

By default, Point Clouds folders are added to the Data Tab. This folder contains a file that has the same name as the point cloud folder; this file contains the path to the actual point cloud folder. That way, the folder can be shared easily if it is found in a shared location.
  1. Open your project in Trimble Connect for Windows.
  2. Navigate to the 3D Viewer.
  3. Open the Point Clouds panel.
  4. To add a point cloud from your computer or a drive:
    1. Select Add.
    2. Browse to find and select the point cloud file.
    3. Select Open.
  5. To add a point cloud URL from your computer or a drive:
    1. Select Add URL.
    2. Enter a name for the point cloud.
    3. In the URL box, type or paste the URL address to the point cloud file.
    4. Select Add.
A Point Clouds folder is added in the project root folder. When you are working in Trimble Connect 3D viewer, you can view the point clouds from the Point Clouds folder.

Sharing Point Clouds

Points clouds can accessed by other project members if the users have access to the folder where the point clouds are stored.

To do so, the point cloud file(s) and folder must be uploaded to the server. See Upload Files and Folders for more information.

For other project members to view the point clouds, the must download the files from the server to their local project. See Download Files and Folders for details.

If the point cloud folder isn't in a shared location, the point cloud will not be able to be displayed in 3D View. This is indicated by the point cloud title being red.

Remove a Point Cloud

Follow these steps to remove a point cloud.

Point clouds can be removed from Trimble Connect for Windows using the Remove button found next to the Add button in the Point Clouds Tab. The point clouds list can also be refreshed if needed (when doing changes to a point cloud from the Data Tab, it won't be updated automatically in the Point Clouds Tab).
  1. Open your project in Trimble Connect for Windows.
  2. Navigate to the 3D Viewer.
  3. Open the Point Clouds panel.
  4. Select the point cloud from the list.
  5. Select Remove.

See Trimble Reality Capture Platform Service for more information.