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In this video we’ll take a look at creating and attaching a point cloud to your drawing.
AutoCAD has built in support for most of the popular scan formats, so you can choose the
format that works best for you. For this video I have some FLS scans I’m
going to work with. I can add or remove scan files from the list
as needed. Because each scan is part of a larger image,
I’ll merge the three scans together into a single point cloud.
Next, I’ll specify the name and location of where I want the point cloud saved.
Notice you can create either an Autodesk point cloud or an Ambercore spatial point cloud.
I’ll create an Autodesk point cloud and I want to import the RGB and Intensity data
as well as the Custom Attributes from the scans.
Next, I’ll click Merge to start processing the point cloud. The processing happens in
the background so you can continue to work while the point cloud is being merged. The
amount of time it takes depends on the number of points or size of the scan data as well
as the computer you’re using to process the scan.
The Create Point Cloud dialog is minimized while the point cloud is being processed.
Click the Create Point Cloud icon to see the progress of the merge.
When the point cloud processing is complete you’ll receive a notification with a link.
You can click the link to attach the point cloud to your drawing, but for this video
I’d like to show you how to attach the point cloud using the Attach button on the ribbon.
If you’ve worked with xrefs, attaching a point cloud will be very familiar.
Choose the path type that best suits your project: relative, full or no path. You can
also control the on-screen insertion point, scale, rotation angle, and so on. I’ll leave
Zoom checked because I want to automatically zoom in to my point cloud after it’s been
inserted. The Show Details button will display detailed
information about the point cloud, like the number of points, color and intensity data,
path information, and so on. I’ll select OK and click to insert the point
cloud into my current drawing.