This feature provides the ability to visualize Pointcloud datasets (PC) inside Catenda Hub.

You can preview individual PC inside the Document area, and you can combine them in our 3D viewer. Download a sample file from here.

Also, you can view simultaneously PC and IFC models inside the Catenda Hub 3D viewer.

See below various settings to display your data:

Catenda Hub allows you to upload 2 formats for PC data:

You will upload the files as every other file in the Document section.

File size must be under 25 GB, but you can load several, and display them together in the viewer.
After you import a point cloud to the document section it starts processing the preview.

The time it takes to prepare depends on how big the point cloud is.

As a general rule you can think of it as 1 hour per GB but it might be more/less depending on the point cloud.

After the preview has processed a 3D button will appear in the documents list and in the right information panel.

The point cloud can now be opened in the 3D viewer.

Once it is ready, click on the document, and the preview of your PC will appear.

To display your PC in the 3D viewer, simply click on this 3D button:

This is the initial result:

And after some adjustments with zoom and positioning:

In this section, we will look at the settings inside Catenda Hub that will allow you to get the best experience with your PC.

Settings that can be used to configure point clouds are located in two places.

Using the viewer Settings button, you will be able to adjust your point budget from 100,000 up to 10,000,000. This will affect the global performance and loading time of your data, but also the end result in the viewer.

See the same view with the lowest budget, and the highest:

On the top left of the 3D viewer you will find the Revision selector.

In the models menu you will be able to find the individual 3D documents that you have loaded into the 3D viewer .

Point clouds can be configured in the revision selector by clicking the gear icon.

This is what the settings menu can look like:

Attribute

Display either RGBA (colors) or Intensity.
The intensity option can be used when the points do not include colors.

For example when the point cloud was captured in a tunnel or a dark room.

Opacity

When models are displayed together with point clouds, it can be necessary to dim the points to have a better understanding of the viewpoint.

Point size

Adaptive - Default

The closer a point is to the camera, the larger it is.

Points that are in view are loaded into memory.
Points that move out of view are loaded out of memory.

Fixed size

Points that have been loaded will stay in memory with this option.

With many points you will notice that rotating might be delayed and movement can be slowed down as you start getting close to the amount of points that your system can handle.

You might also notice that it will take longer and longer to load in new points as you get closer to the limit of your device.
Points load closest to the camera first.

Before loading the point cloud from the document section, be sure to therfore position the camera to where you want the points to load.
If this is a camera position you plan to use more often with this point cloud consider making a bookmark or a snapshot in a topic which you can play to return to this position.

The slider below helps you make the final setting.

There is no rule for the correct value, it will depend on the data you upload (size of the dataset, point density, type of scan, etc...).

Our advice: Load the point cloud, and after a brief moment, when enough points are displayed, adjust the settings if necessary.