Does anyone know if there is better pointcloud functionality coming to Rhino? Or a plugin similar to the now defunct Pointools? Seems most other modeling software is making huge advances in the pointcloud world but Rhino… not so much.
1 Like
Hi Dan,
What kind of functionality are you looking for? What problems(s) are you trying to solve?
I want to be able to import very large point clouds.
I want to be able to move, scale and rotate said clouds.
I want to be able to view in solid color, rgb color, intensity, shaded normals or with editable color gradients applied.
I would like to be able to view from scanner position.
I want to be able to view, hide, select and extract portions of the pointcloud as needed.
I want to easily be able to create, edit and save section views. In planar directions as well as along curves. I would like the slice width to be editable.
I want to be able to fit primatives to point clouds. Spheres, planes, cylinders, pipes, cones, etc…
I am scanning and as-built modeling buildings and all of these things would help that process.
The greatest thing ever would be the ability to fit pipes and export them as native Revit pipes or pipe placeholders but the above would be a good start. 
3 Likes
Hi everyone, I would like to know if there was any news on this field.
To explain a bit, I am currently working with Rhino v5 and Pointools plug-in which allow to do a lot of the things listed above, directly within Rhino. (I’m mostly doing 2D plans of buildings (interior, elevations and facade view).)
But as some of you may know, Pointools has been bought by Bentley. And they decided to stop the development of this plug-in. I still can work on the plug-in but I can’t say if I still will be able to work if there is any update on Rhino or windows etc. And the main thing is, in my company, we can’t get more people to work that way. There is only me.
So I would like to know if Rhino is working on creating tools that could replace Pointools plug-in. I know we can import PTS and e57 point clouds, even do a section on them. But there is no other tools and the display performance is not good. While Pointools could load more than 150 pointclouds and still be “workable”, with pts import it’s not that great with only few ones (at least when I tested).
I ask this because we’re thinking about moving to Bentley Descartes, but honestly a Rhino solution would be so much better as it is really simple and efficient. I definitively wish Rhino is doing improvements on point clouds so my company could work with it instead of Bentley Descartes.
Another solution would be to try to set another partnership with Bentley to get a new plug-in for Rhino. But sadly, I really doubt about it.
Thanks for reading, I cross my finger for you to bring me some good news!
3 Likes
I have been looking and looking and hoping but still nothing and I haven’t heard of anything coming soon either. Autodesk has really been stepping things up in the pointcloud world and I have slowly started making the move to their products. Id much rather stay in Rhino but I just don’t see that being the best option much longer.
Cleps,
How can I contact you by email?
Thanx … Chris