Gauging interest in point cloud format for new dynamic mapping solution

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Which point cloud format do you suggest develop export utility 1st for new dynamic mapping solution?

.PCD = X, Y, Z, intensity, RGB, classification; native file format of free PCL; can be saved in ascii or as binary
0
No votes
.LAS = adds append custom data; most common binary open format from ASPRS
4
20%
.E57 = adds append photo images; standardized binary + XML format from ASTM
14
70%
.RCS = proprietary format from Autodesk for AutoCad, Navis, Revit via Recap
2
10%
.DP = proprietary format from DotProduct; super small file size w/over 2dozen software integrations
0
No votes
.POD = proprietary format from Bentley for Microstation via Pointools
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 20

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mwaychoff
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Gauging interest in point cloud format for new dynamic mapping solution

Post by mwaychoff »

Last month over 400 of you carefully considered my second opinion poll & overwhelmingly requested a 4k touch monitor for a new Windows10 real time data collector. Although this was unexpected & adds significant cost to my camera build I think I have figured out a surprisingly good hardware spec now that should work quite nicely. Thank you to all who participated in last month's question.

This month I want to start to think about software workflow development. I will be doing this in parallel w/building & testing my working prototype #2 camera. To take this step forward I need to ask what point cloud format should I focus on trying to provide support for w/our first software workflow implementation. Specifically I am in need of some input regarding what you currently use most in your current workflow.

Quick reminder I am planning on providing several output formats as part of this hardware camera build; but I still have to make a choice of which one I should prioritize first.

If you have an interesting reason why you vote for one of above choices please share in comments so we can discuss briefly.

Also if you have another format to suggest I should consider I would love to hear about that as well.
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Re: Gauging interest in point cloud format for new dynamic mapping solution

Post by jedfrechette »

Using PDAL as your IO library would automatically give you support for the first 3 formats in your poll, as well as several others.
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Re: Gauging interest in point cloud format for new dynamic mapping solution

Post by mwaychoff »

Just a quick reply here to bring this to top of discussion thread again so can get few more votes this weekend.

It is interesting how different audience prefers different output formats. Here is same opinion poll on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mwaychof ... 04864-2pvS
Which has generated very different results.

Thank you much @jedfrechette for reminding me to look at PDAL.io.
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Re: Gauging interest in point cloud format for new dynamic mapping solution

Post by VXGrid »

Most software packages are able to read E57, second most is LAS.
If I were in your shoes, I'd go with LAZ, since you will get the smallest file size, while still supporting most software packages.

If you want to focus on certain "environments" like AutoDesk or Bentley, then you should go with RCP/RCS or POD (which has the disadvantage of a non free SDK).
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