If you have a list of points’ coordinates (X, Y, Z) in a spreadsheet, you can easily turn it into a 3D point cloud.
Actually, they already are a point cloud but the file isn’t suitable for most softwares that deal with this kind of data.
Here are what you can do
Open the file in Excel, LibreOffice Calc or other similar softwares.
Select the columns related to the X (East), Y (North) and Z (elevation).
Copy them.
Open a text editor (I really recommend open software Notepad++).
Paste the data.
(If necessary) replace all decimal separating commas with periods, or vicevesa.
Save the file in TXT format.
Open Cloud Compare software.
Open a new file and look for the one that you’ve just saved (the TXT format is listed in the ASCII cloud group).
Select “Apply all” in the window that will pop up.
Here you can check if numbers are related to their correct coordinate.
(If necessary) confirm the shifting proposed by Cloud Compare, for georeferenced data in projected coordinates with large numbers of East and North.
Click “Yes to all” but don’t worry because original data will not be lost, it’s just a way for Cloud Compare to better deal with 3d information and big files.
Now that you have the points in the 3D space you can edit them.
You may wanna change the color because it may be hardly visible in the default background.
Select the point cloud in the “DB Tree” panel, on the left of the main window.
Select “File – Save” and choose folder, filename and output format you prefer among those available (dxf, shapefile, las, ply, …).
Now you have a point cloud ready to be uploaded or edited in other softwares that you may wanna use.
If you’d like to have more information global shifting (see point 11 above) you can check this video on Metrical Talks You Tube Channel.
Ciao!
Paolo Corradeghini
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