Best Practice work-flows to create models from Point Clouds

SketchUp
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Hello,

Just wondering what the community has come up with for best practices in creating a model from a point cloud.

I don’t have too much trouble with buildings, but hillside landscapes with varying topography, meandering stairs, lush vegetation, 3D curving rock retaining walls…etc… are another story.

Has anyone developed a good workflow either within SketchUp Pro/Studio or other third party apps like CloudCompare or MeshLab to help facilitate or better yet automate some of the modeling process.

My scans were done with a rented Trimble X7.

I’d even consider outsourcing this if anyone has a recommendation.

Thanks

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Tyson put together a nice starter course on Scan Essentials on SketchUp Camps - Scan Essentials which could be helpful if you haven’t seen it.

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Have you tried the new ground mesh tools?

https://help.sketchup.com/en/release-notes/sketchup-desktop-20240#scan

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Mesh tools are really helpful. I have also modeled a façade with them but I had to rotate the mesh previously with CloudCompare.

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I find useful for that inserting guide points with Scan Essentials. With those points you can make meshes with Toposhaper

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I use the Undet point cloud plugin for SketchUp. It’s pretty expensive (it costs more than SketchUp) but its incredible software and you can trial it for free.

There are plenty of instructional videos on YouTube. This is an early one which includes details for ground surface capture:

You can get a free trial at undet.com

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What is your end goal. I often model buildings from point clouds then outsource to get photo realistic renders. My source uses the original point cloud together with my SketchUp model and some site photographs to produce stunning images.

example 1
example 11920×1600 291 KB

example 2
example 21920×1651 223 KB

Visual
Visual1920×2243 444 KB

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Thank you Eric,

I had not seen that before. I pickup up a few new tricks watching Tyson’s workflow.

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Holy Toledo! This looks like exactly like what I was looking for. I don’t work with a ton of scans, so had missed this new feature. Will give it a try shortly.

Thanks Mike.

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Thanks Rafael,

That sounds like a promising technique as well.

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I tried Undet before Scan Essentials became available. Being that I only work with a few scans a year, the extra cost of Undet seemed a bit high, but I acknowledge that it was pretty useful.

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Hey Kevin,

Those are some very nice renderings.

My purpose would be to get moderately detailed and accurate site data of existing conditions so I can easily design to and modify the building, terrain, and landscaping as needed.

I like point cloud scans because they accurately capture everything within the scanned area. I can then combine this with a surveyors 3D drawings to get a really accurate representation of all existing conditions. I believe in the motto, garbage in garbage out. Starting with thorough and accurate information helps avoid costly surprises and changes during construction.

Of course the trick is how to take the massive amount of data available from the point cloud and get a clean and efficiently modeled mesh that accurately represents the existing conditions, while maintaining as low a poly count as reasonable.

Once I have this for my Construction Documents, I can then add the extras for decent looking renderings.

Thanks,
Chris

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