What is Point cloud?
A point cloud is a collection of points in 3D space, often millions of them, usually captured by a laser scanner, LiDAR sensor or photogrammetry software.
Each point has a position (X, Y, Z) and often a colour. Seen from afar, a dense point cloud looks like a solid object, but it has no surface: there are no faces connecting the points, just a cloud of dots.
Where point clouds come from
- Terrestrial laser scanners in surveying, construction and heritage
- LiDAR on drones, cars and recent iPhone and iPad Pro models
- Photogrammetry, as an intermediate step before meshing
From points to a mesh
To use a point cloud in most 3D software, it needs surface reconstruction. Poisson reconstruction (in tools like MeshLab and CloudCompare) is the classic method, producing a watertight mesh. The result is dense and usually needs cleanup and decimation.
Related ideas
Gaussian splatting can be thought of as a point cloud where every point is a soft, coloured blob, rendered directly without making a mesh at all.
Written with AI assistance and reviewed by the Renderlyst team. Corrections welcome at alishbakhalid766@gmail.com.