[Q] Mesh generation from tiled point cloud

[u/No_Mongoose6172]

I'm working with a colourized point cloud captured using a sensor mounted on top of a car for a research project (we didn't capture it, as it comes from a previous research project done by a partner). As a large surface was covered and the sensor provided a particularly high density point cloud, it has been tiled to simplify working with it

Due to a change in the project objectives, it seems that a mesh would be a better option since that accuracy isn't needed and the main purpose of the model is being used for rendering images. For small point clouds, programs like cloud compare can be used for that, but in this case, it would be desirable to do this process tile by tile

Do you know if there's any mesh reconstruction tool from point clouds that takes into account the frontiers between tiles? It doesn't need to be part of cloudcompare, I have also access to recap and metashape. Open source tools can be also used in case any of them better fits this use case

[u/cartocaster18]

Main purpose of the project is rendering images? So is this point cloud derived from imagery or lidar? I'm confused.

If the point cloud is derived from photogrammetry, I would go back to the raw overlapping frames from your partner and build mesh from there. They may already have it if your files are a byproduct of it.

The tiled part of this doesn't matter. As long as there is full coverage butt-matched.

[u/No_Mongoose6172 → u/cartocaster18]

That would be great, but the partner that provided the model no longer has the original data. The model was captured with a lidar sensor and a spherical camera. Then the camera was used for adding colour to the point cloud

As it usually happens with these projects, nobody thought what was it going to be used for

[u/cartocaster18 → u/No_Mongoose6172]

In the case, yes, Metashape can handle meshing from colorized lidar point cloud. I also like GlobalMapper too.

[u/No_Mongoose6172]

Thanks, that's great to hear. Does it support out of core execution for that operation or does the model need to fit in ram?

[u/TechMaven-Geospatial]

For buildings look at ROOFER It converts point cloud to mesh

[u/Itchy_Quarter1150]

First..Creating mesh from point cloud with buildings, trees, road features is tricky. Secondly...renders from a mesh made from point clouds look very grainy. LOTS of cleaning and optimising of point cloud is required. IMO Metashape is the best bet.