Point cloud

A point cloud is a set of points of a vector space that has a disorganized spatial structure. The points contained in a point cloud are each defined by their spatial coordinates, and they describe the point cloud. In the field of computer aided design, point clouds are used to read scanned design objects into CAD systems. In the case of complex shapes, a scale model is often produced for this purpose. This is then scanned using tactile or optical metrology scanners. The resulting three-dimensional geometry initially consists only of points in space, the point cloud. The data sets obtained can be read directly into some CAD programs, or with the aid of special software for reverse engineering. There is an enormous variety of different programs for processing three-dimensional point clouds generated by photogrammetric means. These programs generate point clouds from suitable photographs, in order to process these then to 3D models. Likewise this enormous software variety shows up with programs for the import of laser scanner data, which were won with point clouds. In this case, the acquired data is usually processed for 3D modeling.