Point Cloud Modeling in SketchUp with Scan Essentials – a Thorough Introduction

Point Cloud Modeling in SketchUp with Scan Essentials – a Thorough Introduction

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
Although I had recorded some introductory videos about point cloud modeling with Scan Essentials in SketchUp that are included at the end of this playlist, those didn't go into sufficient detail on a bunch of the features. Based on my presentation "From Points to Polygons" at the recent 2024 3D Basecamp, I decided to rectify that shortcoming and produce a set of videos that introduce Trimble's Scan Essentials extension and present various workflows that can be used with this tool. Those videos are included below and in the aforementioned playlist. As I mention in the videos, you can download a sample point cloud from this site if you want to try this out for yourself. Let me know in the comments if this is helpful for you and if there are any other topics that you would like covered. What are Point Clouds? Point clouds are created using either laser/LIDAR scanners like Trimble's X9 or photogrammetry. If you use a laser scanner, then you...
Read More
Floor Flatness Check in SketchUp with Point Clouds

Floor Flatness Check in SketchUp with Point Clouds

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
As I covered in last week's post, Trimble recently released a new point cloud extension for SketchUp, Trimble Scan Essentials For SketchUp. In today's post and video, I am using this tool to perform some analysis with the same 3D point cloud data that I introduced earlier (a scan of our classroom). I am basically checking how level the floor in our classroom really is by using what is aptly called a "floor flatness analysis". This approach is useful to verify any concrete work, especially if tolerances were defined in the specs. As you may have guessed already - our classroom's floor is not overly flat at all in some areas. My solution uses the extension's Inspection Map feature and simply compares the floor scan's points to a planar reference surface. This then results in a color-coded map that nicely illustrates where the ridges and valleys are. You can even label individual points and produce well-documented reports from this. Of course, the...
Read More
Point Clouds in SketchUp – Much Improved!

Point Clouds in SketchUp – Much Improved!

by Alex SchreyerNo Comments
The new Scan Essentials extension in SketchUp A few days ago, the Trimble folks announced the release of a new point cloud extension for SketchUp, Trimble Scan Essentials For SketchUp. This came on the heels of their release of version 2020.1 of SketchUp Pro. And if you asked me, being able to easily work with point clouds in SketchUp is absolutely the most exciting feature of this year's release cycle! TIP:Never heard of point clouds? Check out this Wikipedia article as a primer. Up until recently, Trimble produced the Scan Explorer extension for SketchUp that allowed you to load a point cloud and extract construction points, planes, etc. into the 3D model. The workflow was a bit clunky in that the cloud would never load into the modeling environment but remained in the viewer dialog. This is now much improved in this new extension. I should mention at this point that there are also other LIDAR and point cloud extensions for SketchUp, most notably...
Read More