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 basically place the tool in a space and then let it measure everything within visible range using laser beams and their travel times. This then creates a point cloud of surface points that can be used to model geometry in its accurate location.
Want to know more? Check out this Wikipedia article as a primer.
Video Tutorials
Setting up SketchUp and getting a sample point cloud:
In this video I show how you can get started: Getting the extension and downloading a sample point cloud set from my website.
Processing the point cloud in Trimble Realworks:
In this video I show how you can use Trimble Realworks to process a raw point cloud for use in SketchUp. This step is not necessary if you get a point cloud from someone who already processed it for you.
The Point Cloud Manager Dialog:
In this video I show how you can work with the Point Cloud Manager dialog in Scan Essentials. This allows you to control point cloud visibility, position, and classifications.
Using clipping boxes to select parts of the point cloud:
In this video I show how you can use clipping boxes to extract a portion of a larger point cloud to work on details.
Approaches for 3D modeling based on point clouds:
In this video I cover several 3D modeling approaches that you can use (often interchangeably) while working with point clouds.
The ground mesh tool:
In this video I show how you use the Ground Mesh tool to automatically generate a ground mesh terrain model from a point cloud.