point cloud to STL

I am new to openCascade and I m trying to convert a point cloud into a .STEP file format. I have realized that a point cloud cannot be converted directly into a STEP file. So I am trying to convert a point cloud into an STL file first and then proceed on to converting the STL into STEP.

 

Could you please help me to convert the point cloud into an STL file

Shing Liu's picture

Hellow Vishesh Chanana,

I think there are two ways to convert a point cloud to STEP file:

1. Convert the point cloud to BSpline surface, then save the BSpline surface to STEP;

2. Find the mesh for point cloud, this is the your way. Because there is only triangles in STL, so the STEP is the same.

Best Regards,

Shing Liu

P G's picture

Interesting tips, BTW in 1st way how does OCC support conversion of point cloud to b-spline surface ( single patch) ??

Also in 2nd way too how does OCC finds a mesh for a given point cloud ?

thanks and regards

PG

Shing Liu's picture

Hello PG,

The 1st way you can use the occ SSP algorithm(Surfaces From Scattered Points), see more details here: https://www.opencascade.com/content/surfaces-scattered-points

Or you can use the 3rd party library pcl: http://pointclouds.org/documentation/tutorials/bspline_fitting.php

The 2nd way is done when you use the 1st way to fitting a NURBS surface, then get the mesh of the NURBS surface.

Or you can use 3rd party library to get the mesh from point cloud directly, such as pcl: http://www.pointclouds.org/documentation/tutorials/greedy_projection.php#greedy-triangulation

CGAL: http://doc.cgal.org/Manual/3.5/doc_html/cgal_manual/Surface_reconstruction_points_3/Chapter_main.html

Best Regards,

Shing Liu