Point Cloud I/O

Changelog

[0.5.1] – 2026-06-01

Fixed

• Tagline shortened to fit Blender Extensions' 64-character limit. The v0.5.0 tagline ("Import and export E57, PLY, LAS, LAZ, PCD, XYZ and PTS point cloud files", 71 chars) was rejected on upload; the manifest now reads "Import and export E57, PLY, LAS, LAZ, PCD, XYZ, PTS files" (57 chars). No code changes.

[0.5.0] – 2026-06-01

Added

• PTS import via File > Import > PTS Point Cloud (.pts).
  • Reads the Leica Cyclone text format: integer count header line, then one point per line.
  • Auto-detects the column layout from row width — 3 (x y z), 4 (+ intensity), 6 (+ rgb), or 7 (+ intensity + rgb, Leica canonical).
  • Intensity is normalised to 0–1; RGB auto-detects 0–255 vs 0–1.
• PTS export via File > Export > PTS Point Cloud (.pts).
  • Writes the count header followed by x y z [intensity] [r g b] rows.
  • Intensity is scaled back to the 0–2047 Leica integer range; RGB written as uint8 0–255.
  • Independent Write Intensity / Write Colors tickboxes.
• Pure-Python + numpy implementation — no new wheel dependencies.

Changelog

Added

• PCD import via File > Import > PCD Point Cloud (.pcd).
  • Reads positions, packed RGB / RGBA (PCL float-packed convention), normals (normal_x/y/z), intensity, and other per-point scalar fields as point attributes.
  • Supports ascii and binary DATA modes. binary_compressed (LZF) raises a clear "convert first" error rather than failing silently.
• PCD export via File > Export > PCD Point Cloud (.pcd).
  • Writes a single unordered cloud (HEIGHT = 1) with x y z + optional normal_x/y/z, packed rgb, and intensity.
  • Binary by default; ASCII tickbox for debugging.
• PCD binary_compressed (LZF) read and write support. A pure-Python LZF codec (formats/_lzf.py) handles both decompression on read and compression on write — no new wheels. The PCD exporter's previous ASCII tickbox is replaced with a Data Mode dropdown: Binary (default) / Binary Compressed (LZF) / ASCII.
• XYZ import via File > Import > XYZ Point Cloud (.xyz, .txt, .csv).
  • Plain text with no header; column layout inferred from column count (3 / 4 / 6 / 7 / 9 columns recognised; anything else becomes opaque extra_* FLOAT attributes).
  • Auto-detects comma vs whitespace separator; skips #-prefixed comment lines.
• XYZ export via File > Export > XYZ Point Cloud (.xyz).
  • ASCII output. Independent tickboxes for intensity, RGB, and normals.

Bundled wheels

• No new wheels — both PCD and XYZ readers/writers are pure-Python + numpy.

Fixed

• NaN-positioned points are dropped on import (_common.build_point_cloud). PCL convention is that depth-camera pixels with invalid range get NaN coordinates; one of those slipping into the bbox computation poisoned suggest_radius (which then returned NaN), so the radius shown in the N-panel was NaN and the cloud rendered invisibly. Triggered most visibly by office1.pcd and other organized RGB-D PCDs.
• suggest_radius is now NaN-safe as a defense-in-depth — strays in scenes created by other paths (Geometry Nodes, scripts) no longer break the panel's Auto button either.

Changelog

Initial release.

Added

• E57 import via File > Import > E57 Point Cloud (.e57).
  • Imports positions, colors, normals, and intensity as point attributes.
  • Filters out points flagged by cartesianInvalidState.
  • Optional global scale, initial point radius, and a "Merge Scans" toggle.
  • Auto-generates a Principled BSDF material wired to color or normal attributes.
• E57 export via File > Export > E57 Point Cloud (.e57).
  • Writes one scan per selected PointCloud object.
  • Optional Apply Modifiers (depsgraph evaluation) and Apply Transforms.
  • Colors written as RGB uint8, intensity as float.
  • Lists non-PointCloud objects that will be skipped before writing.
• 3D Viewport sidebar panel (N → Point Cloud tab).
  • Shows point count and present attributes.
  • Numeric point-radius field plus a logarithmic slider for smooth scaling across orders of magnitude.
  • Quick magnitude buttons: ÷10 / ÷2 / Auto / ×2 / ×10. The Auto button picks a radius from the cloud's bounding-box diagonal and density.
• Bundled pye57 0.4.19 and pyquaternion 0.9.9 cp313 wheels for macOS arm64, Linux x86_64, and Windows x86_64.