To Display and Stylize Point Clouds

Point cloud styles control the elements that define point cloud appearance in the drawing, including point size, color, LiDAR classification scheme, and display of the point cloud components.

Tutorial: Working with Point Cloud Styles

Modifying a Point Cloud Style

You can apply the LiDAR classification style settings to point data as well as other AutoCAD Civil 3D style settings to create a realistic view of the point cloud data.

1. Open the drawing that contains a point cloud object.
2. Select a point cloud or click Modify tab Ground Data panel Point Cloud Find.
3. Click Point Cloud tabModify panelPoint Cloud Properties drop-downEdit Point Cloud Style Find.
4. On the Information page of the Point Cloud Style dialog box, enter the style name and description.
5. On the Points page, modify the settings specific to point data, such as point size, colors, and elevation ranges.
   Note: To use the LiDAR point classification scheme, in the Color section, specify Classification as the value for the Assign Color By property.
6. On the Classification page, select the required LiDAR point classes, click and select a color to assign to the point class. You can also assign points of a specific classification to separate layers.
7. On the Display page, specify:
   • Point cloud view direction. Select Plan for 2D view display and Model for 3D view display.
   • Point cloud component display. Specify visibility settings and line properties.
   On the Summary page, review and, if required, modify the point cloud style settings.
8. Click Apply and OK.

   The model regenerates and displays with the new point cloud style settings.

Modifying Point Cloud Display-view Density

AutoCAD Civil 3D enables you to control the density of a point cloud object, that is the number of points displayed at once for all point clouds in the drawing view.

1. Select a point cloud or click Modify tab Ground Data panel Point Cloud Find.
2. On the Point Cloud tab, move the point density slider to increase or decrease the number of displayed points.
   Note: The displayed value is the percentage of 1.5 million points, which is the maximum number of points that can exist in a drawing, regardless of the number of point clouds in the drawing.
3. To ensure point clouds are regenerated automatically after any manipulation, select Auto Update.

For more information, see POINTCLOUDDENSITY and POINTCLOUDAUTOUPDATE in the AutoCAD User’s Guide.