This page specifies what is written into E57 for each export option, including the file-level header, Data3D structure, and Image2D attachments when present.

File-level header and common conventions

• Root structure: The E57 file root contains vectors named data3D (per-scan records) and images2D (optional image attachments). These vectors are populated per scan/image.
• Units:
  • Cartesian coordinates are in meters
  • Angles are in radians
  • Color channels use 8-bit limits
• Per-scan common metadata (Data3D):
  • description: human-readable string (generated by Autodesk ReCap)
  • guid: a unique identifier per scan
  • name: scan base name
  • sensorVendor: string provided by the source
  • pose: rigid body transform expressed as quaternion (rotation) and translation
  • acquisitionStart/acquisitionEnd: set to the export time
  • colorLimits: 0–255 for red, green, and blue
  • intensityLimits: declared per scan; 0–255 for unstructured and 3D point cloud + panorama image (all edits), 0–65535 for structured point cloud only (no edits)
  • hasNormals: present only when normals are available for the scan.
  • pointsSize: total number of points recorded for the scan.

Unstructured scans

ReCap exports unstructured scans only with the Data3D object.

Header information:

• formatName (string)
• guid (string)
• versionMajor and versionMinor (integers)
• creationDateTime

Data3D structure (vector):

• guid (string)

• name (string)

• description (string)

• sensorVendor (string)

• intensityLimits (structure):

  • intensityMaximum (integer)
  • intensityMinimum (integer)

• colorLimits (structure):

  • colorRedMaximum (integer)
  • colorRedMinimum (integer)
  • colorGreenMaximum (integer)
  • colorGreenMinimum (integer)
  • colorBlueMaximum (integer)
  • colorBlueMinimum (integer)

• pose (structure):

  • translation (structure):
    • x (float)
    • y (float)
    • z (float)
  • rotation (structure):
    • w (float)
    • x (float)
    • y (float)
    • z (float)

• acquisitionStart (structure):

  • dateTimeValue (float)
  • isAtomicClockReferenced (integer)

• acquisitionEnd (structure):

  • dateTimeValue (float)
  • isAtomicClockReferenced (integer)

• points (compressed vector):

  • cartesianX (float)
  • cartesianY (float)
  • cartesianZ (float)
  • colorRed (integer)
  • colorGreen (integer)
  • colorBlue (integer)
  • intensity (float)
  • normals (float)

XML sample:

Structured scans

ReCap provides 3 options for structured scan export:

• 3D point cloud only (all edits)
• Structured point cloud only (no edits)
• 3D point cloud + panorama image (all edits)

3D point cloud only (all edits) Option

ReCap converts structured dataset into unstructured and exports point cloud data only (Data3D). For the output structure, feel free to refer to Unstructured Scans section.

Structured point cloud only (no edits) Option

For this option, ReCap exports point cloud with structured information (index bounds) but without imagery representation included.

Main differences between structured and unstructured format are highlighted in bold text.

Header information:

• formatName (string)
• guid (string)
• versionMajor and versionMinor (integers)
• creationDateTime

Data3D structure (vector):

• guid (string)
• name (string)
• description (string)
• sensorVendor (string)
  • indexBounds (structure):
  • rowMinimum (integer)
  • rowMaximum (integer)
  • columnMinimum (integer)
  • columnMaximum (integer)
  • returnMinimum (integer)
  • returnMaximum (integer)
• sphericalBounds (structure)
  • rangeMinimum (float)
  • rangeMaximum (float)
  • elevationMinimum (float)
  • elevationMaximum (float)
  • azimuthStart (float)
  • azimuthEnd (float)
• intensityLimits (structure):
  • intensityMaximum (integer)
  • intensityMinimum (integer)
• colorLimits (structure):
  • colorRedMaximum (integer)
  • colorRedMinimum (integer)
  • colorGreenMaximum (integer)
  • colorGreenMinimum (integer)
  • colorBlueMaximum (integer)
  • colorBlueMinimum (integer)
• pose (structure):
  • translation (structure):
    • x (float)
    • y (float)
    • z (float)
  • rotation (structure):
    • w (float)
    • x (float)
    • y (float)
    • z (float)
• acquisitionStart (structure):
  • dateTimeValue (float)
  • isAtomicClockReferenced (integer)
• acquisitionEnd (structure):
  • dateTimeValue (float)
  • isAtomicClockReferenced (integer)
• pointGroupingSchemes (structure):
  • groupingByLine (structure):
    • idElementName (string)
    • groups (compressed vector)
• points (compressed vector):
  • rowIndex (integer)
  • columnIndex (integer)
  • colorRed (integer)
  • colorGreen (integer)
  • colorBlue (integer)
  • intensity (float)

XML sample:

3D point cloud + panorama image (all edits)

For this option, ReCap exports point cloud data and imagery representation of the scan.

Main differences between structured and unstructured format are highlighted in bold text.

Structure:

Header information:

• formatName (string)
• guid (string)
• versionMajor and versionMinor (integers)
• creationDateTime

Data3D structure (vector):

• guid (string)

• name (string)

• description (string)

• sensorVendor (string)

• sphericalBounds (structure)

  • rangeMinimum (float)
  • rangeMaximum (float)
  • elevationMinimum (float)
  • elevationMaximum (float)
  • azimuthStart (float)
  • azimuthEnd (float)

• intensityLimits (structure):

  • intensityMaximum (integer)
  • intensityMinimum (integer)

• colorLimits (structure):

  • colorRedMaximum (integer)
  • colorRedMinimum (integer)
  • colorGreenMaximum (integer)
  • colorGreenMinimum (integer)
  • colorBlueMaximum (integer)
  • colorBlueMinimum (integer)

• pose (structure):

  • translation (structure):
    • x (float)
    • y (float)
    • z (float)
  • rotation (structure):
    • w (float)
    • x (float)
    • y (float)
    • z (float)

• acquisitionStart (structure):

  • dateTimeValue (float)
  • isAtomicClockReferenced (integer)

• acquisitionEnd (structure):

  • dateTimeValue (float)
  • isAtomicClockReferenced (integer)

• points (compressed vector):

  • cartesianX (float)
  • cartesianY (float)
  • cartesianZ (float)
  • colorRed (integer)
  • colorGreen (integer)
  • colorBlue (integer)
  • intensity (float)
  • normals (float)

  Image2D structure (vector)

• guid (string)

• name (string)

• associatedData3DGuid (string)

• acquisitionDateTime (structure)

  • dateTimeValue (float)
  • isAtomicClockReferenced (integer)

• pose (structure):

  • translation (structure):
    • x (float)
    • y (float)
    • z (float)
  • rotation (structure):
    • w (float)
    • x (float)
    • y (float)
    • z (float)

• sphericalRepresentation (structure):

  • jpegImage (blob)
  • imageHeight (integer)
  • imageWidth (integer)
  • pixelHeight (float)
  • pixelWidth (float)

  XML sample: