What kind of lidar (scan dots) data Blender could show?

I mean colored dots, clouds of laser scanned points . Is there a way to see it in Blender viewport and use as a guide for modelling?

I assume Blender could show it if converted to vertexes probably , so no colors , a total mess in 3dview pane etc. Is there a good way ?

Depends on the format… for example colored PLY:

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Thanks Okidoki . So I need this Metashape soft first, right? And what colored pointcloud formats does it read ?

It’s just an example how the poster has some data in some app and exported it as PLY… there are different formats ( i do not know all point cload data formats). So there is a way and uou may have to elaborate your usecase to get a more suited answer from whoever may use some similar format or the same data source you use.

This info on blender.stackexchange.com is not consistent with the add-ons in Blender 4.2, (probably because it is 2-1/2 years old :slight_smile: ) … there is no import_ply.py that was installed with the application. Its possible that the functionality is now integrated and does not require an add-on.

I did test importing some PLYs that I exported from Metashape as point clouds with vertex color and as meshes with vertex color (PLY format supports BOTH) but the color is not importing in either case.

It possible that by using Cloud Compare or Meshlab (both free), a colored point cloud might be exported in a way that will work in Blender but I would have to do more testing.

I was using binary format with PLY, so I might try using ASCII next just to see if that makes any difference, although it shouldn’t.

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Use Addon as a way to import point clouds into the blender

I think meshlab can be used to convert points into mesh. (open source)

https://www.meshlab.net/