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What to do with a point cloud in Onshape?

martin_kopplowmartin_kopplow Member Posts: 281 ✭✭✭
in General
I have a scanned point cloud of a part that defines the available space for a design. It is has beeen made available as pure point cloud and also as a mesh. I'd now use the scanned data as a general refenence object and maybe create the most important portions of it as precise surfaces, so I can use that for e.g. assembly instruction drawings.

I found neither tools nor apps or any recent information documented for this, so my question is: What is the recommanded method of dealing with scanned models in OS?

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    NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,408
    Onshape will import meshes only (stl, 3mf, obj, gltf, Parasolid mesh) into a Part Studio for reference only, however they can be used in a mixed mesh modeling workflow. See first video here: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/18162/improvements-to-onshape-april-25th-2022/p1 

    Meshes should be decimated if they are too large though, with Meshlab or MeshMixer or similar.
    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
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    afalzate13afalzate13 Member Posts: 25 ✭✭
    @martin_kopplow Converting point clouds to a CAD model can be a bit of a tedious artform but can be successfully done using a series of methods. For example: to define organic surfaces using points, you can use the "3D fit spline" and "Fill" tools to define a surface. The best method is to try and create surfaces with a rectangular boundary where the 4 outer splines define the Filled region and you can use edge to edge splines in between as "guides" to define the topology of the surface within the region. You can also select three points to create planes and draw sketches on those surfaces to define flat shapes. When you create a completely enclosed series of surfaces it will transform into a part. Feel free to share a decimated point cloud like @NeilCooke mentioned to show an example of how this method can be put into practice. 
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