Cannot read ply file

[TUMAAA]

This issue can happen although the ply file is perfectly normal. The error message also suggests that it might be a permission problem.
This problem can happen when the a "." is used as comma sperator and the used OS locale is one which considers "," as a comma seperator. Change the locale (/etc/default/locale) to "en_US.utf8" and it should solve the problem. Learned it from the Meshlab forum as I couldnt open a ply on either CC nor Meshlab.

[daniel]

Indeed, this comma/point issue is very bothersome...

CloudCompare forces Qt to use the 'English' locale on startup (so that the '.' is considered as decimal separator by default whatever the OS locale is). But it doesn't work for PLY files as they are loaded thanks to a third party library (which is not based on Qt)... at least this issue only occurs with ASCII ply files.

[asier]

Hi, I had the same problem, both in Ubuntu 14.04 and Windows 7. I changed the locale in Ubuntu, as TUMAA suggested, and it worked smoothly. However, I have not been able to solve it in windows. When I changed the region and language setup, but then CC would not start at all. I can I solve the issue? any hint?
By the way, I realize this is in "Developers<Linux related topics"...but I found better to follow the thread. Should I make the question in "Issues, bugs, etc." forum?
Thanks a lot.
Best regards,
Asier

[daniel]

Ok, I moved the topic.

And regarding why CC doesn't start if the system locale is modified, I don't know what to say (I never experienced this).

Wouldn't it be simpler to open the PLY file with Notepad++ and replace all ',' (commas) by '.' (points)?

[asier]

Didn't think off that...yes, it seems far easier...I just tried the solution suggested by TUMAAA.
But now, odd enough, the problem persists. I changed back Windows' region and language and tried to start Cloud Compare...after a moment with the sand clock on it simply disappears and nothing happens. I uninstalled CC and installed again. Same result. It seems that the uninstalling does leave something behind...
Any ideas?
thanks a lot!!
Asier

[daniel]

In fact I was already surprised when you said it was preventing CC to start the first time... I really don't see what could bother it as it doesn't load any (text) file or so.

Can you make a simple test: rename the 'plugins' folder to something else. This will prevent CC from loading the plugins, maybe the issue is due to one of them?

[asier]

Same result, nothing happens.
Next I did a new trial. I uninstalled, once again, and manually deleted the CloudCompare folder. I then reinstalled, and nothing changed.
I have checked the registry, in case there is something there that should be erased. After uninstalling CloudCompare I found it reported in any way in the following entries of the registry:

* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CCCorp\CloudCompare
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Direct3D\MostRecentApplication
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\Debug
* HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1035480331-887524524-709118497-1000\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Compatibility Assistant\Persisted\

Shall I delete them before trying to re-install?
Thanks
Asier

[daniel]

The only one created (and used) by CC is 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CCCorp\CloudCompare'. You can delete it without any problem.

[asier]

I deleted it and then reinstalled. This time it asked me to reboot, which I did, but it did not start. I then tried to directly run CloudCompare.exe (not from the desktop link, but from its folder) as an administrator. This time I got a Windows message, informing me about the crash and asking me to send the error information (three files). I attach two of the three files, in case they are useful. The third one is too big to attach it here; it is a mdmp file (which I don't know what means).
Best regards,
Asier

[daniel]

Nope, sadly it doesn't help me much... What graphic card have you by the way?