CloudCompare forum

Hi everyone,

I’m a new user to CC — currently self teaching via CC’s online YouTube channel — it’s helping a lot!

I’m wondering if anyone can guide me in the right direction about how to measure the slope of part of a surface on a 3-D object in CC?

I’m working with a point cloud containing about 960,000 points.

I’d be very grateful for any suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

Ricky

It depends on how you define the 'slope', but I would see two options:
- compute the normals (if the cloud doesn't have any) and use the 'Edit > Normals > Convert to > Dip/dip direction SFs'. This will create two scalar fields, one of which with the 'dip' values which are the inclination (between 0 and 90 degrees - see the geological definition of it). Mind that the vertical must be +Z.
- segment the part of the cloud, then fit a plane on it (Tools > Fit > Plane). You will be able to read the dip and dip direction of this plane, but you will also have the plane normal vector (which you might use to compute the slope in a different way than the dip direction).