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Exporting different formats results in different coordinates

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2026 7:50 am
by c3kkos
I have a small slice taken out from a bigger point cloud ("X" tool) -nothing strange or exotic-

exporting ("SAVE") the object in .e57 AND .pts results in a different placement once the two files are opened again (regardless the SW used to open it. even Cloudcompare itself shows this behaviour, hence, the issue IS in the data)

i'll attach 2 images showing that.

The PTS position IS the correct one.

Having scalar fields, having global shifts and/or normals or other "extra" data does not affect this.

.pts is created with only the x,y,z values, comma separated. Values are in millimeters. here's a line:

37401.24218750,-4620.99169922,1456.31518555

Re: Exporting different formats results in different coordinates

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2026 8:16 am
by daniel
Can you test again with version the 2.14.beta version?

We have fixed a few things with regard to E57 files export, especially when the sensor pose is not 'direct' but has a mirrored axis.

Re: Exporting different formats results in different coordinates

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2026 8:55 am
by c3kkos
Done, no luck.

The .e57 is not aligned and it is also scaled down by 0.001.
Since .e57 is in binary format it is not possible for me to check where the scale is applied, either in the file's data or at import time

Re: Exporting different formats results in different coordinates

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2026 9:03 am
by daniel
Can you share the PTS file with me then? (admin@cloudcompare.org)

Re: Exporting different formats results in different coordinates

Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2026 9:23 am
by c3kkos
Sure!

I'll send ASAP. Thank you.

Re: Exporting different formats results in different coordinates

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2026 7:07 am
by daniel
So the cloud is interesting because it has large coordinates but also a quite large scale / extents. I realized that while the 'Global Shift & Scale' dialog was letting the user define a 'global scale', this value was never stored nor applied by the code in charge of loading files!

For now, I disabled the 'global scale' field, so as to avoid confusion. And when I load the PTS files and save them as E57 files, I end up with the same coordinates. Can you test on your side? (with the new 2.14.beta version online).

I still wonder how the scale of the cloud ended to be different for your E57 files, but I'll wait for your test results first.

Re: Exporting different formats results in different coordinates

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2026 7:12 am
by c3kkos
Ok, i'll test it quickly.

Can i use the link in homepage?

https://www.cloudcompare.org/release/Cl ... bin_x64.7z

? is it updated?

Re: Exporting different formats results in different coordinates

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2026 7:32 am
by daniel
Normally both the archive and the installer versions should be up-to-date.

Re: Exporting different formats results in different coordinates

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2026 7:36 am
by c3kkos
Ah! Again this error!

I think there's something CC "remembers" at .7z package creation (maybe the recents files list)

since i work onto a corporate notebook with limited permissions, if CC fires up trying to "probe" some paths i don't have permission to look into, i find myself in this deadlock situation

please note: the previous 2.14 .7z runs OK. I had this issue months ago, then it disappeared, and showed once again now

Re: Exporting different formats results in different coordinates

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2026 7:49 am
by daniel
Can you try after moving it to something like C:/Temp ?