CloudCompare Release Notes (2013/03/10)

Dear CloudCompare enthusiasts,

A new version has been released. You'll find it here:

Windows

32 bits: installer or zip (you may have to install Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x86) to launch this version)

64 bits: installer or zip (you may have to install Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64) to launch this version)

Mac OS X:

go to asmaloney.com/software

Linux:

for ubuntu/debian packages go to launchpad.net/~romain.janvier

Sources:

the corresponding github tag is https://github.com/cloudcompare/trunk/releases/tag/v2.5.2

Many thanks to all our supporters who made donations on pledgie!

A new release before X-mas, with lots of new features:

CloudCompare now uses the GDAL library (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library - http://www.gdal.org/):

CC can now load dozens of standard 2D1/2 raster formats (Arc Grid, GeoTiff, etc.).
See the full list here: http://www.gdal.org/formats_list.html
Rasters are imported as clouds (X,Y plane) with height values (Z), RGB colors and/or other bands as scalar fields
While you can't save clouds directly as a raster, the 'Height Grid generation' tool now lets you export any cloud to a geotiff file (once rasterized) - see below

New tool: 'Edit > Scalar fields > Set SF as coordinate(s)'

allows the user to map a scalar field to one or several dimensions (X,Y or Z)
useful to convert a 2D raster with a scalar field (gray level, etc.) to a 2D1/2 point cloud

The 'Height grid generation' tool has been enhanced:

resampling mode: when selecting the 'min' or 'max height' projections, the user can now choose to 'resample' the original cloud instead of generating a regularly sampled cloud using the grid cell's centers (i.e. the tool will select one existing point per cell)

the tool can now export the resulting grid as a true multiband raster (geotiff)

menu entry renamed: "Tools > Projection > Rasterize (Height grid generation)"

It is now possible to compile CloudCompare with 64 bits floating point values (instead of 32 bits by default) for coordinates and/or scalars.

it doubles the memory consumption but it increases a lot the accuracy
moreover there's absolutely no loss of information when importing/exporting clouds with very big coordinates (however OpenGL still requires rather small coordinates for a proper display, therefore the 'shift on load' mechanism might still be necessary)
you'll have to compile CloudCompare yourself however ;)

New tool: 'Display > Adjust zoom'

let the user set the current window zoom either directly or by specifying a pixel size in the (implicit) units of the current entities.

New method: 'File > Close all'

to remove all loaded entities

New format: Autodesk FBX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBX)

only meshes are supported for now (warning: support for materials is planned but not ready yet)

New plugin: qSRA (Surface of Revolution Analysis)

for comparison between a point cloud and a surface of revolution
generates a map of deviations (with cylindrical or conical projection)
exports resulting map as an image, a textured mesh or a point cloud
can generate vertical and horizontal profiles in DXF format
see documentation here: http://www.danielgm.net/cc/doc/wiki/index.php5?title=PluginSRA (work in progress)

Other enhancements:

qPoissonRecon plugin is now based on the latest version of the PoissonRecon library (5.5)

see http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~misha/Code/PoissonRecon/Version5.5/ for more insight on the new version of this algorithm
please note that the fully parallel version (all available cores) is only enabled on the 32 bits version for now
new parameters dialog
input cloud colors can now be mapped on the resulting mesh (quick & dirty approach: simply assign to each mesh vertex the color of the nearest input point)

the 'Edit > Transformation' tool now offers 3 different ways to input a transformation:

classical 4x4 transformation matrix
rotation axis, rotation angle and translation vector
euler angles and translation vector

if you paste a transformation matrix copied from the console, the tool will now automatically remove the timetsamp (between square brackets)

Cloud-to-cloud distances with 'local models'

CC will now take the smallest distance between each point and either the local model or the nearest neighbor
(in order to avoid clearly erroneous distances due to badly shaped local models).

The 'facet' entity's normal vector can now be displayed or hidden via the facet properties

see 'Tools > Fit > 2D Polygon' to create a facet

BIN file loading/saving is now performed in a separate thread

a progress dialog is now displayed during loading/saving
multiple loading sessions can be done concurrently (use drag & drop on a 3D view - note: only interesting when loading files from different drives)
additional check addded to detect corrupted meshes

Global rescaling applying at loading time is now properly handled

works just like global shift
appears in the entity properties as well
dedicated menu entry (Edit > Edit global scale)

"Graphical Transformation" tool

pause button added to allow rotating/panning the 3D view
new keyboard shortcuts:

space bar = pause/unpause
return key = apply transformation (close the tool)
escape key = cancel transformation (close the tool)

"Graphical Segmentation" tool

new keyboard shortcuts:

space bar = pause/unpause
tab key = switch between polygonal and rectangular selection mode
'I' key = segment points inside
'O' key = segment points outside
return key = apply segmentation (close the tool)
delete key = apply segmentation and delete hidden points (close the tool)
escape key = cancel transformation (close the tool)

New types of entities can now be cloned:

polylines
facets

Max coordinate absolute value lowered (100.000 instead of 1.000.000) in order to avoid accuracy loss and display issues.

note that the user still has the choice to ignore CC's warnings

For the sake of consistency and clarity:

the 'Free scale parameter' option of the ICP registration dialog and the 'fixed scale' option of the Point-pair based alignment dialog are both renamed 'Adjust scale'
the 'Edit > Synchronize' tool is moved and renamed 'Tools > Registration > Match barycenters'
the ICP registration tool now issues the same textual report as the Point-pair based alignment tool

"Connected Components" tool:

the dialog now displays the size of the octree cell as the currently selected level
components are automatically 'selected' in order to clearly identify them without random colors (the 'random colors' checkbox is not selected by default anymore)
components are sorted by their size (starting from the biggest)

New command lines options (see http://www.danielgm.net/cc/doc/wiki/index.php5?title=CommandLine):

C2C_DIST: cloud to cloud distance computation
C2M_DIST: cloud to mesh distance computation
SAMPLE_MESH: to sample points on a mesh
FILTER_SF: to filter a cloud based on its scalar values
STAT_TEST: to apply the local statistical filter
MERGE_CLOUDS: to merge all loaded clouds

'Edit > Fuse' entry renamed 'Edit > Merge'

Bug fixes:

the 'dip' value (in "dip & dip direction" computation with e.g. the plane orientation tool) was inverted from the currently accepted definition (i.e. 0° for horizontal and 90° for vertical planes)
blank lines or commentaries were causing an infinite loop when importing ASCII files
primitives (sphere, cylinder, etc.) were not correctly loaded from BIN files (CC would crash when loading them)
sub-meshes' bounding boxes were not updated when a transformation was applied to their parent mesh or its associated vertices
at loading time when an entity was both too far and too big, the (optional) applied transformation to recenter and rescale the entity was wrong.
a call to the 'Zoom on selected entities' tool on entities not displayed in the active window would be ignored
the 'camera link' tool would sometimes make CC crash
CloudCompare can now recover from errors encountered in OBJ normals or texture coordinates (normals or textures are simply discarded)

You'll also find the new ccViewer versions here:

Windows

32 bits: zip (you may have to install Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x86) to launch this version)

64 bits: zip (you may have to install Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64) to launch this version)

Linux and Mac OS:

same as of CloudCompare (see above)

And last but not least, you can make donations to the project via 'Pledgie':

Enjoy,

CloudCompare Admin

PS: if you can't read properly this message, you can read it here: http://www.danielgm.net/cc/release/notes/20131219/cc_release_notes_20131219.html