CloudCompare forum

Hi,

i am new to cloud compare and i was wondering if i could get some help. For a project i need to subtract 2 scans of the same object and compute the volume of the difference. So both scans are of the same object. But the second scan has got a dent in it. So if i subtract the 2 scans it should leave me with just the dent. And i then need to calculate the dent's volume and depth. Currently the scans are exported as obj files (from a 3d structured light scanner) and imported into cloud compare.

But is cloud compare the right tool for this? Subtracting the 2 objects doesn't seem to give the desired result at this moment. I have some test files, but due to the nature of this project i can't post the public here.

Regards,

Per

CloudCompare prefers to work with point clouds as it's not really a 'Mesh' tool.

There's a boolean operation plugin that works on meshes (qCork) but it's meant to be used on closed meshes. And the meshes have to be very clean otherwise it will fail. I believe Blender does it quite well also. And you may try 'Meshmixer'.

With CloudCompare the alternative is to use the '2.5D Volume' computation tool (if it's suitable for your scans: http://www.cloudcompare.org/doc/wiki/in ... .5D_Volume). But you'll have to use it either on the meshes vertices (if they are dense enough) or you can also sample a lot of points on the meshes (with Edit > Mesh > Sample).

Don't hesitate to send me the scans (to cloudcompare [at] danielgm.net) if you need some more accurate directions.