Aligning very large scans?

[lmp215]

Hi there, I am trying to align two point clouds of underground mine workings so I can compare them. I have uploaded the both into CloudCompare, however, can not get them to align as they are very big clouds and quite far away from each other so the alignment tools (picking points and transform/rotate) won't work as I can't see the clouds properly! They're just tiny points! Has anyone had this problem and can anyone offer any tips? Cheers, LMP

[daniel]

If your clouds are very far appart, just select both of them then call 'Edit > Synchronize'. It will make both centers of mass coincide.

Then you'll be able to roughly register both clouds manually, and eventually apply fine registration.