I have a couple scans from different job sites as RCP files. I believe they have all been scanned with a VARO scanner, or at least been aligned in VARO. E57 files exported from Autodesk ReCap don’t load anything into Reality Capture, but load just fine in Cloud Compare. There is a TLS/GBL point in all of my e57 files so I’m assuming they are structured point clouds. Unfortunately I don’t have any other software on my computer to process these scans further. A coworker recently exported a few e57 files from VARO to test with. They load into RC but have extremely sparse point clouds compared to Cloud Compare. In RC I can barely make out the pipes and bends, but CC shows the nuts and bolts in the pipe flanges. Is there something I’m missing? My goal is to use the scans and drone data we’ve been getting in the field for surveying and use it to create 3D for visualization in Maya and Unreal. I’m new to laser scans and point clouds in general, so thank you for your patience with me.
Hi Josiah, exports from ReCap should work just fine. We used them ourselves in the past and still do from time to time. Make sure on export you use the Complete option when exporting the E57.
After the import, the viewport will be empty, that is normal. You have to press Align to visualize the laser scans in the viewport.
And yes, the viewport will only show a sparse representation of the laser scan, but don’t worry—all the data will be used when you start model reconstruction.
Sparse point cloud:
Reconstructed model:
Let me know how it worked out for you with the E57 data.
Have a great day!