Manual

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Point Cloud Basics

A point cloud is a set of data points in a coordinate system. In a three-dimensional

coordinate system, these points represent the external surface of an object and are

usually defined by X, Y, and Z coordinates.

There are five essential terms that are used to describe elements of a given point

cloud: vertices, edges, faces, polygons and surfaces.

Vertices

A vertex is a position. It includes additional

information such as color, normal vector, and texture

coordinates.

Edges

A connection (i.e. a line) between two vertices is an

edge.

Faces

A face is a closed set of edges. It can be categorized as

a triangle face (three edges) or a quad face (four

edges).

Polygons

If a collection of faces all exist on a single geometric

plane, this one collection of faces is labeled as a

polygon.

Note: Polygons and faces are equivalent in software platforms that

support multi-sided faces. However, most rendering systems

support only 3- or 4-sided faces. So polygons are represented as

multiple faces.

Surfaces

Surfaces connect neighbouring polygons together.

Also called smoothing groups.

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