CloudCompare — The Complete Guide: Free Point Cloud and Laser Scan Processing

CloudCompare started as a research project for comparing point clouds and became the most widely used open-source tool for laser scans (LiDAR), terrestrial scanners and drone photogrammetry. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and handles clouds of tens and hundreds of millions of points.

CloudCompare

CloudCompare Project

Point cloud and laser scan processing — registration, cleaning, as-built comparison and measurement.

Get it from the vendor

What you can do in CloudCompare

Registration — aligning several scans to one another, by common points or with the ICP algorithm.
Comparison — cloud-to-cloud or cloud-to-mesh distance: checking deviations between as-built and design, or between two scans at different times.
Cleaning and filtering — noise removal, subsampling, cropping to a work area and classification.
Sections and measurements — sections along an axis, distances, angles and plane fitting.
Volumes — 2.5D volume between two surfaces, for example cut and fill or a stockpile.
Meshes — creating a surface (mesh) from a point cloud.

Common engineering uses

Checking deviations of an existing structure against design, monitoring movement of a slope or retaining wall between scans, earthwork quantities, and checking column plumbness and floor flatness. For conservation and renovation projects — an accurate basis for as-built drawings.

What's missing

There are no automatic tools for BIM modelling from a point cloud (scan-to-BIM), and the interface is aimed at professionals rather than beginners. Some commercial scanner formats need conversion. And huge clouds need a computer with a lot of memory.

Who it suits

Surveyors, civil and geotechnical engineers, conservation specialists, and anyone who receives drone or scanner data and wants to work with it without an expensive licence.

Companion tools

WebODM for producing point clouds and elevation models from drone images, MeshLab for mesh processing, and QGIS for working with the results on a map.