VRMesh Tutorial
Point Cloud to Mesh Tutorial
Objective
Learn how to create a qualified polygonal model from point clouds. Use the Point Cloud to Mesh
function to triangulate point clouds. Use the Fill Hole and Unify Normal functions to repair
meshes. Use the Decimation and Smoothing functions to reduce the number of triangles and
increase the smoothness of meshes while keeping an accurate geometric shape. Introduce a few
mesh editing tools to fix irregular boundaries.
Import File
Click the Import command from the File menu or in the Quick Access Toolbar to import a
file into the current project. The imported file name is shown in the Object Tree Window.
Step 1: Point Cloud Processing
It may be necessary to clean up the point cloud data before triangulation. For example, use the
Denoise Point Cloud command to remove noise from point clouds. Use the Decimate Point
Cloud command to reduce the size of point clouds.
Step 2: Triangulate Point Clouds
Click the Point Cloud to Mesh command in the Point Clouds menu. Press the [Apply]
button in the Parameter Window to start the triangulation process.
Original point clouds Triangle meshes
Step 3: Repair Meshes
1. Extract floating parts
Click the Extract All Parts command in the Mesh Editing menu. Specify the Minimum
Triangles. The program removes all parts that contain fewer triangles than the defined
amount.
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2. Fill small holes
Click the Fill Holes command in the Mesh Repair menu. Specify the Hole Radius to
define the maximum area that a hole will be filled. Select the Simple mode to fill holes.
Please note that filling small holes before unifying normals is an important step to produce a
better result.
3. Unify normals
Click the Unify Normals command in the Mesh Repair menu. Select the Fix Errors
checkbox. The program will detect and delete ill-connected triangles while unifying the
normals.
4. Fill holes again
Click the Fill Holes command in the Mesh Repair menu. Adjust the value of Hole
Radius to fill remaining holes.
For big holes, you can fill them individually. First, click the Pick Boundary command
in the Surface Curve menu, and then click near a preferred hole to generate a boundary
curve. Second, click the Fill Boundary by Curvature command in the Mesh Repair
menu. The program fills the hole smoothly using the curvature-based method.
Step 4: Decimation
Click the Decimation command in the Mesh Editing menu. Select the Quadric type,
specify the Remaining Percentage, and press the [Apply] button to reduce the number of
triangles.
927,019 triangles Decimated 70% off
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Step 5: Smoothing
Click the Smoothing command in the Mesh Editing menu. Select the Remesh smoothing
type, specify the Smoothing Iteration at around 12, and press the [Apply] button to remove
noises from the meshes. Please note that the preservation of important surface features such as
sharp edges and corners is controlled by the Smoothing Weight parameter. This value defines
the degree of the smoothing for sharp edges.
Remesh smoothing
Step 6: Edit Meshes
VRMesh provides users comprehensive mesh editing tools. In this example, you will learn how to
fix an irregular boundary.
1. Align work plane. Click the Align Plane to Object command in the Transform menu.
Place three dots on the surface near the irregular boundary. Specify the Parallel type to place
the plane direction along the surface normal direction, and adjust the plane to align to Y-axis.
Press the [Apply] button to align the work plane.
2. Clip meshes. Click the Clip by Plane command in the Mesh Editing menu and press the
[Apply] button in the Parameter Window. The program clips the meshes along the normal
direction of the work plane.
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Y-axis
3. Create a boundary curve. Click the Pick Boundary command in the Surface Curve
menu. And then, click near the boundary to generate a boundary curve.
4. Extrude the boundary. Click the Extrude Boundary command in the Mesh Editing
menu. Select the Contour as the extrusion direction, specify the Extrusion Length, and
press the [Apply] button. The program extrudes the boundary along the specified normal
direction. The final model is shown below:
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