make_pnts — Creates a "pnts" (i.e. point cloud) primitive by importing coordinate data (in ascii format) from a file.
make_pnts {ObjectName} {FileName} {FileDataFormat} {[ Units | ConversionFactor ]} {DefaultPointSize}
Creates a "pnts" primitive by importing, from a file, coordinate data and optionally color, normal or point-size data. Data must be in text (i.e. ascii) format but the data file does not need to contain only text. Any byte value in the data file not representing one of the ascii characters "0123456789.+-eE" will be considered a delimiter. This includes carriage-returns, line-feeds, commas, spaces and non-printable characters. Consecutive delimiters are treated as one delimiter. Text files can be used from Windows or Unix systems without conversion. Numerical values can be listed in any order but ordering must be consistent. Numerical values can optionally be ignored.
ObjectNameName of the 'pnts' primitive to be created.
FileNameThe path and filename of the data file.
FileDataFormat {xyz}[rgb][s][ijk][?]The file data format represents the order of numerical data within the data file. The "xyz" represent the x, y, z coordinates of a point. The "rgb" represents the color of a point in (red, green, blue) format. Color values must be in the range (0-255). The "ijk" represents the x, y, z values of a point-normal. The "s" represents the size of the point. The "?" indicates the numerical value is ignored. The file data format can contain any ordering of characters "xyzrgbsijk?". The format must always contain "xyz". Although any ordering is allowed, sets of characters must be used. The optional sets are "rgb" and "ijk". If any character from a set is used, then all characters from the set must be used.
Units, ConversionFactorIf a numerical value is specified for this parameter, it is assumed to be a conversion factor from the units of the point data to millimeters. Any non-numerical value will be assumed to be a standard BRL-CAD unit string, such as one of the following "um, mm, cm, m, km, in, ft, yd, mi".
DefaultPointSizeThe default point size. This is used if the point size is not included in the data file.
Example 1. Create basic point cloud
mged> make_pnts cloud1.s /home/user/cloud1_data.txt xyz mm 1.0
Creates a "pnts" primitive named "cloud1.s" using the data file "/home/user/cloud1_data.txt" where the data file only contains the point coordinates listed in the order "xyz". The units of the file data is "mm" and the default point size is set to "1.0".
Example 2. Create basic point cloud from data file with reversed coordinate ordering
mged> make_pnts cloud1.s /home/user/cloud1_data.txt zyx in 1.0
Creates a "pnts" primitive named "cloud1.s" using the data file "/home/user/cloud1_data.txt" where the data file only contains the point coordinates listed in the order "zyx". The units of the file data is "in" and the default point size is set to "1.0".
Example 3. Create point cloud with color
mged> make_pnts cloud1.s /home/user/cloud1_data.txt xyzrgb 2 1.0
Creates a "pnts" primitive named "cloud1.s" using the data file "/home/user/cloud1_data.txt" which contains point and point-color data. The data for each point in the file is ordered as "xyz" followed by "rgb". An arbitrary conversion factor of "2" is used and the default point size is set to "1.0".
Example 4. Create point cloud with color and normals
mged> make_pnts cloud1.s /home/user/cloud1_data.txt xyzrgbijk m 1.0
Creates a "pnts" primitive named "cloud1.s" using the data file "/home/user/cloud1_data.txt" which contains point, point-color and point-normal data. The data for each point in the file is ordered as "xyz" followed by "rgb" then "ijk". The units of the file data is "m" and the default point size is set to "1.0".
Example 5. Create point cloud with only normals from data file containing normals and colors
mged> make_pnts cloud1.s /home/user/cloud1_data.txt xyz???ijk cm 1.0
Creates a "pnts" primitive named "cloud1.s" using the data file "/home/user/cloud1_data.txt" which contains point, point-color and point-normal data. In this case we want to ignore the point-color data. The data for each point in the file is ordered as "xyz" followed by "rgb" then "ijk". In the file data format we use "xyz???ijk" to indicate we want to ignore the three numerical values following the point coordinates and then use the point-normal data. The units of the file data is "cm" and the default point size is set to "1.0".
Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic
mail to <devs@brlcad.org>