CFD Online Logo CFD Online URL
www.cfd-online.com
[Sponsors]
Home > Forums > Software User Forums > OpenFOAM > OpenFOAM Meshing & Mesh Conversion

[mesh manipulation] Generating Mesh from LiDAR data (PointCloud or Surface)

Register Blogs Community New Posts Updated Threads Search

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old   January 15, 2012, 18:28
Default Generating Mesh from LiDAR data (PointCloud or Surface)
  #1
New Member
 
Ken Mankoff
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 7
Rep Power: 16
mankoff is on a distinguished road
Hi,

I'm fairly new to OpenFOAM and just beginning to make my own experiments and meshes. I have data collected with a LiDAR that is in pointcloud format (PLY, PCD). I can convert it easily to a gridded format using the opensource Points2Grid tool. I would like to be able to use this as one wall of my simulation. It does not seem that there is much overlap between the LiDAR and CFD. Has anyone done something similar, or have pointers or know of tools that can take a pointcloud and generate a mesh from it?

Thanks,

-k.
mankoff is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 1, 2012, 10:53
Default
  #2
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 45
Rep Power: 15
ic3wall is on a distinguished road
What do you want to do exactly ?

You have coordinates in space corresponding to the points where your Lidar is taking measurements ? And you want to create a mesh from this ?

its not clear ..
ic3wall is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 1, 2012, 10:58
Default
  #3
New Member
 
Ken Mankoff
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 7
Rep Power: 16
mankoff is on a distinguished road
Correct. I have (x,y,z) triplets in space from LiDAR. I'd like to create a mesh from this.
mankoff is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 1, 2012, 11:07
Default
  #4
Super Moderator
 
niklas's Avatar
 
Niklas Nordin
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Posts: 693
Rep Power: 29
niklas will become famous soon enoughniklas will become famous soon enough
if you can convert it to an STL it sounds pretty similar as the snakeriver tutorial.
niklas is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 1, 2012, 11:10
Default
  #5
New Member
 
Ken Mankoff
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 7
Rep Power: 16
mankoff is on a distinguished road
Yes. Any suggestions on free tools that convert point clouds to STL?
mankoff is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 1, 2012, 11:33
Default
  #6
ngj
Senior Member
 
Niels Gjoel Jacobsen
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Posts: 1,902
Rep Power: 37
ngj will become famous soon enoughngj will become famous soon enough
Hi

You could try to find a delaunay-triangulation tool. Having the triangles you should be able to write the STL yourself. With a delaunay-triangulation you will also have the best estimate of the surface between the measured points.

I believe matlab uses/used qhull, which is an open-source delaunay bundle.

Best regards,

Niels
ngj is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 1, 2012, 12:24
Default
  #7
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 45
Rep Power: 15
ic3wall is on a distinguished road
Quote:
Originally Posted by mankoff View Post
Correct. I have (x,y,z) triplets in space from LiDAR. I'd like to create a mesh from this.
For converting xyz coords to STL, you can use global mapper, very convenient.

Why don't you create a mesh around these points, a cube for example, and then refine ?

Do you have the topography ?
ic3wall is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 1, 2012, 13:41
Default
  #8
New Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 27
Rep Power: 17
dshawul is on a distinguished road
If you can't find a better tool, there are MATLAB scripts in the web that you can use to convert point data into stl format.
dshawul is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 2, 2012, 06:14
Default
  #9
Senior Member
 
Elvis
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Sindelfingen, Germany
Posts: 620
Blog Entries: 6
Rep Power: 24
elvis will become famous soon enough
Hi,

A Synthetic LiDAR Scanner for VTK http://www.kitware.com/products/html...nerForVTK.html
A Leica PTX Reader for VTK http://www.midasjournal.org/download/viewpdf/712/2

I guess that VTK is your friend
elvis is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 2, 2012, 07:09
Default
  #10
Senior Member
 
BastiL
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 530
Rep Power: 20
bastil is on a distinguished road
Quote:
Originally Posted by niklas View Post
the snakeriver tutorial.
What the hell is the snakeriver tutorial?
bastil is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 2, 2012, 08:10
Default
  #11
Senior Member
 
Elvis
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Sindelfingen, Germany
Posts: 620
Blog Entries: 6
Rep Power: 24
elvis will become famous soon enough
snakeriver tutorial is a terrain meshing example
elvis is offline   Reply With Quote

Reply

Tags
lidar, mesh conversion


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
[OpenFOAM] How to get the coordinates of velocity data at all cells and at all times vidyadhar ParaView 9 May 20, 2020 21:06
[snappyHexMesh] Layers:problem with curvature giulio.topazio OpenFOAM Meshing & Mesh Conversion 10 August 22, 2012 10:03
Doxygen documentation Tanay OpenFOAM Installation 9 September 23, 2011 12:40
Interpolating volume data onto quad surface mesh N.R. CFX 6 June 7, 2007 09:15
How to update polyPatchbs localPoints liu OpenFOAM Running, Solving & CFD 6 December 30, 2005 18:27


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 14:08.