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Look at a point cloud in 3D

Who can do this

Anyone who can read the project Your plan card and Compare all features show whether your plan includes the 3D view.

Open in GISweaver

Switch the map to 3D to see a point cloud and any elevation grid in relief, so you can see the ground and what stands on it.

  1. With a project open on the map, select 3D on the tool strip. The map shows the survey in relief.
  2. Drag to turn the view, and zoom with the mouse wheel or by pinching. The view follows your hand.

  3. To look from a fixed side, open Orientation on the tool strip and choose Isometric, Top, Front, Back, Left or Right. The view turns to that side.

    The 2D and 3D switch on the tool strip.The 2D and 3D switch on the tool strip. Dark theme.

  4. To turn the view slowly round the survey, choose Orbit site under Orientation, and choose its Orbit speed. Select Orbit site again to stop.

What happens next

The point cloud shows in its own colours. Select 2D to go back to the flat map: Point, Area and corridor review work only there.

If something goes wrong

  • 3D is greyed out: 3D needs a published elevation grid or point-cloud layer. This release has neither. The survey has no point cloud or elevation grid yet.
  • The status bar says 3D stopped while …, with Try again: select it. Why? shows what stopped it. If it offers Reload instead, reload the page.
  • The status bar says 3D graphics lost and offers Reload: reload the page to reopen 3D.
  • A point cloud's row in Layers says Part of … could not be downloaded, with Retry: select it to download the rest.

Details

What a point cloud is

A point cloud is a laser or photo survey made of millions of measured points. GISweaver takes it as a LAS or LAZ file (a COPC file is a LAZ) and draws it in 3D, together with any elevation grid.

Point clouds in the flat map

In 2D a point cloud's row in Layers says Drawn in 3D, with View in 3D, which switches to 3D for you. In its details, Zoom to layer frames that cloud.

Before anything is published

A LAS file added to a draft is drawn as its own point-cloud layer, named after the file, as soon as it is ready, so you can look at it in 3D before publishing.

The product words on this page are explained in the glossary.

Next: Preview a PDF or a photo