Blender 3.1 Alpha (and later) PLY importer that correctly loads point clouds (and all PLY models as point clouds)

Overview

import-ply-as-verts

Blender 3.1 Alpha (and later) PLY importer that correctly loads point clouds (and all PLY models as point clouds)

Latest News

  • Mandelbulb3D - Recommended to use v1.99 for now. The BTracer2 module in v1.99.32 isn't compatible with the importer yet but it's an easy patch, will be fixed asap.
  • Updated .blend files to remove a HDRI I forgot was attached :) Also have both Cycles and Eevee versions.

Until I get the script correctly packaged as an addon, it will be necessary to replace the stock import module with the new one. See the Install.pdf file for more detail.

The stock PLY importer that ships with Blender was never intended for vertex-colored point clouds (ie, PLY files with zero edges and faces). Most of my fun math graphics are point clouds from Mandelbulb3D, J-Wildfire, and photogrammetry scans gone horribly wrong. Until now, getting these clouds into Blender has involved a great deal of heavy lifting. Since 2017 I have been developing a standalone app for this but with the recent functionality added in Blender 3.1 Alpha and newer, I happily abandon my project to throw full energy into the beauty of Geo Nodes.

I was able to sleuth out why the importer didn't work. For the technically minded, the issue was that the Vertex Color Data Block in Blender is intimately tied to Faces. One cannot exist without the other. However, the color data was still being read in. The tricky part was spending many quality hours with bpy.data. to ultimately find a useful data structure for said color data. Finally, a Custom Attribute was the answer!

And now instead of endlessly coding ON point clouds, we all get to PLAY with point clouds.

And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! He chortled in his joy.

Lewis Carroll, 'The Jabberwocky'

Demo Video: https://youtu.be/-OMV2LrTwVw

Node_Setup-03

Changelog:

  • Feb 5, 2022 - v1.01 patched to allow for certain J-Wildfire formulas that add extraneous data to the PLY file during export.
Comments
  • Colors problem

    Colors problem

    Hi! I've tryed writing on the youtube video but seems the commet are disappeared.

    The problem I was asking is that i can't get the color attribute to the points, I've defined the shader with the "attribute" "Col" as base color, and then the geometry node both with instance or mesh to points, but the points still has no colors

    May I ask for help? Thanks :) Cattura

    opened by Tonysa87 4
  • J-Wildfire Extraneous Data in PLY File

    J-Wildfire Extraneous Data in PLY File

    Certain JWF formulas will place additional nonstandard property fields into the PLY file when exporting. This was reported by Brad Stefanov on Feb 4 2022 and replicated on my end. Patched in v1.01, will revisit for more comprehensive solution.

    Feb 5, 2022 -MAP

    opened by TombstoneTumbleweedArt 0
  • Emission column after colors? (or just extra column in general)

    Emission column after colors? (or just extra column in general)

    I've been working on a ply writer for some particle simulation data which can map one attribute to RGB, another to alpha, and a third to emission. With very little coding experience myself, I've been working on a personal set of edits to this reader for an additional column but I figure this may be something useful to others as well, hence why I bring it as a suggestion here.

    opened by beanachew 0
  • does it change coordinates?

    does it change coordinates?

    Hello,

    Thanks for such nice tool.

    I have some problem when import the pointcloud as it seems it modifies the coordinates while importing. In the image, you can see that in blender (left) the two models do not overlap as they should. When open the models on meshlab it does work (right image). Is this a problem that can be solved?

    Screenshot from 2022-07-21 10-28-11

    Best, Bryan

    opened by bgpantojar 8
  • Auto generate geometry nodes and basic material

    Auto generate geometry nodes and basic material

    Hi, thanks for creating this updated ply importer! I wrote something that creates a material and geometry node tree:

    import bpy
    
    mat_name = "pointcloud"
    materials = bpy.data.materials    
    if materials.get(mat_name) is None: 
        print("creating pointcloud material")   
        mat = materials.new(mat_name)
        mat.use_nodes = True
        materialtree = mat.node_tree.nodes
        materialtree.remove(materialtree.get("Principled BSDF"))
        materialtree.remove(materialtree.get("Material Output"))
        
        attributenode = materialtree.new(type="ShaderNodeAttribute")
        attributenode.attribute_name="Col"
        outputnode = materialtree.new(type="ShaderNodeOutputMaterial")
        pbrnode = materialtree.new(type="ShaderNodeBsdfPrincipled")
        mat.node_tree.links.new(attributenode.outputs[0],pbrnode.inputs[0])
        mat.node_tree.links.new(pbrnode.outputs[0],outputnode.inputs[0])
    mat = materials.get(mat_name)
    
    #import object
    bpy.ops.import_mesh.ply(filepath=r"C:\Users\User\Desktop\file.ply")
    importedObject = bpy.context.active_object
    #create geometry node tree
    bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='NODES')
    nodeTree = bpy.context.active_object.modifiers[0].node_group
    
    cubenode = nodeTree.nodes.new(type="GeometryNodeMeshCube")
    CubeSize = 0.001
    cubenode.inputs[0].default_value[0] = CubeSize
    cubenode.inputs[0].default_value[1] = CubeSize
    cubenode.inputs[0].default_value[2] = CubeSize
    
    instancenode = nodeTree.nodes.new(type="GeometryNodeInstanceOnPoints")
    materialnode = nodeTree.nodes.new(type="GeometryNodeSetMaterial")
    materialnode.inputs[2].default_value = mat
    shadenode = nodeTree.nodes.new(type="GeometryNodeSetShadeSmooth")
    realizenode = nodeTree.nodes.new(type="GeometryNodeRealizeInstances")
    geonode = nodeTree.nodes[0]
    outnode = nodeTree.nodes[1]
    
    nodeTree.links.new( geonode.outputs['Geometry'] , instancenode.inputs['Points'])
    nodeTree.links.new( cubenode.outputs['Mesh'], shadenode.inputs['Geometry'])
    nodeTree.links.new( shadenode.outputs['Geometry'], materialnode.inputs['Geometry'])
    nodeTree.links.new( materialnode.outputs['Geometry'], instancenode.inputs['Instance'])
    nodeTree.links.new( instancenode.outputs['Instances'], realizenode.inputs['Geometry'])
    nodeTree.links.new( realizenode.outputs['Geometry'], outnode.inputs['Geometry'])
    
    
    opened by RH2 1
Releases(v2.1)
Owner
Michael Prostka
Michael Prostka
Collection of script & resources for Foundry's Nuke software.

Author: Liam Collod. Collections of scripting stuff I wrote for Foundry's Nuke software. Utilisation You can have a look at the README.md file in each

Liam Collod 1 May 14, 2022
Project for viewing the cheapest flight deals from Netherlands to other countries.

Flight_Deals_AMS Project for viewing the cheapest flight deals from Netherlands to other countries.

2 Dec 17, 2022
VirtualBox Power Driver for MAAS (Metal as a Service)

vboxpower VirtualBox Power Driver for MAAS (Metal as a Service) A way to manage the power of VirtualBox virtual machines via the MAAS webhook driver.

Saeid Bostandoust 131 Dec 17, 2022
PressurePlate is a multi-agent environment that requires agents to cooperate during the traversal of a gridworld.

PressurePlate is a multi-agent environment that requires agents to cooperate during the traversal of a gridworld. The grid is partitioned into several rooms, and each room contains a plate and a clos

Autonomous Agents Research Group (University of Edinburgh) 6 Dec 03, 2022
Python implementation of the Lox language from Robert Nystrom's Crafting Interpreters

pylox Python implementation of the Lox language from Robert Nystrom's Crafting Interpreters. https://craftinginterpreters.com. This only implements th

David Beazley 37 Dec 28, 2022
An extension module to make reaction based menus with disnake

disnake-ext-menus An experimental extension menu that makes working with reaction menus a bit easier. Installing python -m pip install -U disnake-ext-

1 Nov 25, 2021
msgqywx 使用企业微信的应用消息推送实时信息

msgqywx 使用企业微信的应用消息推送实时信息

Demon Finch 8 Dec 18, 2022
In this project, we are going to display the battery notification and the time left for the battery to drain out using the battery capacity value.

In this project, we are going to display the battery notification and the time left for the battery to drain out using the battery capacity value.

Ritoban Biswas 1 Dec 20, 2021
Structured Exceptions for Python

XC: Structured exceptions for Python XC encourages a structured, disciplined approach to use of exceptions: it reduces the overhead of declaring excep

Bob Gautier 2 May 28, 2021
Meera 2 May 12, 2022
Python module for creating the circuit simulation definitions for Elmer FEM

elmer_circuitbuilder Python module for creating the circuit simulation definitions for Elmer FEM. The circuit definitions enable easy setup of coils (

5 Oct 03, 2022
berisi kodingan kodingan python umum yang kubuat.

python-codevault berisi kodingan kodingan python umum yang kubuat. untuk memudahkan transisi dan menjadi refrensi tutorial. daily challange for myself

Agung Zon Blade 1 Dec 19, 2021
Aides to reduce a cheat file with a personal selection of the cheats you want to use.

Retroarch Cheat File Reducer Description Aides to reduce a cheat file with a personal selection of the cheats you want to use. Instructions Copy a sel

1 Jan 09, 2022
Pampy: The Pattern Matching for Python you always dreamed of.

Pampy: Pattern Matching for Python Pampy is pretty small (150 lines), reasonably fast, and often makes your code more readable and hence easier to rea

Claudio Santini 3.5k Dec 30, 2022
PIP VA TASHQI KUTUBXONALAR

39-dars PIP VA TASHQI KUTUBXONALAR KIRISH Avvalgi darsimizda Python bilan birga o'rnatluvchi, standart kutubxona va undagi ba'zi foydali modullar bila

Sayfiddin 3 Nov 25, 2021
Protocol Buffers for the Rest of Us

Protocol Buffers for the Rest of Us Motivation protoletariat has one goal: fixing the broken imports for the Python code generated by protoc. Usage He

Phillip Cloud 76 Jan 04, 2023
Thinky nature dots with python

Thinky Nature Welcome to my rice dotfiles of my ThinkPad X230 You surely will need to change some configs to fit your files and stuff and maybe tweak

Daniel Mironow 26 Dec 02, 2022
Project of the MSEC_LDD . group

HackathonJuntionXHN Project of team MSEC_LQĐ What did we do? Building application to generate whitelist regex for Web application firewall How to setu

Nguyễn Mạnh Cường 0 Dec 19, 2021
Heads Down Application for Mac OSX

Heads Down A Mac app that lives in your ribbon—with a click of the mouse, temporarily block distracting websites and applications to encourage "heads

20 Mar 10, 2021
Shell scripts made simple 🐚

zxpy Shell scripts made simple 🐚 Inspired by Google's zx, but made much simpler and more accessible using Python. Rationale Bash is cool, and it's ex

Tushar Sadhwani 492 Dec 27, 2022