UNH's VR Point Cloud Editor Tutorial

Contributed by Beatrice Hoang

Overview

Point clouds are a set of data points in space. They're often used to represent 3D objects/models. Point clouds are generally generated by 3D scanners or other model-capture techniques that measure surface information of objects.

Not all point clouds that come from a 3D scanner will be nice and clean - they often collect unwanted noise or outliers that shouldn't be included in the final model. UNH's VR Point Cloud Editor allows you to import a point cloud as an .las/.laz file and remove that unwanted noise using your controllers. Once you are done cleaning, the model can be exported.

Download/Setup

Note: Complete these steps on Paperspace machine

Download the software at this link: https://ccom.unh.edu/vislab/tools/point_cloud_editor/xrpcc-0.1.zip
Download a sample 3D point cloud of a Lego bird at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/118TuGCs9DnqKNs-QFOH2siy1Dzvw8fjv/view?usp=sharing
IMPORTANT: Make sure the .laz file is in your documents or desktop folder. These are the only locations that the application's file explorer can access.

In color, the bird model looks like:

Your goal is to use UNH's editor to remove the base the bird is sitting on. The final product will be the point cloud of just the Lego bird.

Optional: if you would like to use your own 3D point cloud model, you can use an app like Poly.Cam to capture your own point cloud model. Follow steps here for instructions on using PolyCam. Make sure you export the model as a .laz file.

Note: when opened in the editor application, the point cloud will not be in color (even though the laz file contains color information for each point). Be familiar with the model's geometry so you know what you need to remove.

Tutorial

In virtual desktop and running SteamVR, double click the 'xrpcc.exe' file from the downloaded folder to run application.

In the application:

On your left controller, hold down the X button to bring up menu.
To make visibility easier, you can change the background color by clicking "choose environment color."
Open the menu again and select "Load" with your right controller's trigger.
From the filesystem that opens, navigate to your .laz point cloud file and double click to open or select and press load.
When you first load a point cloud, it will appear below you. You can use your left controller's trigger to grab and move the cloud.
To scale the model on Quest, hold down the A button and move your controllers toward/away from each other
Begin removing unwanted noise by pointing your right cursor on the point cloud and holding the right trigger to delete points within the red highlighted sphere. Use right joystick to adjust cursor distance/size.
When you have your finished model, open the menu by holding the left controller's X button. Click "save" and follow prompts to save your edited file.

Conclusion

Please fill out this form so I can gather thoughts on the app! https://forms.gle/3r7sbKDwd7xGMkdq8

Quest 2 Controls

NOTE: On the Quest 2: the scale function can also be done by holding down the A button on the right-hand controller