I can't find a way to export point cloud

[Zen Artist]

I am using 3Df Zephyr Lite 4.501 and I have imported a pts model. The point cloud looks fine, I can move it and rotate and zoom, but when I go into Workflow the "3D Model Generation" and "Textured Mesh Generation" are greyed out and I can't use them. I do have the file selected under Dense Point Cloud. I can go into "Advanced" but I cannot select any of the options there. Is there some other thing I need to do to be able to export a mesh? The selections in "Export" are greyed and not usable except for "Take Screenshot"

[cam3d]

Hey Zen Artist - 3DF Zephyr Lite (and Free) only have viewer support - you'll need Pro/Aerial to mesh/manage laser scan data.

[Andrea Alessi]

Just one additional note: while 3DF Zephyr Pro/Aerial can create mesh from dense clouds, they need to be structured first. This means, that either you have camera information from a photogrammetry workspace (then aligned via ICP) or, if you're using external data, the external file must bring in the information of the origin of the scan. This means that if you feed a PLY or PTS for example, you won't be able to mesh it as-is, even with pro/aerial.

[Dajo]

Thanks for posting this question.
We've got the same problem. We are able to create a beautiful point cloud based on photos, but we're not able to export the point cloud (only as mesh).
We don't want to switch to another software solution because I like 3Dflow too much. So, is there a workaround or will this feature soon be added? Many thanks!

[cam3d]

Dajo Hey! Welcome to the forum! As a workaround using 3DF Zephyr Lite you can export a PLY mesh with vertex color information, then open in software such as Meshlab, delete the faces, and export as a PLY from Meshlab with purely vertex information. Please note for the edited point cloud to be exportable it needs to be processed to the meshing stage in Zephyr Lite and may look a bit different to the dense cloud stage.

[Andrea Alessi]

Just as an addendum as this question was posted a long time ago, Pro and Aerial no longer exists as they were merged into one, complete edition, simply called "3DF Zephyr", which of course still have the export point cloud feature available.

The Free and Lite edition still exists and do not offer point cloud export (and will likely still not do so in the future)