PLY File Loader

The PLY File Loader plays back point clouds stored as PLY files, in either ASCII or binary format. It can open a single file as a static cloud, or a folder of .ply files as a sequence. Sequence frames are played in filename order.

Sequences stream from disk. Upcoming frames are prefetched and buffered in the background, so long recordings don't need to fit in memory.

Device Properties

• File: the .ply file or folder to load.
• Position Units: the units positions are stored in. Automatic treats floating point positions as metres and integer positions as millimetres.
• Sequence: playback settings for folders.
  • Looping: restart from the start frame after reaching the end frame.
  • Frame Rate: playback speed in frames per second.
  • Start Frame / End Frame: the range of frames to play. An end frame of -1 plays to the last file.
  • Current Frame: the frame being displayed. Can be used to scrub through a sequence.
  • Buffer Capacity: the number of decoded frames held in memory.
  • Prefetch Ahead: the number of frames to decode ahead of playback.
• Attributes: how extra per-point properties in the file are imported.
  • Target: the point attribute this property is read into, e.g. Point Scale for per-point sizes.
  • Precision: store values at full precision, or quantised to 16 or 8 bits to save memory and network bandwidth.
  • Range Min / Range Max: the range of values preserved when quantising.