Houdini 20.5 Nodes Geometry nodes

Point Cloud Surface geometry node

Constructs a surface from a point cloud.

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Since 20.0

Overview

This node converts a point cloud into a surface mesh. Use this node when you have scanned geometry that you want to turn into a surface for rendering, simulation, film, or game assets. After you use this node, you can use the Attribute Transfer node to transfer the input point attributes onto the surface.

The input point cloud must have oriented normals, which you can generate with the Point Cloud Normal node. The input point cloud must also represent surface geometry, such as from a lidar or photogrammetry scan. To construct a surface from dense particles, you should use the Particle Fluid Surface node.

Scan data courtesy of Ivan Ilko. Artwork courtesy of Ivan Masniuk.

How to

The following is an example use case for surface reconstruction.

  1. Create a Lidar Import node in your scene.

  2. Turn on Surface Normals under the E57 heading.

  3. Turn on the Display normals tool in the Display toolbar to the right of the view.

  4. Add and then connect to the Point Cloud Surface node.

Parameters

Max Subdivisions

The maximum resolution used when estimating the surface, given by a number of subdivisions of the point cloud’s bounding cube.

For example, using 10 subdivisions corresponds to solving with a 1024×1024×1024 grid.

The default value is 8.

Sample Target

Adapts each point’s region of influence until it meets the target number of neighboring point samples.

Higher values smooth the surface from noise and lower values refine the surface. A value from 5 to 15 is often suitable for noisy point clouds.

It’s not recommended that you set this parameter to 0. This fixes each point’s influence to the resolution given by Max Subdivisions, which can produce highly localized surfaces.

The default value is 2.

Smoothing Iterations

The number of smoothing iterations used when solving for the point cloud’s surface.

The default value is 4.

Boundary Type

The boundary type that generates the surface.

Closed (default)

Enclose the surface in the interior of the point cloud’s bounding cube.

Open

Extend the surface towards the point cloud’s bounding cube.

See also

Geometry nodes