I’m trying to export a point cloud from TouchDesigner to use in a virtual reality “cave” that uses stereoscopic projections, and the system works best with .LAS. I know TouchDesigner does not support direct export to an .LAS format, but I am curious if there are any possible workarounds (that are relatively user-friendly)?
If not, maybe possible ways to export the point cloud as an .OBJ or .FBX or something? I’m definitely still a beginner in TouchDesigner, and I’ve really struggled with exporting point clouds - please help!
welcome to the community!
unfortunately no way to save .las straight from TouchDesigner but since you are mentioning .obj or .fbx, that is totally doable by a slight detour through CHOPs and SOPs:
You can use a Top To CHOP for converting a texture into chop channels. Here it is important to change the TOP To CHOP’s “Crop” parameter to Full Image. As a result you will have a channel per pixel row. To sequence all those rows into a 3 channels for r, g, b or x, y, and z, use a Shuffle CHOP and select “Method” to be Sequence every Nth Channel. If you are onky extracting rgb via the TOP To CHOP, then the “N Valuie” parameter of the Shuffle should be set to 3, if alpha is included “N Value” will be 4.
Now create a CHOP To SOP and reference the CHOP that holds all the image values. Fill out the Channel Scope parameter correctly and you can save the generated geometry as a .obj or .fbx by r-clicking onto the SOP operator.
Hi Markus, this helps a lot, thank you! I am a bit confused about what should go in my channel scope in the CHOP to SOP node? Here is an image of my network if it helps!
the Channel Scope parameter should contain the names of the channels created via the TOP to CHOP - most likely this would be r, g, and b or r0, g0, and b0.
What version of TouchDesigner and what operating system are you using? Right clicking on the SOP and choosing “Save Geometry” should give you a file chooser with the option to switch the file type.
I don’t have the same exporting window as you when I try to save geometry. I am using TouchDesigner 099 with an educational license, on a macOS v.11.3.1 - could that be impacting it? This is the only window available when I try to save geometry, and the dialogue that pops up if I try to add an extension like .obj:
sorry - I’m working a lot in the Experimental branch were saving .obj is possible amongst other file formats. You can download and install the experimental version of TouchDesigner from here: Releases | Derivative
Just a note, file saved in the experimental version cannot be opened again in the current official build - so when trying this make sure you save new files with a clear identifier that they were worked on in a experimental build.
