PointsClouds are other primitives supported by solidThinking. It consists of a set of points in 3D space.
PointsClouds can be imported from files (choose Open from the main menu and select a . cld or . txt file from the file requester), created by directly inserting points in the views or derived from an object (NURBS surface or polymesh).
The PointsClouds modeling tool lets you create a PointsClouds by directly inserting points in the views. You can change the shape of a PointsClouds by editing its points.
How to use
1. Click the PointsClouds icon or choose the Tools > PointsClouds > PointsClouds command.
2. The program console prompts Local axes origin.
3. Locate axes origin of the PointsCloud mesh following one of the two methods:
a) Click and drag in any view and release the mouse button to confirm placement.
b) Type its XYZ coordinates in the console (values must be separated by a comma, i.e. 1,2,3) and press Enter to confirm. If you press Enter without typing any value in the console, the axes origin of the polygon will be placed in relation to the XYZ origin.
4. Successive clicks add points. You can add points in any view regardless of where you started drawing the curve. If you prefer, you can type exact coordinates from the keyboard. Separate each value with a comma. Your input is immediately displayed in the console. Relative coordinate values can be inserted by typing "@" before numbers (i.e. @2,2,2).
5. Press Spacebar to stop points insertion.
Options
XYZ coordinates
To modify XYZ coordinates of a point.
Views. Choose the Edit mode. Click the point whose position you want to modify and drag it. Release the mouse button when you reach the desired position.
Modeling Tool panel. Select the point from the scroll list that appears when you click the [. . . ] button. Type the new values in the XYZ data fields and confirm them by pressing Enter.
Insert
To add new points to a PointsCloud object.
Views / Modeling Tool panel. Switch on the Insert check button and click in any view.
Extract
To extract the selected points into an independent PointsCloud object.
Views / Modeling Tool panel. Select the points you want to extract and press the Extract button.