AutoCAD 2011 has introduced native point cloud support. This step shows that the market is slowly moving towards acceptance of laser scanning data. Up until now 3Rd party software has been required to pull point cloud data into AutoCAD.

Although this is a move in the right direction, initial reviews from users are reporting limited functionality. Specialist plugins such as Leica Cloudworx or Pointools Model currently allow for advanced data management, as well as tools to slice, crop, hide and managed the point cloud data once in AutoCAD. Although AutoCAD 2011 will allow users to view point cloud data it doesn’t seem to offer these more advanced options required to utilise point cloud data.
Autodesk rival Bentley Microstation have also licensed the more advanced Pointools Vortex engine for future releases of their software. Pointools is currently one of the leading engines for manipulating point cloud data. Wider acceptance is coming slowly but users are still required to jump through various different software applications to get their desired results. Hopefully standardisation for generic point cloud formats will come shortly.

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