Clean / Separate

This command is used to select points from cloud(s) and delete them or create new sub-clouds. It can be used to clean several clouds simultaneously.

Requirements

Select all of the clouds you want to handle and launch the command (without any selection, you will edit all visible clouds).

1. Choose a selection tool:

   1. to draw a freehand contour. Click and hold the left button pressed to draw the contour.

   2. to draw a polygon contour. Click every vertices. Undo the last vertex with DEL key. Close the contour with ENTER or C.

   3. to draw a rectangular contour. Click and hold the left button pressed to draw a window or click 3 points (first corner, direction and rectangle height).

   4. to draw a circular contour. Click the center and hold the left button pressed to enlarge the circle or click 3 points on it.

   5. to draw a contour automatically using seed points:

      1. At first usage, a package will be downloaded to enable such AI tools. 

      2. Orient and zoom the view: only what is visible in the scene can be selected after the initialization. Note that colors will be used in the following priority order (Real color>Intensity>Inspection>Smooth) whatever the active representation. 

      3. Click a first seed point to trigger the initialization.

      4. Click other seed points to extend the selection contour. Use SHIFT to give negative seed points to restrain the selection contour. Press DEL to remove the last seed point. 

      5. Press ENTER to validate the contour: a temporary selection has been done. Other points are hidden temporarily. 

      6. Since everything behind the contour was selected, rotate the view and repeat previous steps to refine the temporary selection. Pay attention to keep in the scene frame the full content of the previous temporary selections. 

      7. Repeat the previous step until your selection is ok. 

      8. Press ENTER again to validate and convert the temporary selection to a standard selection. Or press ESC to cancel the temporary selection. 

2. Choose whether you are going to add or remove points/triangles to the selection:

   1. to add to the selection.

   2. to remove from the selection.

3. Draw your contour. Note that rotation with the right mouse button is locked while you are drawing the contour.

4. Rotate the view and extrude your contour (works only for clouds): drag and drop a contour edge (or a red ball with the shift key pressed).

5. Modify the contour with the red balls. Drag and drop them to move the contour. Both basis are simultaneously modified. You can also select several balls with the CTRL key.

6. Click to invert the selection.

7. Apply an action to your selection:

   1. to delete the selection.

   2. to keep the selection. It is the same as deleting the reversed selection.

   3. to split the selection. This action will create a part with the selection and then you can follow your segmentation work with the remaining points.

8. Handle intermediary results, click:

   1. to hide or display the cloud.

   2. to lock or unlock the object. No selection occurs on a locked object.

   3. to change the object representation. Note that colors of new objects are set at random. 

   4. the Merge selected parts button to merge intermediary objects. You can also select several objects in Clean/Separate parts and make a right click.

9. You can change the name of objects (press F2, right click or slow double click)

Output options

• Create a cloud with deleted points: If checked, an additional cloud will be created will all the removed points.

• Keep original input(s): If checked, the original clouds are kept when results are validated. Otherwise, they are moved to the trash.

The Reset, Undo and Redo actions are available in this command until you reach memory limitations.

Tip & Trick

Limit planes prevents you from cleaning clipped data.

Practise

See the exercise Remove or separate a part of the cloud in the Beginner's guide.