---
title: "Guided Workflow | Point Cloud Filtering"
slug: "cyclone-3dr-pointcloudfiltering"
updated: 2026-09-07T11:51:31Z
published: 2026-09-07T11:51:31Z
canonical: "rcdocs.leica-geosystems.com/cyclone-3dr-pointcloudfiltering"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://rcdocs.leica-geosystems.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Guided Workflow | Point Cloud Filtering

![Golf_Explode.jpg](https://cdn.document360.io/820e11db-8ed5-45ae-ac86-f6b77dcb2aa7/Images/Documentation/Golf-Explode.jpg)

> [!NOTE]
> Introduction  
> 
> It is sometimes necessary in a point cloud to split the points, which are not relevant or which can be separately processed in your application, (e.g. monuments and trees on a [DTM](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-dtmc)). In the software, there are several ways of processing the point clouds (bad points removing, point or cloud selecting, etc.)
> 
> - Manual selection ([Clean / Separate](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-cleanseparatecloudc))
> - Automatic selection ([Separate on Both Sides](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-separateonbothsidesc), [Separate according Distance](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-separatewithdistancec), [Separate according Orientation](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-separateaccordingtoanorientationc))
> - Automatic segmentation or filtering:
>   - [Noise](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-removenoisec)
>   - [Distance](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-explodebydistancec)
>   - [Separate by Attributes](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-separatebyattributesc)
> - Sampling (in the menu Clean > Cloud Sampling):
>   - [Reduce](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-reducetonumberofpointsc)
>   - [Resample](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-resampletotargetdensityc)

> [!NOTE]
> Exercise overview  
> 
> In this exercise, we will see how to split or explode a point cloud in different parts manually or according to a distance parameter.

> [!NOTE]
> The file used in this tutorial is **Golf.3dr** ([download](https://www.cyclone3dr.com/download_helper.php?File=Cyclone3DRSampleData/Golf.3dr)).

## Cleaning or splitting manually the cloud

- Select the point cloud.
- Launch [Clean / Separate](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-cleanseparatecloudc).

![image2018-4-9_10-15-55.png](https://cdn.document360.io/820e11db-8ed5-45ae-ac86-f6b77dcb2aa7/Images/Documentation/image2018-4-9-10-15-55.png)

Figure 1: Manually keep the central points
- In this command, free, rectangle and circle selection tools take the priority to the navigation. Hold **CTRL** key or activate the "Pause the current tool" mode in the camera toolbar to pause the selection tools.
- Draw a contour, like the one on the picture, to remove distant points around the scene. Note that during the contour drawing the view is locked and cannot be rotated.
- Press **ENTER** to validate your contour, which is considered as an extruded contour in the view direction.
- You can now rotate again the 3D view.
- Choose to **Keep** the selected points and validate the command.

## Coloring the cloud according to a direction

- Select the point cloud.
- Choose the command [Along Direction](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-coloralongdirectionc).
- Choose the desired direction, here **Z.**
- Click **Preview**. Then, click [Edit Colors](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-editgradientc) if you want to change the colors or enter precise values as threshold. Several levels can be set to get fixed colors instead of smooth color variations.
- Click **Ok** to validate.

![Golf_ColorAlongDir.jpg](https://cdn.document360.io/820e11db-8ed5-45ae-ac86-f6b77dcb2aa7/Images/Documentation/Golf-ColorAlongDir.jpg)

Figure 2: Gradient color along the Z axis

In the [Edit Colors](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-editgradientc) command, choose the **Over/Under** preset, select the red interval and set the bottom peg to 5.5.

![Golf_Threshold.jpg](https://cdn.document360.io/820e11db-8ed5-45ae-ac86-f6b77dcb2aa7/Images/Documentation/Golf-Threshold.jpg)

Figure 3: Two levels set in the point cloud

This colored cloud could be used to separate the cloud into 2 parts with the command [Separate by Attributes](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-separatebyattributesc). However, in this tutorial, we will use another method to explode it.

## Cleaning or splitting automatically the cloud (explode the cloud in small pieces)

- Select the point cloud.
- Launch [Distance](/v1/docs/cyclone-3dr-explodebydistancec).
- Enter for instance 0.5 m.

This means that the software will split the cloud according to a maximum distance between points or a minimum distance between clouds of 0.5 meters.

![image-20260518-082554.png](https://cdn.document360.io/820e11db-8ed5-45ae-ac86-f6b77dcb2aa7/Images/Documentation/image-20260518-082554.png)

Figure 4: Explode the cloud in smaller pieces according to a distance

This command automatically sorts the sub-clouds by number of points and keeps only the 1000 biggest clouds. You can see all of them in the object explorer sorted from the largest to the smallest in number of points.

Now, you can select the little church which corresponds to the **GolfCourse 1 2**.

In the 3D scene, use the right click to display only the church (**Show only**). Or in the tree click on the **bulb + CTRL key** to show the object.