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Customize Point Cloud Appearance

The GEO4X platform lets you fine-tune the display of your point clouds, so you can better analyze them, present them or integrate them into your projects. The Appearance menu offers several tabs for adjusting the environment, points, light and more.

1. General tab​

🔭 Viewing angle (FOV)​

  • Set the camera angle (field of view).
  • A wider angle gives a more distant view, a narrower angle offers a more zoomed-in view.

🌌 Background​

  • Customize the background (e.g. Blue Sky) for better legibility or visual integration.

🟨 Show box​

  • Enable or disable the display of the yellow box representing the point cloud cutout.

🖥️ Display quality​

  • Standard: fluid mode for less powerful machines.
  • High quality: better visibility of dots, ideal for presentations or screenshots.

2. Points tab​

🔢 Number of points displayed​

  • Indicates the total number of dots visible on the screen. You can adjust the density displayed to make the display smoother.

🔘 Dot size​

  • Defined as a numerical value (e.g.: 0.5).
  • The larger the value, the wider the dots are visually.

🧩 Rendering type​

  • Choose how the dots are rendered. Example:
    • Fixed: uniform rendering, regardless of the camera's distance from the points.
    • Adaptive: The point size adapts to the zoom level on your 3D model.

👁️ Opacity​

  • Adjust the transparency of points from 0 to 100%.
  • Useful for superimposing several layers without masking everything.

◻️ Dot shape​

  • Square: The shape that uses the least graphic resources.
  • Circle: The shape of “high quality” mode.
  • Paraboloid: Each point merges with its close neighbors.

3. Light tab​

💡 Eye Dome Lighting​

  • Activates a directional light aligned with the camera, for more realistic rendering or improved legibility.

🎚️ Light settings​

  • Edge (radius): softens or strengthens the edge of dots.
  • Intensity: brightness of incident light.
  • Opacity: overall transparency of lighting effects.

🎨 Coloration​

  • Choose from several modes to adapt the display to your needs:
    • RGBA: native file colors.
    • Elevation: gradient based on altitude.
    • Color: uniform color.
    • Matcap: 3D shading effect.
    • Indices: colors based on metadata.
    • Level of detail: visualizes density.
    • Composite: combined mode.

🌓 Contrast and Brightness​

  • Adjust these two parameters to improve visibility in different contexts (dark background, high density, etc.).

4. Camera controls​

Note

Go to detailed sheet

5. Tip: Use presets​

Remember to use the "Presets " tab to select your favorite configurations and reuse them from one project to the next.

6. Best practices​

  • Use Standard mode to navigate quickly through very large point clouds.
  • Switch to High Quality for customer presentations or screen captures.
  • Adjust the Eye Dome Lighting to better read volumes.