Quiz – which version of Revit was the last one to include ‘in product’ indexing of point clouds?

Answer – Revit 2018 included AdPointCloudIndexer.exe, which could be used to index an array of raw point cloud formats into Recap

Raw formats that could be processed by AdPointCloudIndexer.exe

If a raw format was selected (up to Revit 2018) would prompt to index the file:

You could choose some settings and Start Indexing:

Then you would have to restart the process and Insert -> Point Cloud and choose the newly indexed RCS.

Image below shows existence of AdPointCloudIndexer.exe in the Program FilesAutodeskRevit location:

The modern-day solution is of course to use Recap.

This post from The Building Coder also offers some insight into the history.

Very cool tip from Ben Malone – he shows you how to use AdPointCloudIndexer.exe from a command line (outside of Revit) to prepare point clouds for practical use.  A typical 2013 location for this utility is:
C:Program FilesAutodeskRevit Architecture 2013ProgramAdPointCloudIndexer.exe

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Image from BIMopedia

Read the whole post at:
Stand alone indexing of RAW point cloud data into .pcg files | BIMopedia

If you want to know more about different point cloud formats / file extensions, there is some info on the wiki:

  • Point Cloud Projects (*.rcp): Pick an indexed point cloud project file with .rcp extension. An .rcp is an aggregation of multiple .rcs point cloud files.
  • Point Clouds (*.rcs): Pick an indexed point cloud file with .rcs extension.
  • Raw formats: Pick a file with an extension in the list to automatically launch an indexer application that will convert the raw file to an indexed file.
    Note
    After the indexed file is created, you must use the Point Cloud tool again to insert the file.
  • All Files: Pick a file with any extension.

via
 Inserting a Point Cloud File – WikiHelp