Reverse engineering point clouds from any 3D model

Point clouds are getting a lot of “press” lately, and they can be very useful. But let’s say, hypothetically, that you have a 3D model of a building or a component and you want to deconstruct it back into a point cloud – Can this be done? Yes, and quite easily…

Open the 3D model in 3dsMax
Export to STL
Import the STL into MeshLab (File – Import Mesh)
Export the mesh as an XYZ file (File – Export Mesh As…)
This XYZ file can now be imported into Recap, or indexed by Revit into a PCG, or used in various other software tools

Note: You can also create STL files (steps 1 and 2) directly from Revit using the STL Exporter add-in.

Some of these tools were discussed at:
Free 3D PDF from Revit STL using Meshlab, MiKTeX and U3D-2-PDF