andrewhazelden/plymesher

PLYmesher is a collection of bash scripts and MeshLab .mlx filter scripts that are used to create possion based reconstructions of .PLY formatted point clouds.

Andrew Hazelden's PLYmesher Scripts

Version 1.1 Jan 26, 2013

About the PLYmesher Script Collection

PLYmesher is a collection of bash scripts and MeshLab .mlx filter scripts that are used to create possion based reconstructions of .PLY formatted point clouds.

About the Replace MLX Value Script

The script replace_mlx_value.sh allows you to replace placeholder values in a Meshlab script with input from the command line. The replace_mlx_value script also scans an input "meshes" folder and will process and .ply data in the folder using a user selectable Meshlab script.

This script uses sed to replace values in a MLX filter script template. The script searches for the placeholder text COMMAND-VALUE1, COMMAND-VALUE2, and COMMAND-VALUE3 in the mlx template and then outputs a script with the replaced values.

Tip: Enter the script name and values at the command-line:
./replace_mlx_value.sh [mlx_script_template] [number] [number] [number]

PLYmesher Notes:

I have started exploring the commandline version of meshlab called meshlabserver. You can run scripts by saving the meshlab filter settings to a meshlab .mlx script file.

You can easily develop and save new MLX scripts using the meshlab gui.

The active meshlab filters can be saved in a MLX filter file by selecting the menu item "Filters > Show current filters script".

In this window you can load saved meshlab MLX scripts, edit the settings for each filter, and save mew MLX scripts.

On Mac OS X I noticed that once a GUI based meshlab script finishes running the progress bar in the main window sometimes stays visible at 100% after the task completes. All you have to do is click in the view for the view to refresh.

In the Meshlab GUI you can set the Poisson-disk Sampling filter to resample your dense point cloud to a lower number of points.

Included Meshlab Scipts:

compute_normals_script.mlx
This meshlab script will generate point cloud normals

PLYmesher_script.mlx
This meshlab script will generate point cloud normals and then create a polygon mesh from the point cloud.

In the Meshlab GUI you can customize the Poisson-disk Sampling filter settings to resample your dense point cloud to a lower number of points.

PLYmesher_script_lite.mlx
This meshlab script will generate point cloud normals, reduce the point cloud density, and then create a polygon mesh from the point cloud.

The meshlabserver command "Transfer Color: Vertex to Face" seems to have a problem running on the Mac version of meshlabserver so I left out this last step in the script:
<filter name="Transfer Color: Vertex to Face" />

Notes: You might also find the meshlab related kinnectproj webpage interesting.

It appears that meshlabserver only supports saving binary PLY files from the meshlab server command line. You could use a free program like RPLY to convert the binary PLY file to an ASCII PLY file.