1: Introduction

In this section:

1.1: About
1.2: Installation
1.3: Rhino settings
1.4: Data formats
1.5: Loading and saving
1.6: Installing Veesus Point Cloud Renderer plug-in (professional users only)

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1. 1 About

Welcome to the user guide for the Veesus Point Cloud plug-in for Rhino.

At the core of the plug-in is our unique point rendering engine that enables the rapid loading and visualisation of unlimited point cloud data sets – the XStreamEngine. The XStreamEngine powers all Veesus products, including our fully-featured standalone point cloud editing tool, Arena4D.

This user guide will help you understand how to use the features of this plug-in, which can only be used in McNeel’s Rhinoceros tool. If you find you have any issues or questions which this guide doesn’t answer, you can contact us at support@veesus.com.

1.2 Installation

Watch a video tutorial for installing Point Clouds for Rhino plug-in here.

Point Clouds for Rhino is an add-in for Rhino, and therefore will not run outside of Rhino. To install the software, first run the setup wizard and follow all the steps and on-screen prompts during the installation process. Note that you will need to reinstall the plug-in if you are upgrading from a free trial to the full plug-in.

When this box appears in the wizard, select the Rhino version you wish to install. If you have had a trial before, check “Reset Licence”. DO NOT check this box otherwise!

The wizard will prompt you to select which version of the plug-in you are looking to install. Please select the version that matches your edition of Rhino. Additionally, if you’ve previously installed a demo licence on your machine and you are now upgrading to a full licence, select “Reset Licence”. Under no other circumstances select this option. If in doubt, continue the installation without the option selected and contact Veesus support.

Once the wizard has finished:

• Load Rhino
• From the “Tools” menu select “Options…”
• Select “Plug-ins” from the options menu
• Select “Install” from the plug-in list
• Locate the Veesus.rhp file (default location is shown in the screenshot)
• Click “Open” once file is highlighted

Note: the following instructions may be different for users of Rhino 5.0 or 7.0

Once loaded ensure the plug-in is enabled. If it is not enabled, ensure the tickbox is clicked and then click “OK” to close the menu.

And that’s it! Your edition of Point Clouds for Rhino should be installed. You may need to restart Rhino for the changes to take effect. To load the Point Clouds User interface, type “VeesusPointClouds” into the Rhino Command Line.

Enabling GPU tessellation in Rhino 6.0.

1.3: Rhino settings

Point Clouds for Rhino makes extensive use of advanced OpenGL functions. Therefore, it is important to ensure that “Use accelerated Hardware Mode” is active in Rhino 5.0, or “GPU Tessellation” is active in Rhino 6.0. These can both be found in the “View” subsection of the Rhino “Options” menu.

1.4 Data formats

Point Clouds for Rhino requires point cloud data to be in the Veesus VPC format. You can convert your point clouds into VPC files for free using the standalone VPC Creator, which can be downloaded from the Veesus website.

1.5 Loading and saving

All Arena4D options are saved into the Rhino document. However the point cloud itself is saved as a reference – meaning that if you move or delete the VPC file after saving the document it will not be loaded the next time you open and you’ll receive an on-screen notification.

1.6 Installing Veesus Point Cloud Renderer plug-in (professional version only)

Watch a video tutorial for installing the Veesus Point Cloud Renderer plug-in here.

Veesus Point Cloud Renderer for Rhino is another add-in that installs in the same way that Point Clouds for Rhino does. It is automatically downloaded at the same time as you download Point Clouds for Rhino. To install the plug-in, first perform steps in section 1.2. Then:

• Load Rhino
• From the “Tools” menu select “Options..”
• Select “Plug-ins” from options menu
• Select “..” button from plug-in list

Locate the VeesusRender.rhp file (default location is shown below):

Once that’s done, ensure the plug-in is enabled and loaded. If it is not loaded, right click on it and select “Load Plugin”:

Once that’s done, head to the Render menu and open the “Current Renderer” sub-menu. Select “Vesus Point Cloud Renderer for Rhino.”

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