Convert PLY to PCD — Free Point Cloud Tool

About This Converter

PLY and PCD both store points, but they come from different worlds. A PLY header declares whatever properties that particular file happens to carry, which is why a PLY out of a photogrammetry or scanning pipeline can hold positions, per-point colour, alpha, normals, and extra scalar values such as confidence or intensity, and why it can just as easily describe a mesh with a face list attached. PCD is the format used by the Point Cloud Library and is common in robotics and LiDAR work: a short text header naming the fields, then the points themselves. This converter reads the vertices out of your PLY and writes them as an ASCII PCD with the fields x, y and z, adding a packed rgb field when the source carries colour. Everything else stays behind. Per-point normals, alpha, and custom scalars such as intensity, confidence or classification do not make the trip. Neither do faces: a PLY that describes a mesh is read as the cloud of its vertices, so you get the triangle corners with nothing joining them. If you wanted the surface, convert to a mesh format instead. The result is written as an unorganised cloud, one row of points with the count repeated in the width and points entries, and with a neutral viewpoint, so any sensor pose recorded in the original is not carried across. Expect the file to grow, usually several times over, because points written as text simply take more room than the same points packed as binary floats in a PLY. Neither format declares units, so a cloud captured in metres and one captured in millimetres look identical from the file alone. Keep track of that yourself, and note that the preview scales the cloud to fit the viewer rather than showing you true size. Reach for PCD when the next step is the Point Cloud Library or a tool built on it, for filtering, registration or segmentation. Keep a PLY copy for MeshLab, CloudCompare and Blender, which read it directly. The conversion happens locally in your browser, with no upload and no account.