Force Components cuts one point cloud into the number of parts you set. It does not look at the shape of the scan: it takes the points in the order in which they are stored and gives each part about the same number of points. Use it to break a very large cloud into smaller pieces that are easier to process or export one by one.
To split a cloud into its real, separate pieces (for example, several parts that were scanned together but do not touch each other), use To Components instead.
How to use Force Components
- Select exactly one point cloud in the Scene tree. With no cloud or several clouds selected, the tool is unavailable.
- Open the Points tab and click the arrow next to To Components.
- Choose Force Components from the list.
- Set Components, the number of objects to split the cloud into: type a value or use the – and + buttons. The default is 2, the range is 2 to 128.
- Click Apply.
What you get
- The first part gets the first points of the cloud, the second part the next ones, and so on, so all parts have about the same number of points.
- The parts are named after the original cloud with
_1,_2and so on added. They keep the point colors and display settings of the original. - The parts replace the original cloud in the Scene tree and stay selected, and the panel closes. Undo (Ctrl+Z, or Cmd+Z on macOS) returns the original cloud.
In this example, Components was set to 4. The cloud became four point-cloud objects; two of them are hidden to show where the cut went.
When the parts look mixed
Because the cut follows the point order, the result depends on how the file stores the points. If the scanner saved the points in the order it captured them, each part is usually a continuous strip or area of the scan. If the points are stored in another order, a part can be a sparse set of points spread over the whole object. Hide some of the parts, as in the example above, to see how the cloud was cut.
Meshes have the same tool: see Force Components for meshes.
