Render Point Clouds in Blender with Cycles (.ply)

UPDATE - If you are using Blender 3.6.8 or above, color attributes are supported natively in the PLY importer, so you can skip to 01:36 in this tutorial, please note the new native importer is called "Stanford PLY (.ply)". and the checkboxes on the importer dialog are optional.

In this video I show you how to import a .ply file into Blender and render it with colour attributes using cycles.

You can find the import-ply-as-verts repository here:

You can find the pointcloud file used in this tutorial here (click the download link underneath the 3D viewer):

You can see my previous video on Point Cloud Visualizer here:

[milx]

Hi! I've exported a .ply with PointCloud Visualizer (done the editing, changing the size of the points and changing colors) Then i've imported it and rendered using cycles as you show here. The thing is I see the points too big now (I think it's like a default size) and I don't know how to change those parameters without Pcv. Also I would like to apply the keyframes to the opacity of the points, so they appear slowly as you show on the other tutorial. Is there any way I can do that without pcv? Thank you :)

[giorgimikava]

hello, truly great tutorial thanks alot. i have one question, why my color attribute isnt showing the texture, i can see Col attribute but texture isnt still there. is there anything i can do?thanks one more time...

[manuelresch]

Im completely new to Blender (worked with c4d so far but more on the experimental side, not to say i goofed around there) and this tutorial was exactly what i tried to achieve for a while. At the beginning i thought this is taking ages to install and set up but man was i wrong
worked perfectly for me
thank you so much!!

[zijielim]

THANK YOU I HAVE BEEN IN PAIN TRYIN OVER AND OVER, FINALLY A REAL SOLUTION

[LISTEN_syw]

thank you so much!!! it helps me a lot!!!

[SueHui]

Thank you! I'm new to point cloud. This video helped me a lot!

[eddiepersa]

thanks Nicko! I have a problem. When I import a .ply file with this method, the color attribute is not present with the file. what could be happening ? I'm using KIRI engine to scan with my android Phone. Thanks again !

[williamscoott]

Everything works except applying the color, does anyone know why?

[eejj]

When I use other instance to replace default(I do not know what instance), the color info can not render

[cfarr]

Worked perfectly, thanks so much for this tutorial!

[mtscott]

Awesome channel, top work man. Thanks for sharing!

[borisandreev]

Great tutorial, Nicko16. Kinda dumb question, but is it possible to animate those vertex points and make them collide or interact with one another using geometry nodes? I can't seem to find many tutorials covering this.

[solovastrudenis]

I have blender 4.0, It s the only one that appears when i go to the blender foundation - “ blender 4.0 “ and i don t Find the import mash PLY

Maybe u know Why ?

[ZephyrinSkies]

Thank you, this was incredibly helpful.

[Milan_]

Is there any fix for this? i dont see VertexColors Only when importing. Neither in blender 4.0, 3.6.1 or 3.1.2 please help

[muhammadzia]

Thank you so much Nicko16! you made my day 😇

[crypto-nerd]

thats, i wanted to do it since long time, finally it´s work, ,,

[hallohallo]

HI! I have problems importing the script in mac! I read that I can't just import them as an add on but can't seem to find the right location in blender library. Anyone has a tip or a link to a good tutorial? thanks!

[Marcelmikael]

Sensei, can a scene be save as ply in blender and if that's possible, then can the scene be imported into blender with the point cloud addons to have the effect? 🙏

[andreimariuteac]

I'm pretty new to blender, is this still the best way to use .ply in blender today, or are they natively supported now?