Importing Point Cloud (LAS) into AutoCad Civil 3D

You can easily download your the point cloud file from your Skycatch account and import it into AutoCad Civil 3D in a few easy steps!

1. Download your LAS by clicking the Download button while viewing your map of interest and selecting the .LAS file format.

2. Open the .dwg file in which you wish to use to your point cloud data, or simply begin with a blank drawing.

3. Go to the Settings tab on the side bar. Right-click on the project name and click Edit Drawing Settings

4. Set the coordinate system to the appropriate selection for your project location. In this example, we use NAD83 California State Plane, Zone III, US Foot, however, your selection may differ. Check the two boxes: "Scale objects inserted from other drawings" and "Set AutoCAD variables to match"

5. With Toolspace and Prospector active on the Home ribbon, activate the Prospector tab. In the Prospector tab, right-click, Point Cloud and select Create Point Cloud.

6. Into the Create Point Cloud dialogue, you'll need to begin by setting Informationparameters.

• In Point Cloud Style select True Color if you want a visual that mimics your final mosaic image.
• Selecting the Layers icon will run you into the Layer Selection dialogue, where selecting V-SITE-SCAN is the AutoDesk recommended layer in which to display a point cloud.
• With layer Information defined, click Next.

7. To Source Data parameters in the Create Point Cloud dialogue, we'll need to define input and output paths, along with the coordinate systems we'll be using.

• Under Source Data, select Create A New Point Cloud Database.
• Under Select A Point Cloud File Format, select LAS.
• Click the plus icon on the right of the dialogue to specify the source data path.
• In the section of the file path table labled Coordinate System, click the [...] icon.
• In the Select Coordinate Zone dialogue, set Categories to Lat Longs and the Available coordinate systems to WGS84 datum, Latitude-Longitude; Degrees. Alternatively, if you're keen to show off your AutoDesk prowess, simply enter CRS:84 under Selected coordinate system code.