Stand alone indexing of RAW point cloud data into .pcg files

EDIT 11/12/13: This method only works with Revit 2013 and below.

If you have raw point cloud data, for example .pts, .xyz, .fls, .ptx files etc. You can index these files into a usable point cloud format for Revit externally without even opening up Revit. You will be using exactly the same tool used within Revit, but it will mean you can continue to use your workstation for other activities, without occupying Revit. You still need an installation of Revit, although unofficially it may be possible just using the ‘AdPointCloudIndexer.exe’ which is a 262kb file stored in your Revit installation folder.

All you need to do is open your command prompt (Run > cmd) once open, simply drag and drop ‘AdPointCloudIndexer.exe’ into the command prompt. You will notice the following text (or similar) appear: ‘C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit Architecture 2013\Program\AdPointCloudIndexer.exe’. After this, make a space and use the same method to drag your raw point cloud file(s) into the command prompt, your command prompt should now look something like the above image. Simply click enter, and the indexing process will begin, the following dialgoue box will appear:

This process may take a while, depending on the size of your raw point cloud data. For a 6GB file, the proccess took me around 10 minutes to index and the .PCG file (can be imported directly into Revit) will be saved in the same folder as your original raw source. This is of course dependant on the speed of your workstation. You will also get a notification once your file has finished processing. Although I haevn’t tried it, I assume it may also be possible to batch convert raw point cloud files into the .pcg format using this method.

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