Point Cloud Data
lastmod 2026-11-10created 2026-04-032 edits
Point Cloud Data (PCD) is a file format for storing point clouds, defined by the Point Cloud Library (PCL). The file header records the version, the name and data type of each field a point has, the number of points, and viewpoint information, followed by the point data written as ASCII, binary, or compressed binary. Besides coordinates, it can hold arbitrary fields such as color, normals, and intensity, so it maps directly onto PCL's internal data structures, and it is converted to and from general formats such as PLY and LAS.