CloudCompare
CloudCompare is an open source tool for editing and processing dense 3D point clouds (such as those acquired with laser scanners).
The main purpose of CloudCompare on Puhti is to serve as a tool for visualizing point cloud data.
Available
The following versions of CloudCompare are available in Roihu:
- CloudCompare 2.14 for CPU. Plugins: Core I/O, LAS I/O.
- CloudCompare 2.13.1 for GPU. Plugins: Core I/O, Animation, EDL Shader, PCV / ShadeVis, PDAL.
GPU version is faster, but consumes GPU Billing Units instead of CPU Billing Units (see Billing for details). Also queues to GPU partitions may be longer.
Usage
CloudCompare is available in web interface: Roihu.
- Basic CloudCompare is available via Desktop app.
- GPU-accelerated CloudCompare via Accelerated visualization app
After launching the remote desktop, start CloudCompare or ccViewer from Applications (upper-left corner) -> Geosciences.
Alternatively, open a terminal from Applications -> Terminal emulator:
Spatial datasets at CSC computing environment
Roihu has hundreds of Finnish spatial datasets available locally, additionally there is more in Allas and cPouta. More info under Spatial data in CSC computing environment
License
CloudCompare is published under the GNU General Public License.
Citation
CloudCompare (version 2.X.Y) [GPL software]. (2026). Retrieved from http://www.cloudcompare.org.
If you used a CloudCompare plugin, also cite the plugin authors.
Acknowledgement
Please acknowledge CSC and Geoportti in your publications, it is important for project continuation and funding reports. As an example, you can write "The authors wish to thank CSC - IT Center for Science, Finland (urn:nbn:fi:research-infras-2016072531) and the Open Geospatial Information Infrastructure for Research (Geoportti, urn:nbn:fi:research-infras-2016072513) for computational resources and support".
Installation
CloudCompare was installed with Apptainer. The CPU-versions were installed using Apptainer and wrapped with Tykky