/cli-anything-cloudcompare

name: "cli-anything-cloudcompare"
description: "Command-line interface for CloudCompare — Agent-friendly harness for CloudCompare, the open-source 3D point cloud and mesh processing software. Supports 41 commands across 9 groups: project management, session control, point cloud operations (subsample, filter, segment, analyze), mesh operations, distance computation (C2C, C2M), transformations (ICP, matrix), export (LAS/LAZ/PLY/PCD/OBJ/STL/E57), and interactive REPL."

cli-anything-cloudcompare

Agent-friendly command-line harness for [CloudCompare](https://cloudcompare.org) — the open-source 3D point cloud and mesh processing software.

**41 commands** across 9 groups.

Installation

pip install cli-anything-cloudcompare

**Prerequisites:**

• Python 3.10+
• CloudCompare installed on your system
• Linux (Flatpak): `flatpak install flathub org.cloudcompare.CloudCompare`
• macOS/Windows: download from https://cloudcompare.org

**Tested with:** CloudCompare 2.13.2 (Flatpak, Linux)

Global Options

These options must be placed **before** the subcommand:

cli-anything-cloudcompare [--project FILE] [--json] COMMAND [ARGS]...

| Option | Description | |---|---| | `-p, --project TEXT` | Path to project JSON file | | `--json` | Output results as JSON (for agent consumption) |

Command Groups

1. project — Project Management (3 commands)

project new

Create a new empty project file.

# Create a project with default name
cli-anything-cloudcompare project new -o myproject.json

# Create a project with a custom name
cli-anything-cloudcompare project new -o myproject.json -n "Bridge Survey 2024"

# JSON output for agents
cli-anything-cloudcompare --json project new -o myproject.json

Options: `-o/--output TEXT` (required), `-n/--name TEXT`

project info

Show project info and loaded entities.

cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json project info

# JSON output
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json --json project info

project status

Show quick project status (cloud count, mesh count, last operation).

cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json project status

---

2. session — Session Management (4 commands)

session save

Save the current project state to disk.

cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json session save

session history

Show recent operation history.

# Show last 10 operations (default)
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json session history

# Show last 5 operations
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json session history -n 5

Options: `-n/--last INTEGER`

session set-format

Update the default export format for future operations.

# Set default cloud export to LAS
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json session set-format --cloud-fmt LAS --cloud-ext las

# Set default mesh export to OBJ
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json session set-format --mesh-fmt OBJ --mesh-ext obj

# Set both cloud and mesh defaults
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json session set-format \
  --cloud-fmt PLY --cloud-ext ply \
  --mesh-fmt STL --mesh-ext stl

Options: `--cloud-fmt TEXT`, `--cloud-ext TEXT`, `--mesh-fmt TEXT`, `--mesh-ext TEXT`

session undo

Remove the last operation from history (soft undo — does not delete output files).

cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json session undo

---

3. cloud — Point Cloud Operations (21 commands)

All cloud commands take `CLOUD_INDEX` (0-based integer from `cloud list`) and most accept `--add-to-project` to register the output back into the project.

cloud add

Add a point cloud file to the project.

# Add a LAS file
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json cloud add /data/scan.las

# Add with a label
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json cloud add /data/scan.las -l "roof scan"

Options: `-l/--label TEXT`

cloud list

List all clouds currently in the project.

cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json cloud list

# JSON output for parsing indices
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json --json cloud list

cloud convert

Convert a cloud from one format to another (format determined by file extension).

# LAS → PLY
cli-anything-cloudcompare cloud convert /data/scan.las /data/scan.ply

# PCD → LAS
cli-anything-cloudcompare cloud convert /data/cloud.pcd /data/cloud.las

cloud subsample

Reduce the number of points using RANDOM, SPATIAL, or OCTREE method.

# Random: keep 100 000 points
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json cloud subsample 0 \
  -o /data/sub_random.las -m random -n 100000

# Spatial: minimum distance 0.05 m between points
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json cloud subsample 0 \
  -o /data/sub_spatial.las -m spatial -n 0.05

# Octree: level 8
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json cloud subsample 0 \
  -o /data/sub_octree.las -m octree -n 8 --add-to-project

Options: `-o/--output TEXT` (required), `-m/--method [random|spatial|octree]`, `-n/--param FLOAT`, `--add-to-project`

cloud crop

Crop a cloud to an axis-aligned bounding box.

# Keep points inside the box
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json cloud crop 0 \
  -o /data/cropped.las \
  --xmin 0.0 --ymin 0.0 --zmin 0.0 \
  --xmax 10.0 --ymax 10.0 --zmax 5.0

# Keep points OUTSIDE the box
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json cloud crop 0 \
  -o /data/exterior.las \
  --xmin 0.0 --ymin 0.0 --zmin 0.0 \
  --xmax 10.0 --ymax 10.0 --zmax 5.0 --outside

Options: `-o/--output TEXT` (required), `--xmin/ymin/zmin/xmax/ymax/zmax FLOAT` (all required), `--outside`, `--add-to-project`

cloud normals

Compute surface normals via the octree method.

# Compute normals at octree level 6
cli-anything-cloudcompare --project myproject.json cloud