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Create a Clipping Box in a Point Cloud or 3D Model

Learn how to select an area of interest in a point cloud with a clipping box.

Stefanie Zerulla avatar
Written by Stefanie Zerulla
Updated this week

You can create a clipping box in the point cloud in the 3D view, in the 3D model view or in the overlay view of point cloud and 3D model.

Clipping boxes provide an easy access to areas of interest of a 3D point cloud. They allow slicing the point cloud or 3D Model and clipping away specific areas which enables you to display or hide certain points of the 3D point cloud or 3D model.

3D building model before applying Clipping Box

3D building model after applying Clipping Box

Create Clipping Box

In the 3D view or in the 3D model view:

Click the clipping box icon .

A clipping box is displayed around the complete point cloud or 3D model. The toolbar is expanded by two more buttons.

If you have zoomed into the point cloud, you can click the icon to automatically adjust the clipping box to the zoomed in section.Clicking the icon resets the adjustment.

The clipping box icon is highlighted blue to indicate that the button is active and marked with a red dot to indicate that there is an active clipping box that occludes part of the data:

In both cases, you can rotate and resize the clipping box as described below.

Rotate and Resize the Clipping Box Manually

The clipping box may not be positioned correctly, for example not perpendicular to the outlines of the point cloud or 3D model of a building.

  1. Grab and hold the blue rotation handle and rotate the clipping box until it is positioned correctly.

  2. Grab and hold one of the colored resizing handles and drag to resize the clipping box.

  3. Repeat the procedures with the other resizing handles if required.

Clipping Box before manual rotation

Clipping Box after manual rotation

Hide and Display a Clipping Box

To hide the clipping box, click the clipping box item again.

The blue highlighting is removed but the red dot remains to indicate that there is an active clipping box:

The point cloud or 3D model now only shows the section inside the clipping box.

You can display the clipping box by clicking the icon again.

Are Clipping Boxes Stored?

Clipping boxes are stored in the Browser session, i.e. they are deleted when you close the browser in which Sphere XG is running. This means that you can also go to another element or another view and the clipping box will still be active as long as the current browser sessions is opened.

Reset and Remove a Clipping Box

Click icon in the expanded toolbar to reset the clipping box to its original state.

This means that all rotating and resizing actions are reset.

Remove a Clipping Box

Click the icon to close the clipping box tool and remove the clipping box.


If you want to read this article in a different language currently not available in this Help Center, please refer to the Sphere XG User Manuel here under .

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