Free point cloud software
Free point cloud software: a LAS, LAZ and E57 viewer that runs every process
Neurones 3D is free point cloud software for Windows. The free viewer opens LAS, LAZ, COPC, E57, PLY and more, offline, and runs every process on them: classification, segmentation, the ground filter, measurement, change detection and the floor plan. There is no account and no trial clock. You pay once, and only to write results out.
By Dr. Florent Poux, 3D Geodata Academy · Updated
At a glance
Short statements, each one checkable. Where there is a number, it was measured, and the guides say on what.
- The free viewer opens, views and runs every process: classification, segmentation, the ground filter, measurement, sections, meshing, the scene graph, the floor plan preview and change detection.
- There is no account, no trial clock and no telemetry; it runs fully offline on Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit).
- It reads LAS (PDRF 0 to 10), LAZ, COPC, E57, PLY, PCD, NPY and ASCII point files, as well as IFC, STEP, USD, glTF, OBJ, STL and Gaussian splats.
- A 43.5 million point LAS opens in about 1.2 s; a 127.8 million point, 7.9 GB E57 in about 22 s; a 16.2 million point COPC in 2.4 s.
- The index is built out of core with bounded memory, so a cloud larger than the machine’s RAM still opens.
- Four trained classifiers ship in every build, including the free one.
- Converting a file back out as it came in is free. Writing what N3D computed (classes, drawings, rasters, meshes, reports) needs a one-time paid edition, with no subscription.
- It is one executable with no installer: unzip it and run
n3d.exe.
What free covers, and where it stops
The whole program, without the exports
The free build of Neurones 3D is not a cut-down viewer with the interesting parts greyed out. It is the complete program: every process runs, every result can be inspected, coloured, measured and reviewed on screen. The one thing it does not do is write out what it computed. That boundary is enforced in the code and tested in both directions, so what you try on your own data is exactly what the paid edition does, minus the files. A paid edition is bought once, with an offline key that does not expire; there is no subscription.
Process by process
| Process | Free | Needs a paid edition |
|---|---|---|
| Open, view, navigate, add layers | yes | Save Project As |
| Measure distance, area, volume | yes | kept measurements in a report |
| Segmentation and decomposition | yes | exporting segment and component |
| Classification, four models | yes | exporting class and confidence |
| Ground filter | the fit | exporting hag and groundify |
| Terrain products | choosing and previewing | writing GeoTIFF and GeoJSON |
| Floor plan, sections, elevations | drawing and previewing | saving DXF, PDF, SVG, GIS layers |
| Compare and M3C2 change | yes | region CSV and the report |
| Meshing | yes | writing glTF / GLB or USD |
| Gaussian splats | viewing, measuring, converting | the glTF level-of-detail chain |
| 2-D sections | cutting and viewing | Save PNG |
| Flythrough | navigating and recording | saving the path and the MP4 |
Video to 3D, which is experimental, and opening USD, IFC and STEP models are free as well.
A free LAS, LAZ and E57 viewer that keeps up
Drop a file on the window. Scans are indexed once into a local cache and memory-mapped back, so the second open takes about a second. Measured: a 43.5 million point LAS in about 1.2 s at 60 FPS, LAZ decompressed at about 40 million points a second, a 16.2 million point COPC in 2.4 s, and a 127.8 million point, 7.9 GB E57 in about 22 s. E57 files open with every scan placed by its pose, and their 360° panoramas can be stood in. A truncated download is reported as truncated rather than half-loaded. With no data to hand, File › Demo scenes generates six scenes and two pairs of clouds on the spot. The format matrix lists what each format carries.
Where free stops, honestly
Some things are not built, free or paid: N3D does not read or write DWG or DGN (save as DXF instead), does not write OBJ, does not decimate meshes or repair them into manifolds, and runs on Windows only. The builds are not yet code-signed, so Windows shows a SmartScreen prompt on first run. The command line and the Python package belong to the Engine & SDK edition, not the free viewer. For the full picture of what the program does, see point cloud processing software; for the models and their accuracy, point cloud classification.
Questions
Is there free point cloud software that is not a trial?
Yes. The Neurones 3D viewer is free with no trial clock and no account: the whole viewer and every in-app process, for as long as you use it. What it does not do for free is write out what it computed; that is the paid edition.
Is there a free LAS, LAZ and E57 point cloud viewer?
Yes. N3D reads LAS (PDRF 0 to 10), LAZ, COPC, E57 (multi-scan, with its panoramas), PLY, PCD, NPY and ASCII point files for free. A 43.5 million point LAS opens in about 1.2 s and renders at 60 FPS; a 127.8 million point, 7.9 GB E57 opens in about 22 s.
Can I classify and segment a point cloud for free?
Yes. Segmentation, primitive decomposition, the ground filter and all four trained classifiers (indoor, outdoor aerial LiDAR, powerline, streetscape) run in the free build, with a per-point confidence you can colour by. Exporting the class, confidence and segment columns is part of the paid edition.
What needs a paid licence?
Writing out what the program worked out: computed columns on an export, drawings (DXF, PDF, SVG), terrain rasters, GIS vectors, meshes as glTF, reports, region and zone CSVs, saved images and flythrough videos. It is bought once, not a subscription, and the key is checked offline and does not expire.
Does the free version work offline?
Yes, entirely. Files are opened, processed and written on your machine. There is no upload, no cloud service, no account and no telemetry.
How large a point cloud can the free viewer open?
The limit is the disk, not the memory: the index is built out of core with bounded RAM and memory-mapped back, so a cloud larger than your RAM still opens. The second open of a file takes about a second.
Windows says "Windows protected your PC". Is the free download safe?
That is Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, shown for new downloads that are not yet signed with a code-signing certificate. Today’s builds are not signed yet; publisher signing is being set up. It is not a virus detection. Download only from neurones3d.com, and check the published SHA-256 hash with Get-FileHash if you want to be certain.
Is there a free point cloud viewer for Mac or Linux?
Not from N3D today. It is Windows only; a macOS build is on the roadmap.
The guides behind it
Each guide gives the menu path, the steps, the command-line equivalent and the limits.
confidence column, and split a powerline corridor into individual trees, spans and poles.
Understand the scene
Unsupervised segmentation
Break the scene into coherent surface patches (walls, floors, table tops, pipe runs) with no training data and no parameters to tune, and get a segment column for every point.
Understand the scene
Ground filter
Drop a simulated cloth on the upside-down cloud to fit the ground, label every point ground or off-ground, and measure each point’s height above that ground, with no training data and parameters you can adjust live.
Build deliverables
Floor plans, sections and elevations
One command from raw points to a drawing set - walls between their measured faces, doors with their swing, windows with their glass, dimension chains, room areas and levels, a legend, a scale bar and a north arrow - plus sections and elevations placed where they show the most.
Compare and register
Compare and detect change (M3C2)
Compare a survey against a reference (another survey, a mesh or a BIM model) as a signed distance with conformance bands and a worst-first list of defects, or run M3C2 to say what was gained, what was lost, and what simply was not observed.
Measure and cut
Measure distance, area and volume
Pick points for coordinates and distances, trace a polygon for an area, and measure a volume in three clicks’ worth of stages - trace the base, set the height of the prism, commit - and read both the extrusion and the material the points actually fill below its ceiling.