Processing is finished. The point cloud is exported.
That is not the same as being ready to deliver.
Drone operators, reality-capture professionals, and surveying and mapping teams already know how to produce LAS or LAZ from photogrammetry or LiDAR software. The step that gets skipped is simpler: open the cloud, look at it, and confirm it is the file you think it is before it leaves the project.
This article is that review. It is not a primer on what a point cloud is. It is the checklist after export.
The examples use SpearAtlas as a working point cloud viewer. The same questions apply in any serious review workflow.
Why review the cloud before you send it
An exported LAS or LAZ file can look complete in a folder and still be the wrong product.
Review is there to catch problems you can see without opening desktop classification tools:
- The expected site is present, not an empty tile or an older export.
- Orientation makes sense. Ground looks like ground.
- Expected attributes are available, such as color or intensity.
- Coordinates are consistent with the project.
- A known dimension looks reasonable.
- The original file is still retained after you looked at a preview.
None of that is automatic. Opening the cloud is the review. A screenshot of the processing software is not.
A practical point cloud review sequence
Work through the cloud the same way every time. In SpearAtlas, that sequence lives on the project Point Cloud output and in the dedicated viewer.
Put the exported file on the project
Keep the point cloud with the same job as the orthomosaic, 3D model, report, and supporting files.
A LAS sitting on a processing drive is easy to lose, rename, or send without the rest of the mission. The cloud is one deliverable in a package, not a stray attachment. Drone mapping deliverables explained covers how that package is usually assembled.
Wait for the interactive preview
A browser point cloud viewer does not open the raw LAS or LAZ as a desktop application would.
In SpearAtlas, LAS and LAZ go through a short processing step that builds an interactive preview. Until that preview is ready, the original file remains available for download.
E57 can be stored and downloaded on the same Point Cloud output. It does not currently have the same interactive preview. If the job is an E57 scanner package, retain the file and review it in software that opens E57. Do not wait for a browser view that is not there.
Check overall orientation
When the preview opens, start with the whole dataset.
Orbit, pan, and zoom until the site is recognizable. Use a top view and other standard views to see whether the cloud reads like the actual place: a roof looks like a roof, a road sits below the buildings, a stockpile has a base.
Confirm the dataset visually matches the site you captured.
Correct viewing orientation if the dataset is off-axis
Some exports open rolled, tilted, or standing on an unexpected axis. That is common when capture, processing, and viewing software disagree about which way is up.
SpearAtlas Edit Orientation is for that moment. Drag the colored rings to rotate the displayed dataset until the site reads correctly, then apply. Reset returns the display to the original viewing orientation. Cancel discards an in-progress rotation.
This is a viewing correction. It rotates how the cloud is shown in the viewer. It does not rewrite the LAS or LAZ file, change the coordinate reference system, or change source XYZ values. Distances still use the source coordinates, not the rotated display.
Use it so you can inspect the cloud. Do not treat it as a georeferencing fix to send downstream.
Review RGB, elevation, and intensity
Color modes are how you check whether the file contains the attributes you expected.
RGB is useful when the cloud includes color from photography. Buildings, pavement, vegetation, and painted marks should be recognizable. If the job was supposed to be a colorized photogrammetry cloud and the preview is only grayscale height, stop and confirm you exported the right product.
Elevation shows relative height and site form. It is a quick way to see berms, pads, roof planes, and depressions when color is missing or distracting.
Intensity shows return-intensity information when the dataset includes it. Many LiDAR clouds are easier to read in intensity than in RGB.
Switch between the modes the file actually supports. Classification coloring is a separate topic in the LAS file itself, and it is not part of this viewer. LAS vs LAZ covers classification as a format feature, including why it belongs in specialist software when you need to edit it.
Inspect a few XYZ values
Pick several recognizable locations: a building corner, a pad edge, a painted stall, a control-adjacent feature you already know.
Confirm the coordinate values are consistent with the coordinate system you expect for the project. You are not reconstructing the CRS from the viewer. You are checking that the numbers look like that project, not like an unprojected local scratch export.
If the coordinates do not match the rest of the job, fix that in processing and metadata before delivery. Coordinate systems in drone mapping is the place for CRS, datums, and elevation surfaces.
Sanity-check one known distance
Measure one thing you already know approximately.
A facade bay, a painted parking stall, a slab edge, or a pad width is enough. In SpearAtlas that is a two-click distance in the dedicated viewer.
If a 12 foot stall reads as 120, or a 30 meter facade reads as 3, you have a units, scale, or export problem. If the distance is in the right neighborhood, you have not certified the cloud. You have ruled out a gross error.
This is not survey verification, and it is not proof of absolute accuracy. Drone photogrammetry accuracy explained covers why a measurement in a viewer is not the same as a checked survey product.
Browser preview versus the original point-cloud file
A point cloud viewer in the browser is not a substitute for the source file.
Interactive review needs a display representation that can load and orbit without asking every stakeholder to wait on the full point count. The technical deliverable is still the original LAS or LAZ, the file CAD, GIS, and LiDAR tools are written to consume.
SpearAtlas makes that split visible in the file info panel.
Source points is the count associated with the original dataset.
Display points is the count in the interactive preview. The preview may contain fewer rendered points than the source file.
That is expected. The preview exists so you can review orientation, attributes, a few coordinates, and a sanity-check distance. The original LAS or LAZ remains the file you keep, download, and send into downstream workflows.
Do not confuse a successful preview with a thinned replacement product. If a client or engineer needs the cloud in their own software, they need the original file, not a screenshot of the viewer.
Keep the original LAS or LAZ with the project
After the preview looks right, confirm the original file is still on the project.
Browser review answers whether the cloud is plausible. Downstream work still needs LAS or LAZ: extraction, further classification, CAD reference, archive. If you only kept a preview, you no longer have a point cloud deliverable.
Whether that original should be LAS or LAZ depends on the receiving workflow. LAS vs LAZ is the format decision. This step is only: do not delete the source because the viewer opened.
When the job is ready to hand off, keep the cloud attached to the same project as the map and the model. How to share mapping deliverables with a client covers that last mile.
Be precise about what the client currently receives for a standalone point cloud. In SpearAtlas, the dedicated interactive viewer is for the authenticated project team. A client share can include the original point cloud file as a download. It does not currently open the dedicated Point Cloud room.
When you still need desktop point-cloud software
Browser review is the pre-delivery look. It is not the processing suite.
Keep using desktop point cloud software when the job needs classification editing, clipping, profiles, sections, cropping, tiling, COPC production, CAD extraction, advanced analysis, or formal volume workflows.
Those tasks belong in tools built for them. The viewer in the project is there so you do not deliver a cloud you have never opened. It complements specialist software. It does not replace it.
If the better client-facing product is a mesh or a Gaussian splat rather than the cloud itself, that is a representation choice, not a review shortcut. Point cloud vs 3D mesh vs Gaussian splat compares those outputs.
Point cloud review checklist
- Confirm the correct file is attached to the project.
- Wait for the interactive preview.
- Check overall orientation.
- Correct the display orientation if the dataset loaded off-axis.
- Review RGB, elevation, and intensity when those attributes are present.
- Inspect a few XYZ coordinates on known features.
- Check one known distance as a sanity check.
- Review file metadata.
- Compare Source points and Display points.
- Confirm the original LAS or LAZ remains available.
A client should receive a point cloud you have actually opened. The preview tells you whether the export is usable to look at. The original file is what you keep with the job.