Point Cloud Data .pcd
The Point Cloud Library format. Lidar and depth-sensor captures.
What a .pcd file holds
PCD is the native format of the Point Cloud Library and the usual output of lidar scanners, depth cameras and ROS robotics stacks. It stores points with optional colour, intensity and normal fields in ASCII, binary or compressed binary layouts. There are no faces in a PCD file; converting it gives you a point cloud in the target format, not a surface.
Commonly seen in: PCL, ROS, CloudCompare, Open3D, lidar and depth-sensor pipelines.
| Data | Stored in PCD |
|---|---|
| Geometry | No |
| Materials and colour | No |
| Texture maps | No |
| Animation and rigs | No |
| Scene hierarchy | No |
| Read here | Yes |
| Written here | Yes |
Tested against a real file
The last sweep loaded Zaghetto.pcd from three.js examples through the viewer on this site: 0 triangles across 0 meshes and 1 materials, in 1.8 seconds. Every format's result is on the test results page, run 2026-09-08.
What we put in a .pcd file we write
The vertices of the model as an ASCII point cloud with packed RGB. Triangles are not written, because PCD has nowhere to put them.
Convert PCD to another format
Every pairing has a page saying what survives the trip.
Convert something else to PCD
Other things to do with a .pcd file
Questions about PCD
How do I open a .pcd file?
Drop it into the viewer on this site and it opens in the browser, with the scene tree, the materials and the mesh statistics. Nothing is uploaded. If you want it in another program instead, convert it to GLB, which almost everything reads.
Is PCD a good format to archive in?
PCD stores . Anything outside that list will not be in the file at all, so archive the original alongside it if the surfacing or the rig matters.
Does converting PCD lose quality?
Geometry is copied vertex for vertex, so the shape does not degrade. What gets lost is whatever the target format has no field for: convert to STL and the materials go, convert to OBJ and the animation goes. The comparison table on each converter page says exactly which.
Formats that hold the same things
Or go back to the full format reference.