Select every other edge loop on your model (maya)

1. Make sure your script panel in the bottom is set to MEL

2. Select your edge selection tool and highlight one edge in your object. Double click to get the entire loop.

3. Once that loop is selected drop this code snippet in your script editor and hit enter

polySelectEdgesEveryN "edgeRing" 2;

It should select every other loop in your model.

Create a geodesic dome in maya

I recently had a project where I needed to create a dome in maya with precise angles and what not. Here is how to quickly make Geodesic domes in maya.

In the Maya menus

create>polygon primative>platonic solids

To make a 36 foot dome set radius to 18
set to icosahedron
choose collectively


smooth linearly
devision levels 1
divisions per face 3
push strength 0
roundness 10

Merge multiple scan point clouds from Faro Scene into one using Mesh Lab and Cloud Compare

Sometimes when you have done your LIDAR scans and need to merge them The best way to do it is with third party free tools after.

Let's start by saying you have your lidar scans in faro SCENE

1. Export .E57 files from Faro SCENE

2. Import into Cloud Compare

3. Select all scans holding control and selecting them in the DB tree of cloud compare. Then goto edit>merge.

4. Save the merge out as a PLY file.


Now depending on how you are going to use the point clouds they may need normals for them to display properly. To compute those:

1. Import the PLY into meshlab

2. Goto filters>normals Compute normals for point sets

3. set neighbor number to 1000 for 5 million point  cloud

4. Then save the cloud back out. With _normals in the name so you know what happend.