How do you import a text point cloud in MeshLab? - text

I have an XYZ text file, generated from a Renishaw touch probe on a CNC mill, that I'm trying to open in MeshLab. I can't see anything after importing. It's a simple file of just XYZ positions. A short example:
X04.0000Y01.1374Z-01.5000
X04.5000Y00.9715Z-01.5000
X05.0000Y00.7969Z-01.5000
X05.0000Y00.8322Z-01.3356
X04.5000Y01.0022Z-01.3431
X04.0000Y01.1603Z-01.3500
X03.9000Y01.1708Z-01.3491
X03.8000Y01.1392Z-01.3472
X03.7000Y01.1236Z-01.3461
This example is so short it would just be a line if you connected the points. I tried putting spaces between each value as the import dialog box asks and nothing shows up on screen. There is little or no documentation on how to accomplish this.
Can anyone open this simple text file and provide the steps to accomplish this?

The following very simple trick worked for me.
Replace all the occurrences of X, Y and Z with a space (I did it in Emacs and your text editor can surely achieve the same).
Save your file with the extension xyz (e.g., as CNC.xyz).
Open it in Meshlab.
The picture below is a printscreen showing the points you provided. (note that I have made them bigger by selecting "Render > Show Vertex Dots" and by increasing the point size in the menu available after pressing the "Show Layer Dialog").

Replace the letters X, Y, Z with spaces. For meshlab you have to leave it like this:
24.99221 9.49049 13.06404
25.99253 9.49049 12.77443
25.99253 9.85957 12.66110

Related

How to create linux tui like this one on the picture

Could someone share how can i create tui like this one with input boxex and search ?
What do i need?
Normally programmers use a ready to use library like ncurses.
You can also do it by hand if you really have to much time. To get for example the border lines of a dialog window you have to take a look at the current code page your terminal is emulating, for example: Code Page 850. As you can see, you will find single and double line boarders and also crossings and so on. Now you have to move your cursor to a given position, print that char from the code page and ... lots of work. Moving cursors itself can also be done by simple chars from your emulated terminal by using escape codes.
As said: Instead of doing it all by hand, simply use a lib like ncurses.
You can use some python libraries like pyTermTk or textual, there is wide selection of
libraries to choose from.

Python script in Colab keeps throwing error message: IndentationError: unindent does not match any outer indentation level

I'm currently using Google Colab in order to take advantage of its free GPU. I was trying to modify a code that I copy and pasted from machinelearningmaster.com. However, whenever I try to add a new code line, for example "print("some words"), I get an indention error.
I have tried adding tabs or spaces before the print call but I still get the error. for example:
space,space,print("some words")
tab, tab ,print("some words")
I have also checked the colab editor settings, currently the indention width setting are set to two spaces.
The first three lines are part of the original code, the print statement is
my addition. I copy and pasted this directly from the colab editor. In Colab all four lines are aligned. As you can see here only the first three lines are aligned. I don't know what's going on.
img_path = images_dir + filename
ann_path = annotations_dir + image_id + '.xml'
count=count+1
print("this is count: ", count)
I expected this to print the value of count, instead I get an error message telling me:
IndentationError: unindent does not match any outer indentation level
Okay, after much searching and frustration, I have an idea of what went wrong, but even better, a solution to fix it.
It appears that the Google Collaborator (Colab) editor does not have a way to set it for tabs "\t" versus space (space-bar entries). From the settings tab on the cell you can set the width of the tab from 2 to 4, but these will be interpreted as 2 to 4 space-bar entries. Usually, this isn't a problem. However, if you're like me and you want to test out code from the web, or be lazy and just copy paste from your editor, problems can arise.
Here's how I fixed it. Before pasting the copied code into Colab, first put it into notepad++. Go to View> Show Symbols >Show All Characters, click on this, you should now be able so see all the characters in the code. Find a tab, it will look like an arrow pointing to the right -->, right click and copy it. Open Search> Find, open the Replace tab. Depending on your version of notepad++ the tab you copied will automatically be entered and the replace will already be set to four spaces. Hit "Replace all". This will automatically replace all tabs with equivalent spaces. Copy the code from notepad++ back to Colab. Now there will be no more conflicts.
I think using a simple find and replace tool will just work fine. I also came across this error recently in Colab and I went through #Rice Man solution. The only difference was I used Libre office writer instead of Notepad++. I also found this tool to be helpful. I am not proficient in using Colab but this solution worked for me.
Another quick fix that worked for me related to this question.
I was trying to run a python script in colab and faced this error though the line seems at an appropriate indentation in that script.
I checked with the !cat filename.py cmd, and found out that the actual indentation appears different than it is in the script (hence the error).
Taking that unindented line (according to the colab) at the start of the line and using space afterward fixed the error.
I used this website to fix the error.
Copy your code to the site, then click beautify button on top left. This will remove indention errors.
If you want to know where the indention error is coming from, use #Prachi answer.

Python Inquirer Module: Remove Choices When Done (Using Curses)

NOTE: Although I give a lot of info on Inquirer, I'm pretty sure that most of it won't apply (just being safe). For my actual question about curses, its at the bottom.
I'm using the Inquirer module in Python 3 to allow the user to select a value from a list. I run this:
import inquirer
choice = inquirer.prompt([inquirer.List("size",message="Which size do you need?",choices=["Large", "Medium", "Small"])
And I'm given this:
[?] What size do you need?: Medium
Large
> Medium
Small
And using the up and down keys, I can change my selection, and hit enter to choose, after which the "choice" variable contains the value I selected. The issue is: Once the selection is done, the choices still show. I want to delete them when done. I'm currently using ANSI Escape Codes to delete the choices from onscreen when done, where x is the number of choices:
import sys
for i in range (x+1):
sys.stdout.write('\x1b[1A')
sys.stdout.write('\x1b[2K')
Which leaves the printed text as:
[?] What size do you need?: Medium
The issue is, ANSI escape codes aren't universal. I want to use a solution that works on all terminals, preferably curses, but curses isn't very friendly to new users, so I was wondering if anyone knew how to use curses to "delete x lines above current position". Thanks!
curses, as such, would erase the whole display (which is probably not what you want). A low-level terminfo/termcap approach might seem promising, but while ECMA-48 does define a sequence (ED, with parameter 1) which erases above the current position, there is no predefined terminfo/termcap capability which corresponds to this. All that you will find there is the capability for erasing to the end of the screen, or erasing the whole screen.
"ANSI sequences" is an obsolete term. Referring to ECMA-48, you could do
sys.stdout.write('\x1b[1J')
after moving the cursor to the last location you would like to erase.

using A Layout File(.lyt) and fixed width file to create a .CSV file output

I have been given a layout file, .lyt ,which gives me information on how to interpret a fixed width file. I need to convert this file into a comma delimited file. Normally this process is one or two files so i just do it using excels data tools by hand creating the delimitation based on reading the layout and applying it. Now however I have a multiple files with different layout files I need to apply to each and this could become tedious. I remember once seeing someone apply this type of file directly using either notepad ++ or excel but after an exhaustive google search I cannot find a tutorial on how to apply a layout file to a fixed width file to create a csv file without direct human intervention. Does anyone know how to do this?
below is a sample of what is in the layout file
Seq Position Name Length
1 1-3 Title Code Full 3
2 4-17 Given Name 14
3 18-18 Middle Initial 1
4 19-48 Surname 30
To all future users I could not find a solution but I did find a workaround using excels own data tools. Going to the data tab, go to get external data, From Text. From there follow the wizard. Im sorry I could not find the proper solution I know exists.

How to highlight portions of a PDF file programmatically (eg. using command line)

I am interested in highlighting portions of a PDF programmatically, hopefully through a command line tool of sorts. My particular PDF file is not OCRed so the text is not searchable, but the particular places that I would like to highlight occur on every page in the same position. I was wondering if there is a tool to do this where I can input the rectangle positions in pixels into the command line tool and it would highlight the relevant portions for me.
Previous Findings
I have looked over the internet and found a few sites noting how to do this by searching for the text. Unfortunately that is not possible for me as my PDF does not have OCR.
I have searched stackexchange for similar questions and found
How to Highlight Text in PDF with commandline (windows)? and https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32713633/how-to-highlight-text-in-pdf-using-acrobat-reader-from-command-line but both were unanswered.
Potential Ideas
The first link had a possible lead with a given link to
Add comments to PDF files automagically with regular expressions
which uses ghostscript to include annotations. Is it possible to use ghostscript to highlight the pages in a similar fashion by coordinates.
The second link mentioned using command line options for the adobe acrobat/reader exe file, but searching the relevant manual for the command line switches does not show any highlighting options. It may be possible that Adobe does not support the highlight option through command line anymore, which would be unfortunate.
My last idea would be using AutoHotkey to create a macro that does an actual highlight for me using a GUI program, but that would be the last resort.
What do you all think? Any ideas on what to do, or things to check out? I am willing to program out a solution and can work out the solution on Windows or Linux if necessary. Thanks in advance.
I would have thought a Highlight annotation was what you wanted.Highlight annotations are a type of text markup annotation and as such take a set of QuadPoints which describe the bounding box(es) to apply the annotation type to.
Since you say you know the co-ordinates this would seem appropriate for your use. Of course, you will have to create the Annotation on every page, and you will have to learn how to program this with a pdfmark, but I believe it should work.
Note that the co-ordinates are in user space (generally 72 points to the inch) NOT pixels, because PDF is not an image format there is no concept of pixels, except for included images.
There are quite a few officially unsupported command line parameters to acrobat or the acrobat reader (acrord32.exe in Windows).
See: https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/pdf_open_parameters.pdf
This includes a parameter to highlight with four integers at left,right,top,bottom that are in some unspecified units but with 0,0 at the top left of the page.
EXCEPT... I have been unable to get this to work.
I can pass in parameters to search and zoom but highlight never shows anything.
For instance:
start acrord32 /n /s /a "search=MS25441&zoom=300&page=1&highlight=0,55,0,65" floorplan1_ABM_cameras.pdf
Opens the files, searches for the string, zooms to 300% but nothing shows for a highlight no matter what coordinates I specify.

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