How can I import a pcd file containing more than xyz information?

Hi, I want to import a pcd file containing imaging radar data (x,y,z,doppler,range,azimuth,elevation). I tried it with pcread, but unfortunately only the xyz information is imported and all the other information like doppler, etc. is missing. How can I import the pcd data with all their information?

I attached the pcd header information and what pcread imported.

Answer 1

[NVSL]

Hey @Andreas

I understand you are trying to read point cloud data for fields other than x, y, z co-ordinates. But MATLAB’s “pcread” function only imports the XYZ coordinates from a “.PCD” file and ignores additional fields like Doppler, Range, Azimuth, and Elevation. To access those extra fields, you need to manually parse the PCD file or use a custom function that reads all data fields.

As your “.PCD” file is in binary format (DATA binary), you'll need to parse the header and then read the binary payload according to the specified field layout. MATLAB doesn't have built-in support for parsing binary PCD beyond basic XYZ, so you need a custom parser.

You can use “fread” in binary mode for file parsing. Please refer to the attached documentation for more information.

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fread.html

Hope this helps!

[Andreas]

Many thanks for your help!