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Point Cloud Editing#

The Selection Box feature provides an interactive 3D bounding-box tool for spatially filtering and operating on Point Cloud data directly in the viewport. It is part of the omni.pointcloud.ui extension and loads automatically with the Point Cloud Streaming Bundle extension.

Use the Selection Box to:

  • Visually define a region of interest within a streamed or imported Point Cloud to run clash detection queries.

  • Run spatial operators (Cut Inside, Cut Outside, Copy & Paste) on USD Points or streamed Point Clouds.

  • Highlight points inside the box using a custom MDL material with live min/max position updates.

  • Snapshot the current box state as a hidden USD prim for comparison or reuse.

Selection Box Window Panels#

The Selection Box window contains five collapsible panels.

Selection Workflow — workflow guideline for how to use the Selection Box.

Selection Workflow panel in the Selection Box window

Selection Options — display and behavior toggles:

Selection Options panel in the Selection Box window

  • Show Selection Box — Toggles solid box prim visibility in the viewport (default: on).

  • Show Wireframe Outline — Toggles a viewport wireframe overlay on the selection box (default: off).

  • Show Curve Outline — Toggles the BasisCurves prim outline (default: on).

  • Use Section Planes — Clips everything outside the box.

Point Cloud viewport with Use Section Planes disabled

Use Section Planes “Off”

Point Cloud viewport with Use Section Planes enabled

Use Section Planes “On”

Selection Box Parameters — defines the spatial extent of the box:

Selection Box Parameters panel with minimum and maximum position fields

  • Minimum Position (X, Y, Z) — Lower bound of the axis-aligned bounding box (default: -1.0, -1.0, -1.0).

  • Maximum Position (X, Y, Z) — Upper bound of the axis-aligned bounding box (default: 1.0, 1.0, 1.0).

    Note

    The minimum and maximum position values update automatically so the minimum is always smaller than the maximum across all dimensions.

  • Load from Box Prim — Imports bounds from an existing box-type USD prim in the Stage.

    Note

    You can create box-type USD prims manually (for example, Create > Shape > Cube) for use with the Selection Box.

  • Copy Selection To Stage — Saves the current box to the Stage as a hidden snapshot under <defaultPrim>/SelectionStates with auto-incremented names (for example, SelectionToolBox01, SelectionToolBox02).

The following steps describe how to use the Selection Box:

  1. Navigate to Tools > Selection Box.

    Selection Box item in the Tools menu

  2. A SelectionToolBox prim (Cube type) and a SelectionToolCurves prim (BasisCurves) are created temporarily in the Stage.

    Temporary SelectionToolBox and SelectionToolCurves prims in the Stage tree

  3. The active viewport tool switches to Selection Box mode.

    Note

    By default, Selection Box edits are authored in the USD session layer (useSessionLayer = true). They are not saved to the root layer unless you change this setting.

  4. Right-click a Point Cloud surface in the viewport where you want to place the box.

  5. Select Place Selection Box from the context menu.

    Viewport in Selection Box mode with Place Selection Box context menu

  6. The Selection Box center moves to the indicated world position, and the box uses default dimensions.

    Note

    If no valid hit point is found (for example, when you right-click empty space), a warning toast notification appears and the box does not move.

  7. Use the viewport pivot to position, rotate, and resize the box. Select the SelectionToolBox prim in the Stage to use the standard viewport transform. The Minimum Position and Maximum Position fields in the Selection Box Parameters panel stay synchronized automatically.

    Selection Box placed on a Point Cloud surface in the viewport

  8. To save the box permanently to the Stage, select Copy Selection To Stage. You can create multiple boxes with different dimensions and locations in the Stage.

    Note

    Until you select Copy Selection To Stage, the current box is temporary and is removed when you close the Selection Box window.

Point Set Operators — applies spatial operations scoped to the current box bounds:

Point Set Operators panel with Target Point Set and Operator dropdowns

  • Target Point Set — Lists all compatible Point Cloud prims in the Stage (USD Points or NVSealedUsdArchive streamed point sets).

  • Operator — Available operators depend on the target prim type.

    USD Points Type:

    • Cut Inside — Removes non-rotated points inside the current Selection Box and keeps points outside.

    • Cut Outside — Keeps non-rotated points inside the current Selection Box and removes points outside.

    • Merge Points — Merges sibling USD point sets under the same parent group into a single USD point set.

    • Copy & Paste — Copies non-rotated points inside the Selection Box into a new USD point set.

    • Pointset Info — Logs diagnostics about the selected USD points prim.

  • Streamed Points Type (NVSealedUsdArchive):

    • Streamed Points Copy & Paste — Extracts streamed points inside the Selection Box at the highest resolution and writes them as editable USD points.

    • Streamed Points Copy Nodes — Copies streamed nodes that intersect the Selection Box into a new streamed points prim at the highest resolution. This can include points outside the Selection Box.

    • Streamed Points LOD Box — Creates a streamed LOD Selection Box (exclusion) from the current selection bounds and a fresh _crop_NN sibling that carries its own inclusion-mode box.

Selection Box in the viewport and Stage after running a Point Set operator

Selection Box in Stage

Streamed Points Copy and Paste operator result in the viewport

Operator “Copy & Paste”

Streamed Points Copy Nodes operator result in the viewport

Operator “Copy Nodes”

  • Run Operator — Executes the selected operator. Result and timing are logged to console. Errors appear as a toast notification.

Selection Highlighting — assigns and live-updates a highlight material on a point set:

Selection Highlighting panel in the Selection Box window

  • Point Highlight Material — Select a USD Points prim as the highlight target.

  • Selection Box Material — Pick a compatible MDL material from the Stage (must expose minPosition and maxPosition parameters).

  • Selection Box Auto Scale — Auto-scales the Selection Box curve outline based on camera distance on placement.

  • Curve Radius — Adjusts the width of the curve outline (default: 0.02).

  • Section Plane Offset — Outward distance (world units) between the box faces and the RTX section planes, so the selection box and curve outlines are not clipped when Use Section Planes is on (default: 0.05).

  • Add Selection Box Material — Creates a transparent material in the Stage, binds it to the Selection Box, and places it under <defaultPrim>/Looks.

Example 1: Cut Inside#

The following steps describe how to use the Cut Inside operator:

  1. Position the Selection Box around the area of interest.

  2. In the Point Set Operators panel, select the target USD Points prim from the Target Point Set dropdown.

  3. Select Cut Inside from the Operator dropdown.

  4. Click Run Operator.

Points inside the Selection Box are removed from the target prim.

Example 2: Streamed Points LOD Box#

The following steps describe how to use the Streamed Points LOD Box operator:

  1. Position the Selection Box around the region of interest that should be streamed within a different box.

    Selection Box positioned around a region of interest in the viewport

  2. In the Point Set Operators panel, select the target USD Points prim from the Target Point Set dropdown on which to apply the operator.

  3. Select Streamed Points LOD Box from the Operator dropdown.

  4. Click Run Operator.

  5. Close the Selection Box tab for better visibility in the viewport.

  6. A new prim with a _crop_NN suffix has been created in the Stage.

    Stage tree showing the original prim and new _crop_NN prim after Streamed Points LOD Box

  7. The new prim contains the points excluded from the Point Cloud dataset.

  8. You can switch between the two prims using Hide and Show in the Stage.

Streamed Point LOD Box result showing excluded points inside the crop prim

Excluded points

Streamed Point LOD Box result showing outside points with the excluded region

Outside points with excluded

Viewport with both original and crop Point Cloud subsets visible

Both prims visible

  1. The new prim can be edited, rotated, moved around, or saved as a separate USD.

Example 3: Streamed Points Copy & Paste#

The following steps describe how to use the Streamed Points Copy & Paste operator:

  1. Position the Selection Box around the area of interest.

  2. In the Point Set Operators panel, select the target USD Points prim and the appropriate operator: Streamed Points Copy & Paste.

  3. Click Run Operator.

  4. A new USD Points prim is created in the Stage containing the copied points inside the Selection Box.

    Stage tree showing the new extracted USD Points prim

  5. The new USD prim contains USD points. It can be edited, rotated, moved around, or saved as a separate USD.

    Viewport showing the copied Point Cloud subset inside the Selection Box

References#

You can use the Selection Box to filter Point Cloud data, run spatial operators, and save edited subsets to the Stage. To import or stream Point Clouds before editing, refer to Workflow User Guide. To configure render settings and viewport overlays, refer to Streamed Point Clouds UI.