Concepts · For yards, quarries & crews

Point Cloud and Mesh Exports Explained: OBJ, USDZ, GLB, STL, PLY, LAS, E57 and KMZ

October 24, 2026 · 8 min read

A scan of a pile can leave the phone as a mesh or a point cloud in nine different formats. This is what each one carries, what opens it, and which one to send to a surveyor, an engineer, a client or Google Earth.

In short

A point cloud is the raw measured points; a mesh is a surface stitched over them. Survey and GIS tools want points (LAS, E57, PLY); design, web and AR tools want meshes (OBJ, FBX, GLB, USDZ, STL).
LAS and E57 are the two interchange standards for scan data. LAS is the lidar-mapping format from ASPRS and carries coordinates; E57 is the ASTM format most laser-scan software reads.
KMZ puts the model on Google Earth, USDZ opens in AR on an iPhone, GLB is the compact web format, and STL is for 3D printing and has no color.
A phone’s GPS places a scan within meters, not centimeters, so a georeferenced export is for context and records, not for stakeout. The volume does not depend on it.

Mesh or point cloud: what is the difference?

A scanner, whether a drone, a laser or a phone, measures millions of points on the pile’s surface, each with an x, y and z and usually a color. That set of points is the point cloud. It is the measurement itself, which is why surveyors and auditors like it: nothing has been smoothed or guessed.

A mesh is a surface built over those points from small triangles. It closes the gaps, can carry a photo texture, and renders instantly in a web browser or an AR view. It is also what the volume comes from: the space between the mesh and the base is the pile. Point-cloud formats keep the evidence, mesh formats carry the shape, and a pile scan is worth keeping in one of each. The guide to stockpile measurement methods explains how each kind of scanner produces them.

The nine formats at a glance

Format	Mesh or points	Color	Position on the map	Opens in	Use it for
OBJ	Mesh (with an MTL file and texture image)	Texture	No, local coordinates	Blender, MeshLab, Rhino, SketchUp, most CAD importers	The universal mesh hand-off
USDZ	Mesh	Texture	No	iPhone and iPad AR Quick Look, Reality Composer, Vision Pro	Showing the pile at true size in AR
GLB	Mesh	Texture	No	Web viewers, Unity, Unreal, Blender, Windows 3D Viewer	Web pages and apps; the smallest file
STL	Mesh	None	No	Slicers such as PrusaSlicer and Cura, CAD	3D printing a model of the pile
FBX	Mesh	Texture	No	Autodesk tools, Blender, Unity, Unreal	Autodesk and game-engine pipelines
PLY	Points or mesh	Per-point color	No	CloudCompare, MeshLab, research tools	Re-checking a volume; archiving the raw points
LAS	Points	Per-point color (optional)	Yes, when the scan has GPS	Civil 3D and ReCap, Trimble Business Center, Carlson, Global Mapper, QGIS, CloudCompare	Surveyors and GIS
E57	Points, plus images and metadata	Per-point color	Supported by the format; local coordinates from a phone scan	ReCap, Leica Cyclone, Trimble RealWorks, FARO Scene, CloudCompare	Laser-scan processing software
KMZ	Model plus placemark	Texture	Yes	Google Earth on desktop, web and mobile	Dropping the pile on the globe for a client

“Position on the map” means real-world coordinates in the file. Every format still has the pile’s true size and shape; a local-coordinate file is simply placed at its own origin.

Getting a pile scan into survey, CAD and GIS software

Two standards get a point cloud through almost every survey office door. LAS, maintained by ASPRS, was designed for airborne lidar and became the common language of point data: points with coordinates, intensity, classification and optionally color. Civil 3D takes it through ReCap, Trimble Business Center and Carlson open it directly, and QGIS and Global Mapper treat it as just another layer. When a phone scan was recorded with GPS tagging on, its LAS carries the position, so the pile lands on the site plan in the right place.

E57, standardized as ASTM E2807, came from the terrestrial laser-scanning world and holds more than points: scanner positions, images and metadata travel in the same file, which is why ReCap, Leica Cyclone, Trimble RealWorks and FARO Scene prefer it. Most of those tools read it through the open libE57 library. If the recipient runs scanner software, send E57; if they run GIS or civil software, send LAS; if you are not sure, send both.

For a second opinion on a volume, hand the points to CloudCompare’s 2.5D Volume tool, which is free and computes the volume between a cloud and a reference plane or a second cloud. PLY is its most comfortable input, but it reads LAS and E57 too. Agreement between the app’s number and CloudCompare’s is a good sign; disagreement usually points to the base, covered in how accurate a stockpile measurement really is.

Meshes for engineers, designers and 3D printing

OBJ is the oldest and safest mesh format: a plain-text list of vertices and faces, with a companion MTL file and a texture image that give it color. Every modeling and CAD tool reads it, so it is the file to send when you do not know what software the other person uses. Keep the three files together; an OBJ on its own is gray.

FBX is Autodesk’s interchange format and the easiest route into 3ds Max, Maya, Unity and Unreal, so it is the file for a visualization team. GLB, the binary form of glTF from the Khronos Group, packs mesh, texture and materials into one small file built for the web; it loads in a browser viewer in a second and is the format to embed in a web page or app. STL describes triangles and nothing else, no color or texture, which is exactly what a 3D printer’s slicer wants and almost nothing else does.

Showing the pile to a client

A client or a manager rarely has CAD, but they have a phone. USDZ is Apple’s AR Quick Look format: tap the file in Messages or Mail on an iPhone and the pile appears in the camera view at true size, standing on the conference-room floor. Nothing shows how big 60 cubic yards is more convincingly.

KMZ is a zipped KML file that carries the model and a placemark, so a located scan opens in Google Earth sitting on the satellite image of the yard. For a reconciliation meeting or a sale, send the PDF report plus the KMZ for anyone who wants to look around. Stockpile Scan exports both, along with the mesh or point cloud in every format in the table above.

What “georeferenced” means for a phone scan

A located export places the model in WGS84 latitude, longitude and height, the frame GPS and Google Earth use. A phone’s GPS is good to a few meters horizontally and worse vertically, so the pile sits within a few meters of where it really is. That is fine for records and maps, and it is not stakeout accuracy. If a surveyor needs the scan on site control, they can shift the cloud onto known points; the pile’s shape, and so its volume, does not change when it is moved.

File size, detail and what to keep

A point cloud from a walk around a pile can run to hundreds of megabytes; a textured mesh is usually tens of megabytes, and a GLB is smaller still. Send meshes by email and point clouds through a shared drive. If a file is still too big, CloudCompare and MeshLab both decimate, but decimate a copy and keep the original scan. The export you can regenerate; the capture you cannot.

Which file to send to whom

A surveyor or engineer checking the volume: LAS or E57, plus PLY if they use CloudCompare.
A CAD or BIM designer: OBJ with its MTL and texture, or FBX for Autodesk tools.
A web page or app: GLB.
A client or manager: the PDF report and a KMZ for Google Earth.
An AR walk-around on an iPhone: USDZ.
A 3D print: STL.
Your own archive: the original scan and a PLY of the points.

The same list is a good habit for a stockpile reconciliation: the point cloud is the evidence, the report is the summary, and the KMZ shows the auditor which pile you mean.

Frequently asked questions

LAS vs E57: which should I use?

LAS is the lidar-mapping standard from the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. It holds points only, carries real-world coordinates, and every GIS and civil-engineering package reads it, so it is the file for surveyors and GIS. E57 is the ASTM E2807 interchange format for 3D imaging systems; it holds points plus images and scanner metadata and is the native language of laser-scan processing software such as ReCap, Cyclone and RealWorks. If the recipient works in Civil 3D or QGIS, send LAS. If they work in scanner software, send E57. When in doubt, send both; they describe the same points.

Which 3D format is best for CAD?

For a point cloud, E57 or LAS, which AutoCAD and Civil 3D take through ReCap and Trimble Business Center and Carlson take directly. For a mesh, OBJ is read by SketchUp, Rhino and most CAD importers, and FBX suits Autodesk tools. STL imports almost everywhere but drops color and texture, so use it only when you need geometry alone.

Can I open my pile scan in Google Earth?

Yes, with a KMZ, as long as the scan was located, meaning GPS tagging was on when you recorded it. Google Earth places the textured model at the scan’s coordinates on the globe. Expect a few meters of placement error from the phone’s GPS; the model’s shape and volume are unaffected.

What is a PLY file?

PLY is the Polygon File Format, created at Stanford, that stores either a point cloud or a mesh along with per-point color and normals. It is the everyday format of CloudCompare and MeshLab, which makes it the file to use when you want a second opinion on a volume or an archive of the raw points. It does not carry map coordinates.

Scan a pile, then export it any way you need

Stockpile Scan is free, with no ads, subscriptions or account. Walk around a pile and share the mesh or point cloud as OBJ, USDZ, GLB, STL, FBX, PLY, LAS or E57, or as a KMZ for Google Earth.

Download on the App Store

Any iPhone with iOS 18 or later. LiDAR optional. Learn more about the app.