Release Notes - 14th October 2026
New Features
Unified Data Browser — early access
The Unified Data Browser brings projects and datasets together in one view, with a shared collection tree for organising and managing your company’s data.
Point clouds are now treated as datasets, separate from projects. This allows you to add or remove point clouds from projects in the same way as other datasets.
Newly created projects no longer count towards your data usage quota. Only datasets are counted.
The Unified Data Browser remains available through early access. Contact Pointerra support to request access for your company. See the Unified Data Browser help guides for more information.
Follow a path through your project
A new camera navigation mode lets you follow a path defined by a polyline annotation or vector. This makes it easier to inspect tunnels, indoor spaces and other routes where free navigation can be difficult.
Enter the mode from the context menu, Info tool or drawing tool. The Track settings panel lets you adjust your position along the path, movement speed and vertical offset. You can also have the camera turn with the path or flip the view to look in the opposite direction.
See how your shared data is being accessed
Company administrators now have a Data access page showing recorded activity from external users accessing shared projects and data. This provides a central place to review how data is being used through sharing.
You can search and filter activity by action, access mode and time range, open an entry to inspect its sharing details, and download the results as a CSV. A timeline helps you review activity over time.
Show and hide vector sub-layers
Vector datasets can now display visibility groups based on an attribute such as Layer, letting you show or hide sets of features within the same dataset. For example, you can turn individual CAD layers on or off to focus on the parts of a drawing you need to inspect.
Use Show categories on the dataset to toggle individual values, search the list, or use Select all and Select none. Use Configure categories to choose another compatible indexed attribute.
More options for volume measurement base surfaces
For volume measurements against a modelled base, you can use a suitable imported OBJ model, for example a surveyed floor beneath a stockpile. Custom base-surface support must be enabled for your company’s subscription. Contact Pointerra sales to request access. Once enabled, add a suitable OBJ model to the project, choose Custom under Base surface, and select the model under Custom Surface.
Volume Measurement now offers Boundary triangulation, which builds the base surface from the vertices of your measurement boundary. The existing triangulated method is now labelled Centroid triangulation. Both options are generally available within the Volume Measurement tool and do not require custom base-surface access.
Volume calculations are also faster and use a higher default mesh resolution. Existing volume measurement tools remain available without custom base-surface access.
Photo viewing and inspection enhancements
Photo look direction and camera coverage: photo markers now support showing direction arrows for all photos in the 3D Viewer and 2D Map plus viewing frustums, where suitable camera data is available for either. Use Show for all photos to display them together. Direction can be imported from EXIF ImgDirection or a CSV Heading column.
Photo compass: a north indicator appears in the photo viewer where suitable photo position and camera-orientation data is available, helping you orient yourself during inspection or GCP marking.
Related photo selection: use Multi-select to display photos within a chosen distance or from the same folder.
Inspection improvements: show or hide the clicked inspection point on the image, and retain zoom when switching between inspection photos.
Navigation and layout: move through photos with the arrow keys and resize the docked photo grid or list. Resizing also applies to the video player’s docked list.
Improvements/Changes
Pointerra3D Core
General
Master Model updates and access: choose which input classification versions to retain when merging new data, preserving existing classifications instead of treating all retained points as a single class. For incoming point cloud datasets, the selection includes relevant versions held by their parent projects. Contact Pointerra support to request access or an increase to your company’s quota. A warning appears when you reach the configured limit and try to create another Master Model.
Manage visibility in multi-file CAD models: when multiple CAD files are uploaded into the same dataset, expand it in the Datasets panel to show or hide individual source files. Open Object Hierarchy from a source-file entry, or use Source, to inspect its objects. Other sources remain greyed out for context; select Filter to hide them from the panel or All to browse all sources.
Integrated CAD/BIM processing: CAD Model imports now use Pointerra’s own processing, retaining model attributes and supporting hierarchy-based inspection and filtering in the Viewer. No separate tiling service is required, and Cesium Ion is no longer offered for this source type.
More reliable vector imports: improved imports from subfolders and ZIP archives, including correct detection of File Geodatabase folders when accompanying text files are present.
Convert vector datasets to drawing layers: Convert to drawing layer now supports datasets imported using the newer vector format, creating drawing objects from their points, lines and polygon outlines. For these datasets, the option is available when they contain fewer than 5,000 features.
PDF quality control reports for point clouds: where reporting is enabled, select Generate QC report when importing a point cloud and choose PDF as an alternative to DOCX. Once processing is complete, download the report from Dataset details.
GIS Imagery/Ortho colour bands and validation: Auto attempts to identify whether the fourth band contains transparency. Choose RGBA for transparency or RGB for other data, such as near-infrared. Unsupported imagery now produces a clearer message explaining that 8-bit imagery is required.
IFC object identifiers: imports retain each object’s GUID property, making it easier to match objects in Pointerra with their identifiers in BIM tools.
Large point cloud ZIP imports: improved processing of large ZIP archives containing multiple point cloud source files.
Filter flightline edge noise during import: an optional filter supports suitable airborne LiDAR data captured with Teledyne Optech Galaxy sensors in Boost MAX mode, where persistent noise occurs along flightline edges. It is intended for this specific capture and noise pattern, rather than general-purpose filtering. Contact Pointerra to request access and confirm your sensor settings and exported data are suitable.
Portal UI
Collection sharing controls: the dialog clearly separates sharing a link, sharing directly with an external team using its sharing ID, and sending a team sharing invitation. Choose Send a team sharing invitation when you know the recipient’s email address but not their team’s sharing ID; they sign in and select the teams to receive access. The Administrators team’s sharing ID is hidden to discourage direct sharing and avoid permission-management problems.
Viewer
Model lighting: improved 3D model appearance with double-sided lighting where required. Textured OBJ models specifying an unlit material retain that appearance instead of receiving additional lighting.
iOS point cloud rendering: the renderer with enhanced point caching is now supported on iOS. The basic renderer remains the mobile/tablet default; the alternative is available through preferences, with your selection remembered.
Download individual 360 photos: users with download permission can select Download 360 photo and metadata to download the image and a companion CSV containing its position and orientation. Individual downloads are not supported for photos uploaded in ZIP archives.
Electrical Utilities Analytics
Set minimum clearance: in the final-results editor, select a span wire, a point on the wire and a ground/reference point below it to correct the recorded vertical clearance and its displayed location. Available where wire-clearance data exists.
Filter attribute edits by circuit type: use circuit filters, including Unassigned, to target the span wires included in attribute edits and network selections.
Strike tree and network reports: strike tree reports use the strike with the lowest recorded strike distance. KML network reports include individual wire clearances and the minimum clearance across reported wires in each span, where available.
Classify poles by type: configured final-processing modes can use pole-type attributes to assign transmission and distribution poles to separate point-cloud classes. This requires class mappings in the selected analytics configuration.
GeoJSON inputs for final processing: where supported by the selected mode, choose an eligible GeoJSON vector dataset as an additional input, such as an encroachment corridor.
Strike tree GeoJSON reports: select Strike trees (GeoJSON) to export available strike tree results for GIS workflows.
More reliable analysis sessions: improved handling of simultaneous analysis requests, batched tree grow-in calculations and reconnection recovery reduce cases where queued work becomes stuck after a server disconnection.
Photogrammetry
Cleaner meshes and output quality controls: Improved photogrammetry preview meshes with fewer edge artefacts, and improved mesh texture blending. A new Auto depth-map quality option selects the quality needed for the requested output resolutions, helping avoid unnecessary processing detail.
Faster ground control point marking: Ground control point (GCP) marking is now easier to work through, with keyboard shortcuts to confirm a position (C), exclude a photo where the GCP is not visible (X) and return to the previous photo (Z). Confirming or excluding a photo advances the workflow; reaching the end of the photo list moves to the next GCP.
The redesigned GCP table separates information into Reference, Projections and Manage tabs, making it easier to review coordinates, check photo-marking errors and reorder or delete points. Edit GCP lets you update a point’s name, check/control type and coordinates.
Added ability to select, move and delete GCPs from the 3D view. Manual selection adds a GCP with each click, allowing several points to be added in succession. CSV imports now support an optional Type column containingcheckorcontrol, reducing manual setup after import.
Bug Fixes
Large IFC models: fixed some imports failing because processing ran out of memory.
Model import diagnostics: coordinate-conversion errors now identify the problematic source coordinate, making it easier to check the selected coordinate system and offset.
ReCap scan images: fixed failures when processing some very large scan images during ReCap imports.
E57 scan images: fixed a crash when extracting scan images from some E57 files.
Photogrammetry alignment: fixed misplaced tilesets in some coordinate systems, and photo orientation and inspection issues in geographic coordinate systems.
GIS imagery: support for imagery imports using ESRI coordinate-system definitions.
DEM and imagery imports: fixed some DEM imports failing because of invalid embedded coordinate-system metadata, and imagery/DEM import failures caused by filenames needing sanitisation.
KML styling: imports now fall back to default styling when referenced styles are missing, rather than failing.
Multiple vector uploads: separate datasets now receive the correct source-file list when several files are uploaded together.
Upload date fields: pressing Enter in the legacy upload form’s date field now confirms the date without starting the upload.
Collection deletion: fixed collections remaining undeletable because they contained hidden or deleted items.
Vaulted point clouds: fixed reprocessing access for dataset administrators with elevated permissions.
Point-cloud display: fixed incomplete X-ray rendering and stray points appearing when clipping within regions.
2D Map: point-cloud tiles retry temporary server errors, improving loading.
Classification versions: fixed a point-cloud loading issue that could leave the Viewer unresponsive when switching classification versions.
Saved classification selections: projects now open when a saved view refers to a classification version that has been deleted.
Classification schemes: CSV exports correctly handle names containing commas, quotes or line breaks, and cancelling an edit restores the previous values.
Compare Layers: fixed processing failures when classification selections included a mix of classified and unclassified layers.
Bookmarks: overwriting a bookmark view preserves its ID. Fixed 3D models remaining stuck on loading when opening a project from a bookmark.
Poles and Wires spans: fixed duplicate spans when creating spans or merging regions, and removed stale strike and encroachment results associated with discarded duplicate wires.
Wire editing: Extend/trim wires now prevents edits that would leave a wire covering a substantially different section of the span from the other wires.
Poles and Wires final processing: fixed processing failing when a tree query returned no matching trees.
Invitation email matching: email capitalisation no longer prevents invitations from matching an existing account.
Sharing emails: invitation emails now display names containing special characters correctly.
Unavailable sharing links: fixed server errors on email-verification pages for deleted or unavailable guest sharing links.