Colorizing Point Clouds

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  • Published on May 18, 2026
  • 3 minute(s) read
  • JS
  • Matthew Toohey
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Colorize a point cloud in Aura

This article explains how to colorize a processed point cloud in Aura using video footage captured during the scan. The result is a true-colour point cloud that provides clearer visual context and makes the scan easier to understand and interpret.

Colorization in Aura is applied to the LAZ file produced by supported processing workflows (such as SLAM, RTK, or GCP). It cannot run on raw scan data. For merged scans, see Colorize a merged dataset in the Additional information section.

What you will need

  • A camera and Hovermap set up correctly following the Colorization guidelines.

  • A scan captured with video footage recorded during the mission using a supported, calibrated, and correctly configured camera.

  • The scan pre-processed successfully using the appropriate workflow, such as Processing scan data or the GCP Workflow.

  • The video files (.mp4 or .360) stored in the same scan folder as the processed point cloud.

  • An active Colorization license in Aura.

Procedure

Step 1: Add scan data and video

  1. Open Aura.

  2. In the Process tab, click Process Scan+.

  3. In the Configure New Scan Job panel, select the Colorize workflow.

  4. Click Add Dataset.

    In the dialog box that displays, browse for the folder that contains the point cloud to be colorized. Ensure the scan has been processed and the .mp4 or .360 file is in the same directory. If the video file is detected, it appears in the Video file(s) column. Multiple video files may appear depending on the scan duration.

  1. If there are multiple output folders in the selected scan folder, click the arrow beside the output folder and select from the list.

  2. In the Scan File column, the non-georeferenced output is selected by default. To colorize a georeferenced point cloud, click the arrow beside the scan file and select the file labelled Scan Processed with Landmarks.

  3. Once the point cloud to colorize is selected, click Save.

Step 2: Configure the colorization scan job

  1. In the Location field, enter the preferred name for the output folder. Aura creates this folder, which stores all the processed results and data, as a child directory within the raw point cloud folder.

  1. Select the processing profile to use. Refer to the Selecting a processing profile section for more information about which profiles to use and how to create a custom profile.

  1. Define colorization settings. For instructions on creating an image mask, see Create Custom Masks in Aura.

Step 3: Start processing

  1. Click Start to begin processing. The panel shows a progress bar indicating how far along the processing job is. The elapsed time of the processing job is shown to the right.

  1. When prompted, click Review Frames.

  2. In the file explorer window, manually delete any unwanted frames from the video.

  3. Once the unwanted frames are removed, return to Aura and click Resume.

If a failure occurs during processing, the Retry button becomes available. Click this button to attempt to process the current job from the last successful stage.

Step 4: View the final output

  1. Once processing is complete, click Open folder to view the output folder, or View to display the colorized point cloud in the Viewport.

  2. Click Close to remove the scan information from the processing space.

The image frames used during colorization can be exported with the colorized point cloud. They are located in the Intermediate files > frame_extraction > frames folder. This folder also contains 3 CSV files with pose information in formats compatible with export to Pointerra, Cintoo, Bentley, and Prevu3D.

Outcome

The point cloud has been colorized and is available in the specified output folder. The colorized point cloud can be viewed in the Viewport, and the extracted image frames and pose CSVs are available for export to third-party platforms.

Additional information

Colorize a merged dataset

Colorizing a merged dataset involves merging the datasets first, then colorizing each individual scan as a separate Colorization processing job.

To colorize a merged dataset:

  1. Merge the dataset by following the Merge Workflow before starting colorization.

  2. Select the Colorize workflow in the Processing Tray.

  3. Add the scan folder that contains the merged dataset output.

  4. Set the merge output folder as the scan folder.

  5. Select the first scan file to colorize.

  1. Select the video files that correspond to the selected scan file.

  2. Save the configuration.

  3. Adjust processing settings as required by following the Colorization Workflow Guide.

  4. Start processing.

  5. Repeat steps 5-9 for each additional scan file, selecting the appropriate scan and video files for each.

  • Previous: Capture a scan with colorization covers capturing the scan and video footage.

  • For custom image masks, see Create Custom Masks in Aura.