Clean Up PLY 3D Scans Online
Fix common 3D scan artifacts in your PLY meshes.
Last updated Mar 2026
Usually 5-30 seconds — depends on mesh complexity and selected operations.
Cleanup Operations
Remove Floating Debris
Identifies and removes disconnected mesh fragments using Union-Find analysis on face connectivity. Keeps the largest component plus any components above your threshold.
Fill Holes
Closes gaps in the mesh surface with curvature-following triangulation. Essential for making photogrammetry outputs watertight.
Remove Degenerate Faces
Eliminates zero-area triangles common in photogrammetry where vertices collapse together.
Fix Normals
Ensures consistent outward-facing normals across the entire mesh for correct rendering.
Taubin Smoothing
Volume-preserving smoothing that reduces scan noise. The two-step algorithm prevents the model from shrinking, unlike simple Laplacian smoothing.
Polygon Reduction
Reduces dense photogrammetry meshes to practical polygon counts while preserving surface detail.
When to Use PLY Scan Cleanup
Photogrammetry Cleanup
Clean up raw PLY outputs from Reality Capture, Meshroom, COLMAP, or phone scanning apps.
Structured Light Scan Processing
Fix topology issues in meshes from structured light scanners (Artec, EinScan, RevoPoint).
Point Cloud to Mesh Post-Processing
Clean up meshes generated from point cloud reconstruction (Poisson, Ball Pivoting algorithms).
AR/VR Asset Preparation
Optimize scanned PLY meshes for real-time applications: smooth, decimate, and fix topology.
How It Works
The cleanup pipeline processes your PLY mesh in optimal order: first removing isolated components (scanner debris), then fixing topology (degenerate faces, holes, normals), and finally refining geometry (smoothing, decimation). Each operation can be toggled individually.
PLY files from photogrammetry tools like Reality Capture, Meshroom, and Polycam often contain vertex colors. Component removal and degenerate face removal preserve these colors. Hole filling and smoothing reconstruct geometry and may reset colors for affected regions.
Limitations
Self-intersecting geometry cannot be automatically resolved. Vertex colors may be lost during hole filling and smoothing operations. Gaussian Splatting PLY files are not supported — use the dedicated Gaussian Splatting tools.
File size limits: 150MB on desktop, 25MB on mobile.