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Points from Shape

In one sentence: Extract all vertices from a Part shape and create a Points workbench object containing them as a point cloud.

Overview

Workbench: Part
Menu: Part → Points from Shape
Shortcut: none

Extracts all vertex coordinates from a selected Part shape and creates a Points::Feature object in the current document containing those points.

Intuition

B-rep shapes are defined by faces, edges, and vertices. Points from Shape goes in the opposite direction of Shape from Mesh: it takes the discrete vertex coordinates out of the B-rep geometry and gives you a cloud of points.

This is useful when downstream tools need raw coordinates (scripts, spreadsheets, point-cloud-based analysis) rather than the full topological B-rep.

When to use it

  • You need the corner coordinates of a solid as input for a script or spreadsheet.
  • You want to visualise the vertex positions of a complex shape.
  • You are feeding vertex data into a point-cloud or reverse-engineering tool.
  • You need to export key geometry positions as an ASC or PCD file.

When NOT to use it

  • Don't use it if you need continuous surface data — vertices give you corner points only, not points along curved edges or faces. For sampling points along surfaces, use a script that samples edge/face parametric coordinates.
  • Don't use it as a way to convert a Part solid to a mesh — use the Mesh workbench export or Mesh → Create Mesh from Shape instead.

Step-by-step

  1. Select the Part shape in the model tree or 3D view.
  2. Choose Part → Points from Shape.
  3. A Points::Feature object appears in the tree containing the extracted vertex coordinates.

Parameters

This tool has no task panel. All vertices of the selected shape are extracted automatically.

Common mistakes and pitfalls

Only vertices are extracted, not edge or face sample points

The resulting point cloud contains only the discrete vertex positions — endpoints of edges and corners of faces. Curved edges contribute only their two endpoints; faces contribute only their corner vertices. The output is not a dense sampling of the shape surface.

The result is not parametric

The extracted point cloud is a static snapshot. If the original shape changes, the point cloud is not updated. Re-run the tool if needed.

Python API

import FreeCAD as App

doc = App.newDocument()
box = doc.addObject("Part::Box", "Box")
box.Length = 20; box.Width = 15; box.Height = 10
doc.recompute()

# Access vertex coordinates directly from the shape
for i, vertex in enumerate(box.Shape.Vertexes):
    print(f"Vertex {i}: {vertex.Point}")

# The interactive tool creates a Points::Feature object;
# for scripting, you can use the Points module:
import Points
pts = Points.Points()
pts.addPoints([v.Point for v in box.Shape.Vertexes])
feat = doc.addObject("Points::Feature", "VertexCloud")
feat.Points = pts
doc.recompute()
print(f"Points extracted: {feat.Points.Count}")

See also