PCG is a data format for software products of the company Autodesk (AutoCAD, Revit, further may follow). The format PCG is a database-oriented point cloud format. Thus, the user has to convert the original point clouds recorded by the laser scanner into the format PCG. The conversion is a time-consuming process since the highly compressed manufacturer's data are unpacked and saved in a new data structure (database-oriented). A way to reduce the volume of data is subsampling. In that process, for instance, only each second, third or fourth etc. measured point of the initial measurement is converted into the PCG format. Unfortunately, subsampling is at the expense of detailing. When the PCG format is generated, the user can work quickly and comfortably with the point cloud in AutoCAD or Revit. For that purpose, the points are streamed according to the chosen view – that means they are loaded continuously. The format is also referred to as a memory-optimized presentation. The PCG format has existed starting with AutoCAD 2011.
