CloudCompare forum

Does cloud compare supports alpha property in PLY format?
I try to open 2 files of PLY format
The first one contains point cloud and the second a mesh (i.e. vertieces and faces)
I want the mesh to be half transperant so the points of the cloud can be shown thru the mesh
I use alpha propertyfor vertex in the second file with format of property uchar alpha
but it seems that it wasn't recognized by CC

Iuse the following PLY header format

ply
format ascii 1.0
element vertex 1954
property float x
property float y
property float z
property float nx
property float ny
property float nz
property uchar red
property uchar green
property uchar blue
property uchar alpha
element face 3908
property list uchar int vertex_index
end_header

CloudCompare doesn't handle mesh transparency (yet)...

We only use fake transparency (stippling) for basic primitives, but it looks weird on most meshes so I'm not sure it would suit your needs. The only way to do what you are trying to do right now is to display your mesh as a wireframe.