Importing a large point cloud data file into MATLAB

Question

I am a new MATLAB user with little programming experience (I have a mechanical engineering background) so I apologise in advance if this is a simple question!

I am trying to import a large point cloud file (.pts file extension) into MATLAB for processing. I'm lead to believe that the file contains a text header and 3 columns of integer data (x, y and z coordinates) - I managed to open the first part of the file as a text file and this is the case.

I cannot import the file directly into MATLAB as it is too large (875 million points) and can only import it 9000000 rows at a time, therefore I have written the script below to import the file (and consequently save) as 9000000x3 blocks, saved as MATLAB files (or another appropriate format).

Script:

filename='pointcloud.pts';
fid = fopen(filename,'r');
frewind(fid);
header=fread(fid,8,'*char');
points=fread(fid,1,'*int32');
pointsinpass=9000000;
numofpasses=(points/pointsinpass)
counter = 1;

while counter <= numofpasses;

   clear block;

   block=zeros(pointsinpass,3);


    for p=1:pointsinpass;
      block(p,[1:3])=fread(fid, 1,'float');
    end;

    indx=counter;
    filename=sprintf('block%d',indx);
    save (filename), block;


    disp('Iteration')
    disp(counter)
    disp('complete')
    counter=counter+1;


end;
fclose(fid);

The script runs fine and cycles through 5 iterations, importing 5 blocks of the data. Then, as it attempts to import the 6th chunk I get the following error:

Subscripted assignment dimension mismatch.

Error in LiDARread_attempt5 (line 22)
          block(p,[1:3])=fread(fid, 1,'float');

I am unsure about what is causing the error, I believe it is relating to fread command size, as I have experimented with various values such as 3, which enables just one block to be imported before the dimension mismatch error occurs.

Once more I apologise if I am missing something very basic, my understanding of programming techniques is very limited only having been introduced to it a couple of months ago.

Answer 1

At some point fread() returns [] empty.

I can show how to reproduce the error:

a = zeros(2,2)
a =
     0     0
     0     0
a(2,1:2) = []

Subscripted assignment dimension mismatch. 

I suggest to use textscan() instead of fread().