simpleply
A python module for simplified ASCII PLY files
Written by David T. Chen from the National Library of Medicine, dchen@mail.nih.gov It is covered by the Apache License, Version 2.0:
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Simple PLY module
A module that contains a data structure for a simplified PLY mesh. The PLY format is a general file format for storing 3d surface meshes created by Greg Turk.
The original PLY file format
The general PLY format consists of a text header and then either ASCII or binary data. The header describes the basic elements in the mesh, typically vertices, edges and faces. Each element can have a variety of properties such as "x", "y", "z", "red", "green", or "blue" for the vertices. It also allows for list properties.
This simplified PLY format
This module reads and writes only the ASCII version of the PLY file format. Also it is limited in what elements and properties it recognizes. In the general file format, the elements can be arbitrary, not just vertices, edges and faces. And each element could have an arbitrary number and types of properties.
Our simplified version of PLY supported here only allows vertex, edge and face elements. The vertex element only allows for "x", "y", "z", "nx", "ny", "nz", "r", "g", "b", "red", "green", "blue", "u", and "v" properties. Edges can only have two vertex index properties. Faces can only have a list of vertex index property.
While these restrictions may seem limiting, in our experience they allow for the vast majority of PLY files in typical usage.
A more general PLY module
There is a general PLY file module at the following link https://pypi.python.org/pypi/plyfile
That plyfile module is a straight python port of Turk's original C code. However the poor performance reading ASCII Ply files and relatively awkward data structures motivated this module.