Add support for binary PLY files

.github/workflows/build-python.yaml

@@ -32,15 +32,15 @@ jobs:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
         python_version: ['3.8', '3.9', '3.10', '3.11']
-        os: 
+        os:
           # - windows-2019 cannot compile on Windows
           # (!) TODO: The workflow contains code for Windows building, but we cannot compile it with MS MPI. Changes in the source code are needed.
 
           - ubuntu-20.04
-      
+
     permissions:
       contents: write
-    
+
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
 
     steps:
@@ -54,23 +54,23 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           echo "BOOST_DIR=boost_${{ env.BOOST_MAJOR_VERSION }}_${{ env.BOOST_MINOR_VERSION }}_${{ env.BOOST_PATCH_VERSION }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
           echo "BOOST_VERSION=${{ env.BOOST_MAJOR_VERSION }}.${{ env.BOOST_MINOR_VERSION }}.${{ env.BOOST_PATCH_VERSION }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
- 
+
       - name: Init env variable on Linux
         if: ${{ runner.os == 'Linux' }}
-        run: | 
+        run: |
           echo "BOOST_ARCHIVE_NAME=${{ env.BOOST_DIR }}.7z" >> $GITHUB_ENV
 
       - name: Init base env variable on Windows
         if: ${{ runner.os == 'Windows' }}
         run: |
           echo "BOOST_DIR=boost_${{ env.BOOST_MAJOR_VERSION }}_${{ env.BOOST_MINOR_VERSION }}_${{ env.BOOST_PATCH_VERSION }}" | Out-File -FilePath $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
           echo "BOOST_VERSION=${{ env.BOOST_MAJOR_VERSION }}.${{ env.BOOST_MINOR_VERSION }}.${{ env.BOOST_PATCH_VERSION }}" | Out-File -FilePath $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
- 
+
       - name: Init env variable on Windows
         if: ${{ runner.os == 'Windows' }}
-        run: | 
+        run: |
           echo "BOOST_ARCHIVE_NAME=${{ env.BOOST_DIR }}.zip" | Out-File -FilePath $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
-      
+
       - name: Cache boost
         id: cache-boost
         if: ${{ runner.os  == 'Linux' }}
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           path: ${{ env.PYBIND11_INSTALL_PATH }}
           key: ${{ runner.os }}-pybind11-cache--${{ env.PYBIND11_VERSION }}-python-${{ matrix.python_version }}
-      
+
       - name: Make dirs on Linux
         if: ${{ runner.os  == 'Linux' }}
         run: |
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           python -m pip install -U 'pip>=23.0'
           pip install 'numpy>=1.20' wheel 'setuptools>=61.0' 'build~=0.10'
-      
+
       - name: Install dependencies on Windows
         if: ${{ runner.os == 'Windows' }}
         run: |
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           git clone -b ${{ env.PYBIND11_VERSION }} --single-branch https://github.com/pybind/pybind11.git
 
-      
+
       - name: Install pybind11 ${{ env.PYBIND11_VERSION }} on Linux
         working-directory:  ${{ env.PYBIND11_SRC_DIR }}
         if: ${{ steps.cache-pybind11.outputs.cache-hit != 'true' && runner.os == 'Linux' }}
@@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ jobs:
             -S . -B ./build
           cmake --build ./build --target install
           rm -r ./build
-      
+
       - name: Install pybind11 ${{ env.PYBIND11_VERSION }} on Windows
         working-directory:  ${{ env.PYBIND11_SRC_DIR }}
         if: ${{ steps.cache-pybind11.outputs.cache-hit != 'true' && runner.os == 'Windows' }}
@@ -288,7 +288,7 @@ jobs:
             -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE="RelWithDebInfo" `
             -S . -B ${{ env.BUILD_DIR }}
           cmake --build ${{ env.BUILD_DIR }} --target install
-      
+
       - name: Build python wheel
         working-directory: ./python
         run: |
@@ -298,7 +298,7 @@ jobs:
         working-directory: ./python
         run: |
           pip install ${{ env.PYTHON_WHEEL_DIR }}/*.whl
-      
+
       - name: Test import
         working-directory: ${{ runner.temp }}
         run: python -c "from pypointmatcher import *"

doc/ImportExport.md

@@ -6,12 +6,12 @@ There exists a myriad of [graphics file formats](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca
 
 ## Table of Supported File Formats
 
-| File Type | Extension | Versions Supported | Descriptors Supported | Additional Information |
-| --------- |:---------:|:------------------:|:---------------------:|---------|
-| Comma Separated Values | .csv | NA | yes (see [table of descriptor labels](#descmaptable)) | |
-| Visualization Toolkit Files | .vtk | Legacy format versions 3.0 and lower (ASCII only) | yes | Only polydata and unstructured grid VTK Datatypes supported.  More information can be found  [here](http://www.vtk.org/VTK/img/file-formats.pdf).|
-| Polygon File Format | .ply | 1.0 (ASCII only) | yes (see [table of descriptor labels](#descmaptable)) | | 
-| Point Cloud Library Format | .pcd | 0.7 (ASCII only) | yes (see [table of descriptor labels](#descmaptable)) | |
+| File Type | Extension |                Versions Supported                 | Descriptors Supported | Additional Information                                                                                                                            |
+| --------- |:---------:|:-------------------------------------------------:|:---------------------:|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
+| Comma Separated Values | .csv |                        NA                         | yes (see [table of descriptor labels](#descmaptable)) |                                                                                                                                                   |
+| Visualization Toolkit Files | .vtk | Legacy format versions 3.0 and lower (ASCII only) | yes | Only polydata and unstructured grid VTK Datatypes supported.  More information can be found  [here](http://www.vtk.org/VTK/img/file-formats.pdf). |
+| Polygon File Format | .ply |              1.0 (ASCII and binary)               | yes (see [table of descriptor labels](#descmaptable)) | Users are encouraged to execute `libpointmatcher` using `double` as the floating precision format to prevent overflows.                           | 
+| Point Cloud Library Format | .pcd |                 0.7 (ASCII only)                  | yes (see [table of descriptor labels](#descmaptable)) |                                                                                                                                                   |
 
 ## Comma Separated Values (CSV) Files