Downloading Scan Files

This guide explains how to download processed scan outputs from the RealityConnect API: point clouds, meshes, and photosphere images. The workflow uses the Client Credentials flow and the download:scan scope.

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Prerequisites

• An OAuth application configured for Client Credentials
• Scopes: read:basic, read:hierarchy, download:scan
• Your client_id and client_secret
• Content access to the site that holds the bundles you want to download

read:twin and read:asset are not required for scan file download.

How scan data is organized

Processed scan data lives in bundles attached to a site. Each bundle contains one or more components, where each component is a different output format:

Component type	Format	Description
OgcPointCloudHlod	OGC 3D Tiles (open standard)	Point cloud data. tileset.json entry point with .glb tile files
RealityMeshHlod	Prevu3D HLOD	Mesh data. hlod_tree.json entry point with .pvt tile files
RealityPhotosphere	JPEG images	Photosphere data. stations.json manifest with .jpeg images

End-to-end flow

flowchart LR
  A["1. Authenticate"] --> B["2. Find a site"]
  B --> C["3. List bundles"]
  C --> D["4. Get bundle details"]
  D --> E["5. Download entry files"]
  E --> F["6. Follow file references"]

Step	Endpoint	What you get
Authenticate	POST /oauth/token	Access token
Resolve API URL	GET /oauth/api-info	Regional apiUrl and organization ID
Find site	GET /v1/nodes/{id}/browse	Site ID from the content hierarchy
List bundles	GET /v1/site/{siteId}/bundles	Bundle IDs for the site
Get components	GET /v1/site/{siteId}/bundles/{bundleId}	signedLink and roots per component
Download files	GET on the constructed CDN URL	Entry files, tiles, and images

Step 1 — Authenticate

Obtain an access token with Client Credentials:

POST https://cloud-api.prevu3d.com/oauth/token
Authorization: Basic base64(client_id:client_secret)
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

grant_type=client_credentials

Resolve your regional API URL:

GET https://cloud-api.prevu3d.com/oauth/api-info
Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

The response contains apiUrl (for example https://api-ue1.prevu3d.com/realityconnect-api). Use this as the base URL for all subsequent API calls.

Step 2 — Find a site

Browse the node hierarchy starting from your organization:

GET {api_url}/v1/nodes/{organizationId}/browse
Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

Traverse the tree recursively until you find a node with type: "Site". Note its id.

Step 3 — List bundles

GET {api_url}/v1/site/{siteId}/bundles
Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

Returns a paginated list of bundles for that site.

Step 4 — Get bundle details

GET {api_url}/v1/site/{siteId}/bundles/{bundleId}
Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

Example response:

{
  "id": "f75de673-...",
  "name": "My Bundle",
  "components": [
    {
      "id": "abc123",
      "type": "OgcPointCloudHlod",
      "signedLink": "https://cdn.prevu3d.com/.../OgcPointCloudHlod/*?Policy=...&Signature=...&Key-Pair-Id=...",
      "roots": [
        "sessions/0f4a60cb09a8/tileset.json",
        "sessions/2a5ed597dc0f/tileset.json"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "def456",
      "type": "RealityMeshHlod",
      "signedLink": "https://cdn.prevu3d.com/.../RealityMeshHlod/*?Policy=...&Signature=...&Key-Pair-Id=...",
      "roots": ["hlod_tree.json"]
    },
    {
      "id": "ghi789",
      "type": "RealityPhotosphere",
      "signedLink": "https://cdn.prevu3d.com/.../RealityPhotosphere/*?Policy=...&Signature=...&Key-Pair-Id=...",
      "roots": ["stations.json"]
    }
  ]
}

Each component exposes two fields you need for downloading:

• signedLink: a CDN signed URL ending in /*. The * is a placeholder. The signature grants read access to all files under this prefix, not just a single file.
• roots: an array of relative paths to the entry-point file(s) for this component.

Step 5 — Download files

Construct a downloadable URL by replacing the * in signedLink with a file path:

download_url = component["signedLink"].replace("*", root)
response = requests.get(download_url)

The query parameters (Policy, Signature, Key-Pair-Id) stay attached and authenticate the request. Download file bytes directly from the CDN with no Authorization header on the GET.

Caution

Signed URLs are time-limited (typically valid for 24 hours). If you receive a 403 response, fetch the bundle details again to obtain fresh URLs.

Component-specific details

OgcPointCloudHlod (point clouds)

Entry point: each value in roots is a path to a tileset.json file (one per scan session).

for root in component["roots"]:
    url = component["signedLink"].replace("*", root)
    tileset = requests.get(url).json()

Tile traversal: tileset.json follows the OGC 3D Tiles specification. It contains a tree of tile nodes. Each node may have a content field with a uri pointing to a .glb file relative to the tileset directory:

{
  "asset": { "version": "1.0" },
  "root": {
    "boundingVolume": { },
    "content": { "uri": "cell.glb" },
    "children": [
      {
        "content": { "uri": "cell0.glb" },
        "children": [ ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Resolve tile paths relative to the tileset directory:

session_dir = root.rsplit("/tileset.json", 1)[0]
tile_path = f"{session_dir}/{tile_uri}"
tile_url = component["signedLink"].replace("*", tile_path)
tile_data = requests.get(tile_url).content

Traverse the tree recursively to download all tiles.

RealityMeshHlod (meshes)

Entry point: roots contains ["hlod_tree.json"].

url = component["signedLink"].replace("*", "hlod_tree.json")
hlod_tree = requests.get(url).json()

Tree structure: hlod_tree.json contains an HLOD tree:

{
  "environment_offset": [ ],
  "version": 1,
  "root": {
    "center": [1.17, -1.22, 5.63],
    "size": [50.54, 46.61, 19.63],
    "model_path": "cell",
    "density": 6.73,
    "children": [
      {
        "model_path": "cell0",
        "children": [ ]
      }
    ],
    "textures": [
      { "name": "color", "min_mip": 5, "max_mip": 11, "path": "cell" },
      { "name": "ao", "min_mip": 5, "max_mip": 11, "path": "cell_ao" }
    ]
  }
}

Tile file naming: geometry and texture files use the pattern {model_path}_{mip_level}.pvt:

model_path = node["model_path"]
mip_level = texture["min_mip"]
tile_file = f"{model_path}_{mip_level}.pvt"

tile_url = component["signedLink"].replace("*", tile_file)
tile_data = requests.get(tile_url).content

Traverse the children array recursively to discover all model_path values at every level of detail.

Note

.pvt files are a Prevu3D mesh format. You can download them through the API; rendering them requires the Prevu3D TWIN viewer or an integration that supports this format.

RealityPhotosphere (photospheres)

Entry point: roots contains ["stations.json"].

url = component["signedLink"].replace("*", "stations.json")
stations = requests.get(url).json()

Additional files:

• index.tsv: a tab-separated index file alongside stations.json
• Photosphere images follow the pattern station_{n}/H_{face}_{x}_{y}.jpeg

image_path = "station_1/H_0_0_0.jpeg"
image_url = component["signedLink"].replace("*", image_path)
image_data = requests.get(image_url).content

Parse stations.json to discover all station directories and their associated image files.

Complete example

This script authenticates, finds a site, fetches the first bundle, downloads entry-point files, and follows one referenced tile or image per component.

import base64
import json
import os
from pathlib import Path

import requests

CLIENT_ID = "your-client-id"
CLIENT_SECRET = "your-client-secret"
CLOUD_API_BASE = "https://cloud-api.prevu3d.com"
OUTPUT_DIR = Path("downloads")

credentials = base64.b64encode(f"{CLIENT_ID}:{CLIENT_SECRET}".encode()).decode()
token_response = requests.post(
    f"{CLOUD_API_BASE}/oauth/token",
    data={"grant_type": "client_credentials"},
    headers={"Authorization": f"Basic {credentials}"},
)
token_response.raise_for_status()
access_token = token_response.json()["access_token"]
headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {access_token}"}

api_info = requests.get(f"{CLOUD_API_BASE}/oauth/api-info", headers=headers).json()
api_url = api_info["apiUrl"].rstrip("/")
organization_id = api_info["organization"]["id"]


def api_get(path: str) -> dict:
    response = requests.get(f"{api_url}{path}", headers=headers)
    response.raise_for_status()
    return response.json()


def download(url: str, dest: Path) -> bool:
    response = requests.get(url, timeout=30)
    if not response.ok:
        return False
    dest.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
    dest.write_bytes(response.content)
    return True


def find_tile_uri(node: dict, depth: int = 0):
    if depth > 5 or not isinstance(node, dict):
        return None
    content = node.get("content", {})
    uri = content.get("uri") or content.get("url")
    if isinstance(uri, str) and not uri.startswith("http"):
        return uri
    for value in node.values():
        if isinstance(value, dict):
            found = find_tile_uri(value, depth + 1)
            if found:
                return found
        elif isinstance(value, list):
            for item in value:
                found = find_tile_uri(item, depth + 1)
                if found:
                    return found
    return None


queue = api_get(f"/v1/nodes/{organization_id}/browse").get("items", [])
site_id = None
visited = set()

while queue and not site_id:
    node = queue.pop(0)
    if node["id"] in visited:
        continue
    visited.add(node["id"])
    browse = api_get(f"/v1/nodes/{node['id']}/browse")
    current = browse.get("node", {})
    if current.get("type", "").lower() == "site":
        site_id = current["id"]
        break
    queue.extend(browse.get("items", []))

if not site_id:
    raise RuntimeError("No site found in hierarchy")

bundles = api_get(f"/v1/site/{site_id}/bundles")
bundle_id = bundles["items"][0]["id"]
bundle = api_get(f"/v1/site/{site_id}/bundles/{bundle_id}")

for component in bundle.get("components", []):
    comp_type = component.get("type", "unknown")
    signed_link = component.get("signedLink", "")
    roots = component.get("roots", [])

    if not signed_link or not roots:
        continue

    for root in roots:
        entry_url = signed_link.replace("*", root)
        entry_dest = OUTPUT_DIR / comp_type / root.replace("/", os.sep)
        if not download(entry_url, entry_dest):
            continue

        if root.endswith("tileset.json"):
            tileset = json.loads(entry_dest.read_bytes())
            tile_uri = find_tile_uri(tileset.get("root", tileset))
            if tile_uri:
                session_dir = root.rsplit("/tileset.json", 1)[0]
                tile_path = f"{session_dir}/{tile_uri}" if session_dir else tile_uri
                download(signed_link.replace("*", tile_path), OUTPUT_DIR / comp_type / tile_path.replace("/", os.sep))

        elif root == "hlod_tree.json":
            tree = json.loads(entry_dest.read_bytes())
            model_path = tree.get("root", {}).get("model_path", "")
            if model_path:
                tile_file = f"{model_path}_5.pvt"
                download(signed_link.replace("*", tile_file), OUTPUT_DIR / comp_type / tile_file)

        elif root == "stations.json":
            download(signed_link.replace("*", "index.tsv"), OUTPUT_DIR / comp_type / "index.tsv")
            download(signed_link.replace("*", "station_1/H_0_0_0.jpeg"), OUTPUT_DIR / comp_type / "station_1" / "H_0_0_0.jpeg")

        break

What’s next?

• Set up authentication end to end in the Client Credentials Flow guide.
• Upload and process new captures with Data Bundle Workflows.
• Browse every operation in the API reference.