Calculate distance between pointcloud and other geometry

[SjoerdAlliander]

Checklist

• [x] I have searched for similar issues.
• [x] For Python issues, I have tested with the latest development wheel.
• [x] I have checked the release documentation and the latest documentation (for main branch).

My Question

Hi!

I am loving the open3d library so far. I come from a geodata background using libraries like shapely, geopandas, etc. In those libraries, it is possible to calculate the minimum distance between two geometric objects (points, lines, polygon) regardless of the type of object. Another option is to buffer an object and calculate which other object intersects with that buffer.

I cannot find a similar function in open3d. I have made a convex hull of a pointcloud, and want to segment all points that are within X distance of that convex hull (so as to segment the outer layer of points).

Is this possible in open3d? The only solution I could find was:

• Convert the mesh to a pointcloud, and then calculate the distances between the two pointclouds. This operation however, heavily depends on the number of sample points generated so feels less dependable. (It would be nice if this function could also be used with a min/max/average distance argument between points, and then generate the number of points according to that!)
• Use distance queries somehow https://www.open3d.org/docs/latest/tutorial/geometry/distance_queries.html on each point in my pointcloud. However, the function only accepts tensor points, not an existing pointcloud.

Thanks in advance!