The ZipPack Polygon Mesh Zippering Package

Zipper is a program for combining range images into a polygonal mesh. It was specifically created to more fully use range images acquired from a Cyberware range scanner. With appropriate file conversion, however, there is nothing preventing the use of zipper with range images taken with other scanners.

The research results from the "zipper" program are described in the article: Zippered Polygon Meshes from Range Images, by Greg Turk and Marc Levoy, published in the Siggraph 94 Proceedings. The zipper program and its source code are available for research and commercial use, free of charge, as described at the bottom of this web page. The software was written by Greg Turk. This software distribution was prepared by Hua (Grace) Ge and Brian Curless.

If you're interested in this package, then you might also be interested in VripPack and Scanalyze. VripPack uses Zipper for aligning meshes, but uses a volumetric method for combining them rather than a mesh-based method. In many cases the volumetric approach is more robust. Scanalyze is a user interface for VripPack. If you're only interested in reading PLY files, look at the file format section of the Stanford 3D Scanning Repository web page.

ZipPack Software Distribution
ZipPack Sample Dataset
Zipper Documentation
Zipper Mailing List
Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory Home Page

ZipPack Software Distribution

The current release of ZipPack is version 1.14. There are three independent pieces of the release which you can retrieve by clicking on the headings in the following list. These items are available by clicking on the links below.

Zipper (1,500K bytes compressed): Compressed tar file containing the source code and an executable file (zipper) which is compiled for SGI Irix 5.3. Save it as zipper-1.14.tar.Z and type "zcat zipper-1.14.tar.Z | tar xf -" to unpack the source (or if your Web browser automatically uncompresses files then use cat instead of zcat). Then look at the README file in the unpacked source for further instructions.
Ply (31K bytes compressed): Compressed tar file containing routines for reading and writing the PLY polygon file format. The zipper program reads individual polygon meshes stored as .ply files, and writes zippered polygon meshes as .ply file as well. The software here provides user the ability to read and write the individual and zippered meshes. Save it as ply-1.1.tar.Z and type "zcat ply-1.1.tar.Z | tar xf -" to unpack the source (or if your Web browser automatically uncompresses files then use cat instead of zcat). Then look at the README file in the unpacked source for more information.

ZipPack is currently unsupported and is offered to the research community "as is". You are welcome to report bugs to zipper@graphics.stanford.edu , but we cannot guarantee that we will fix them in a timely manner. Another site with information about PLY files is the PLY File Format page of the Georgia Institute of Technology's Large Geometric Models Archive.

ZipPack Sample Dataset

Sample data of a telephone handset and a clay bunny are provided here. They are in the .ply file format, containing both range images and polygon meshes. Click here. For more datasets, see the Stanford 3D Scanning Repository.

ZipPack Documentation

Zipper User's Manual

Zipper Mailing List

We welcome questions, suggestions, comments, and bug reports from users of the zippack software. However, we do not guarantee timely responses to them. In particular, the developers have long since graduated and left Stanford. Email should be sent to:

zipper-question at graphics dot stanford dot edu

Distribution notice

During the period 1995-2007, this software was covered by the Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory's custom-written General Software License. This license is royalty-free, nonexclusive, and nontransferable. Click here to view its terms and conditions. In modification of these terms and conditions, users were permitted to distribute or sell derivatives of this software without accounting to Stanford or the developers, and without payment of royalties to Stanford or the developers. However, title and copyright to the software and documentation remained with Stanford, and users were required to acknowledge the contribution of Stanford in any derivatives, as detailed in the license.

For downloads beginning on August 23, 2007, this software is covered by a new General Software License, which is based on the BSD license.