---
title: "How to know if an .e57 file has normals"
slug: "how-to-know-if-an-e57-file-has-normals"
description: "Check whether an .e57 file contains normals by opening it in CloudCompare and looking for the Normals entry in the CC Object properties table. Alternatively, extract the XML portion with the e57xmldump utility."
tags: ["How to ..."]
updated: 2025-03-04T13:02:11Z
published: 2025-03-04T13:02:11Z
canonical: "knowledge.navvis.com/how-to-know-if-an-e57-file-has-normals"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://knowledge.navvis.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How to know if an .e57 file has normals

## Introduction

### Purpose

Determine if an .e57 file has Normals.

## Procedure

Open the file in CloudCompare and click on one of the scans contained in the file.

- If the file has normals, you will see the entry ‘Normals**’** in the properties table of the CC Object section and a check box to control visibility.
- If this option is not visible, it means the file does not have normals.

Alternatively:

1. Extract the XML portion of the .e57 file using the utility e57xmldump available [here](http://www.libe57.org/data.html).
2. If the file has normals, you will see information about the normals for each scan position in the XML.

Normals are perpendicular to the tangent plane line at a particular point on the surface. They yield especially useful information about a curved surface's characteristics but conversely can tell us much about the planarity of a flat or angular surface also. Normals can tell us the rate of change of curvature when a surface has an angular departure and tell us just how perfectly flat something is.