Thanks to Emilia Petrisor, it’s now possible to visualize PLY files in Python interactively. Plotting PLY files in MATLAB is a common routine.
We used Emilia’s method to plot 56 PLY files uploaded by John Burkardt at University of Florida here.
Below are a few of our favorites. You can view the whole collection at https://plot.ly/~ply-files. Try forking them to edit, then adjusting the aspect ratio under Layout.
get your walkman on
BEETHOVEN’s not a smiler
things that crawl
things that swim
things that fly
plot your egret
guitar hero
motorcycle diaries
porsche 
skeletons!
devil wears prada
tea kettle
View the whole collection at https://plot.ly/~ply-files.