transformLaserScanToPointCloud and pcl::fromROSMsgs???

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i've taken a sensor_msgs/LaserScan and used transformLaserScanToPointCloud to get a new sensor_msgs/PointCloud.

originally my laserScan only had single values but after this, when i cout the ->points, there seems to be three values, (something, something, 0)

and since i want to be able to perform some pcl functions on my laser data i then use pcl::fromROSMsgs to take the sensor_msgs/PointCloud and transform it into a PointCloud of type PointXYZ.

and now using cout to view the ->points, there are now three values, (something, something, something).

what exaclty has happened to my original laser readings which were in meters? i thought i could access the laser values in the PointXYZ form by using ->points._x as is shown on the struct page here... http://docs.pointclouds.org/1.3.1/structpcl_1_1_point_x_y_z.html