In one embodiment, a technique is provided for semi-automatically extracting a polyline from a linear feature in a point cloud. The user may provide initial parameters, including a point about the linear feature and a starting direction. A linear feature extraction process may automatically follow the linear feature beginning in the starting direction from about the selected point. The linear feature extraction process may attempt to follow a linear segment of the linear feature. If some points may be followed that constitute a linear segment, a line segment modeling the linear segment is created. The linear feature extraction process then determines whether the end of the linear feature has been reached. If the end has not been reached, the linear feature extraction process may repeat. If the end has been reached, the linear feature extraction process may return the line segments and create a polyline from them.