All licensed tools can be tested for free without a license. Just download the full package with or without GUI and run LAStools with the „-demo“ argument. For quality tests, use small samples up to 1.5 million points. For performance tests, use point clouds of any size. Output distortions (e.g., noise, diagonal lines) are related […]
LAStools: Test and validate in demo mode Read More »
We are pleased to present two new cheatsheets: LAS/LAZ cheatsheet with all relevant information about LAS/LAZ files compressed on one page! Also available as PDF. Below, our LAStools cheatsheet, which provides an overview of all the tools. Also available as PDF.
LAS/LAZ & LAStools cheatsheets Read More »
lasinfo is a well-known LAStool for examining LAS and LAZ files and is often used to output information from point cloud files. The output format has always been simple ASCII text. Quite a few users parse this text to extract information for further automated processing. This is possible but carries the risk of misinterpretation of
lasinfo64 supports JSON output Read More »
We are pleased to announce that PROJ has been integrated into LAStools, enhancing the capabilities of geodesic calculations, cartographic projections, and coordinate transformations in LAStools. PROJ is a generic coordinate transformation software that transforms geospatial coordinates from one coordinate reference system (CRS) to another, including cartographic projections as well as geodetic transformations. It is used
PROJ Integration into LAStools Read More »
Release note for version 240510: The redesign of the error handling may require customization of scripts using LAStools. Background: The reasons for error messages can be minor (e.g. a tool argument is not in the correct range). However, especially when working in batch mode, it is crucial that errors in the process are reliably detected
Redesign of LAStools error handling Read More »
The lascopy tool is well-known for matching data from different LAS/LAZ files and copying attributes between the files. The matching key is expected to have an identical timestamp/return to match the data. The redesign of lascopy expands the matching and coping part of the tool: it can now match not only for identical GPS time
lascopy: redesign with expanded matching by coordinates,… Read More »
Sometimes Windows refuses to start a program. This may be caused by Windows‘ internal security mechanism or by external virus scanners installed by users to protect their computers against viruses, malware programs, serious damage or theft of data. The Microsoft Windows operating system tries to prevent programs from randomly starting that appear suspicious, (e.g., if
‘Malware alerts’ when starting LAStools or laslook on Windows Read More »
LAStools and laslook are best installed via the default installer. This blog entry shows additional installation options. The goal of all installation methods is to copy files from the installation media to the target location. It is always possible to complete this task through a manual copy or a batch script. LAStools file structure LAStools
Manual and non-standard installation of LAStools and laslook Read More »
In general, the z coordinate of a LiDAR point within a LAS/LAZ file contains the absolute z value of the coordinate system used. For some operations such as classification (lasclassify) or canope metrics (lascanope) it is mandatory to specify the “height above ground” as an additional value for the calculations. There have been several ways
Using multiple Z dimensions within LAS/LAZ files Read More »
One of the first LAStools features was to export LAS/LAZ to textfiles and import textfiles to LAS/LAZ (las2txt and txt2las). Typically, the format for parsing the textfile is specified in the “-parse” or “-oparse” argument. The parameters of this argument define which properties of a lidar point are exported or imported. With Version 240125, these
Converting LAS/LAZ files to textfiles with generated headers Read More »
The LAStools filter module was already able to filter colors according to RGB values. However, it sometimes makes sense to filter not only for RGB, but also for hue, saturation, and brightness values. Therefore, the HSL and HSV color models are quite common. LAStools now support these color models in filtering points. These are the
Point cloud filtering by HSL and HSV color models Read More »
LAStools runs on Windows and Linux. This article describes the features and installation of LAStools for Linux. Features All binaries are 64bit.Multicore (-cores) is supported.BLAST (blast2dem) is available.The „-gui“ option is not available because most users run LAStools@Linux on the command line for batch processing. Installation Download the binaries via a browser or use the
Our popular E57 to LAS/LAZ converter e572las is now also available for Linux. The converter converts point clouds from the E57 format to the LAS or the lossless compressed LAZ format. Download the binaries. The tar.gz package contains 3 files. Filename Description e572las_README.md The README file with the documentation of the tool. e572las64 The tool
E57 to LAS converter for Linux Read More »
We announce the release of laslook 1.2.0 – a major improvement to the software, including many new features and some bug fixes. This article first introduces some important innovations, at the end of the text you will find a list of further changes Pointcloud colorization Currently, colorization can be done by different attributes like classification
This article is obsolete now. Please see the new article about „LAStools@linux“. LAStools@linux multicore is now available as a beta version. The data quality is checked against the current version of LAStools – we assume that the data is valid. Some arguments don´t currently work with Linux multicore, so this beta/test version was released for
LAStools@linux Multicore / beta version Read More »
With the latest release of LAStools (230731) we are introducing two new tools:
LAStools (230731): las3dpoly and lasintensity Read More »
LAS and LAZ are both very common and powerful formats to save pointcloud data. Nevertheless, some users, or programs, may require another point data format. A common general format to save geometric data, for said requirement, is the wavefront OBJ format. Using one of the sample LAZ files of LAStools we will show you how
Convert LAS/LAZ Pointcloud to Wavefront OBJ Files Read More »
This tool corrects the intensity attenuation due to atmospheric absorption. Because the light has to travel longer distances for points with large scan angles, these points may be detected with reduced intensities. In order to get a reliant attenuation estimate several parameters are essential: As the absorption coefficient may be difficult to grasp, lasintensity implements
As an input take, for example, a LAS/LAZ/TXT file and a SHP/TXT file with oneor many polylines (e.g. powerlines).This feature modifies points within a certain distance of those polylines.There are two separate options for running point selection; you can either: Affected points can be classified, clipped, or flaged. The input SHP/TXT file must contain clean
Until now LAStools have 2 tools to modify lidar data using shapefiles: las3dpoly covers the missing z dimension. This enables the user to modify points along a 3D-corridor within a LiDAR data file. One possible use for this feature is classifying powerlines. Below you will find an example of how to classify powerlines: The sample
Modify LAS/LAZ files via 3D polylines Read More »
In memory of Martin Isenburg, Creator of LAZ, LAStools & BLAST and Founder of rapidlasso, we share his full story “The Lidar Legacy of Martin Isenburg”, recently published as cover story of Lidar Magazine: https://lidarmag.com/2023/02/14/tools-for-a-better-tomorrow/
Martin & LAStools – The Full Story, published by Lidar Magazine Read More »
