BLAST
The product BLAST is an extension of the LAStools toolset. It is the ultimate speed-up to utilize unique “streaming TIN” technology to seamlessly triangulate billions of points for subsequent rasterization into a DEM with blast2dem or extraction of elevation contours with blast2iso.
The BLAST extension is available for stand-alone licensing and a discounted add-on to the LAStools software suite (see pricing).
The BLAST extension is a highly efficient, batch-scriptable, multicore command line tool: blast2dem and blast2iso. The tools can be run via a native GUI or through the LiDAR processing toolboxes for ArcGIS versions 9.3, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, or 10.3, QGIS versions 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4, 2.6, 2.8 or 2.10 and for ERDAS IMAGINE versions 14.0 and 15.1.
The BLAST extension of LAStools is the fastest and most memory-efficient solution to seamlessly process billions of LiDAR points into DTMs, DSMs, CHMs, or elevation contours.
blast2iso
It is almost identical to las2iso except that it can extract elevation contours from much larger inputs. While las2iso operates in-core and is limited to a maximum of around 20 million points, blast2iso utilizes unique “streaming TIN” technology and can seamlessly process up to 2 billion points. This tool is part of the BLAST extension of LAStools. For more details, see the README file.
Below an (academic) video that explains the “streaming TIN” technology that is used to Delaunay triangulate so many points using little main memory.
blast2dem
It is almost identical to las2dem except that it can process much larger inputs. While las2dem operates in-core and is limited to a maximum of around 20 million points, blast2dem utilizes unique “streaming TIN” technology and can seamlessly process up to 2 billion points. This tool is part of the BLAST extension of LAStools. For more details, see the README file.
Below an (academic) video that explains the “streaming TIN” technology that is used to Delaunay triangulate so many points using little main memory.