LAStools
award-winning software for rapid LiDAR processing
Abstract
Tools to process LiDAR data files.The data files has the ASPRS LAS format (version 1.0-1.4) or the losslessly compressed, but otherwise identical twin, the LAZ format.
See the product overview or the table below to see what tools and converters we provide.
LAStools consist of different parts:
Some of the tools are free to use, others are licensed.
All code is written in ultra-lightweight, very efficient, and super-fast C++.
The basic modules are provided as source code (e.g. for Linux) and as Windows DLL.
LAStools are a collection of highly-efficient, scriptable tools with multi-core batching that process LAS, compressed LAZ, Terrasolid BIN, ESRI Shapefiles, ASCII and others.
Tool overview
Open source tools
| laszip | compresses LAS files to LAZ in high speed without information loss | |
| las2las | filters, transforms, subsamples, clips, thins, ... | |
| las2txt | turns LAS/LAZ into human-readable and easy-to-parse text | |
| txt2las | converts LiDAR from standard ASCII to LAS/LAZ | |
| lascopcindex | creates a COPC *.laz file for a given set of *.las or *.laz files | |
| lasdiff | compares LIDAR data of two LAS/LAZ/ASCII files and reports whether they are identical or whether they are different | |
| lasinfo | prints out an overview of the contents of a LAS/LAZ file | |
| lasmerge | can merge several LAS/LAZ files into one | |
| lasprecision | reads LIDAR data in the LAS format and computes statistics about precision "advertised" in the header |
Free tools
| lasview | visualizes the contents of a LAS/LAZ file and can also compute a TIN | |
| lasvalidate | determine if LAS files are conform to the ASPRS LAS specifications | |
| demzip | compresses and uncompresses raster data to RasterLAZ format | |
| e572las | extracts the points from the E57 format and stores them as LAS/LAZ files |
Closed source tools
| las2dem | rasters pointclouds (via a TIN) into elevation/slope/intensity/RGB DEMs | |
| las2iso | extracts, optionally simplified, elevation contours | |
| las2shp | turns LAS/LAZ into ESRI's Shapefile format | |
| shp2las | turns an ESRI's Shapefile into LAS/LAZ | |
| las2tin | triangulates the points of a LAS/LAZ file into a TIN | |
| lasboundary | computes a boundary polygon | |
| lascanopy | computes popular forestry metrics and grids them onto a raster | |
| lasclassify | classifies buildings and high vegetation (i.e. trees) | |
| lasclip | clips away points falling into polygonal shapes (e.g. building footprints) | |
| lascolor | colors LiDAR points based on imagery | |
| lascontrol | computes the height at certain x and y control points and reports the difference | |
| lascopy | copies attributes using the GPS-time stamp and the return number | |
| lasdatum | transforms from one horizontal datum to another | |
| lasdistance | classifies, flags, or removes points based on distance from polygonal segments | |
| lasduplicate | removes all duplicate points from a LAS/LAZ/ASCII file | |
| lasgrid | grids data onto a raster | |
| lasground | tool for bare-earth extraction | |
| lasground | redesigned version of lasground for even better bare-earth extraction | |
| lasheight | computes the height of each LAS point above the ground | |
| lasindex | creates a *.lax file for a given *.las or *.laz file that contains spatial indexing information | |
| laslayers | add layer functionality to LAS/LAZ files | |
| lasnoise | flags or removes noise points in LAS/LAZ/BIN/ASCII files | |
| lasoptimize | optimizes data for better compression and spatial coherency | |
| lasoverage | finds the "overage" of a airborne collect that get covered by multiple flightline | |
| lasoverlap | checks flight line overlap and/or vertical and horizontal alignment | |
| lasplanes | finds planar patches of LAS/LAZ points fulfilling a number of user-defineable criteria | |
| lasprobe | probes the elevation of the LIDAR for a given x and y location and reports it to a text file or to stdout | |
| laspublish | do 3D visualization of LiDAR data in a web browser using the WebGL Potree | |
| lasreturn | reports geometric return statistics and repairs 'number of returns' field based on GPS times | |
| lassort | z-orders LAS/LAZ files | |
| lassplit | splits the input file(s) into several output files based on various parameters | |
| lasthin | implements a simple point thinning algorithm | |
| lastile | creates a tiling of LAS/LAZ files | |
| lastrack | takes files together with a trajectory file by matching GPS time stamps | |
| lasvdatum | transforms LiDAR from ellipsoidal to orthometric elevations using a grid | |
| lasvoxel | computes a voxelization of points | |
| and even more... | see the full product overview |
BLAST extension
| blast2dem | process billion of LIDAR points from the LAS/LAZ format, triangulates them a seamless TIN, and rasters the TIN onto a DEM that can optionally be tiled | |
| blast2iso | process billion of LIDAR points from the LAS/LAZ format, triangulates them a seamless (!) TIN, and extracts contours at the specified elevations from the TIN |
All LAStools read, process, and write the compressed format directly without having to first decompress the file. Our easy-to-use, ultra-light-weight, very efficient C++ programming API called LASlib (with LASzip-DLL) makes it easy to add read/write support of compressed LAZ files to your software.
Support:
See rapidlasso support
Download:
See our changelog for latest changes.