LASlib (with LASzip) is a C++ programming API for reading / writing LIDAR data stored in standard LAS or in compressed LAZ format (1.0 - 1.3). Both libraries - LASlib with LASzip - are released together under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public Licence also known as LGPL. See LICENSE.txt for details. Internally LASlib includes my stand-alone LASzip compression library that provides lossless compression for LAS data. This allows you to read or write *.laz (LASzip compressed *.las files) directly like you would an uncompressed .las file using the same LASreader and LASwriter classes. This distribution comes with a small tool called "laszip" or "laszip.exe" compresses LAS files into much more compact LAZ files and vice versa. The resulting files are around 7 - 20 percent of their original size without a single bit being different (i.e. absolutely lossless compression). LASlib (with LASzip) is easy-to-use, light-weight, yet extremely fast. Just download it here and you are ready to go. For Windows users "laszip.exe" and other binary LAStools and a MSVC6.0 project environment are included. For Linux users there are simple Makefiles. The best way is get LASlib is to download LAStools, which contains the full LASlib (with LASzip) distribution: wget http://www.lastools.org/download/lastools.zip unzip lastools.zip cd lastools/ make -------------------- Here is how simple the programming API is: #include "lasreader.hpp" #include "laswriter.hpp" int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { LASreadOpener lasreadopener; lasreadopener.set_file_name("original.las"); LASreader* lasreader = lasreadopener.open(); LASwriteOpener laswriteopener; laswriteopener.set_file_name("compressed.laz"); LASwriter* laswriter = laswriteopener.open(&lasreader->header); while (lasreader->read_point()) laswriter->write_point(&lasreader->point); laswriter->close(); delete laswriter; lasreader->close(); delete lasreader; return 0; } -------------------- Many LAStools are "free" open source (LGPL). But some of the more powerful LAStools (i.e. for contour extraction, boundary polygon computation, TIN generation, DEM creation, thinning, clipping, tiling, sorting, ...) need a license for commercial and government use. -------------------- (c) 2007-2014 martin.isenburg@rapidlasso.com