LAStools: award-winning software for rapid LiDAR processing

download LAStools HERE

rapidlasso GmbH

now with GUIs and ArcGIS toolbox

abstract:
We provide an easy-to-use, ultra-light-weight, very efficient C++ programming API called LASlib (with LASzip DLL) that implements reading and writing of LiDAR points from and to the ASPRS LAS format (version 1.0-1.3) as well as its --- losslessly compressed, but otherwise identical twin --- the LAZ format (see below). All source code (LGPL) is included.

Built upon LASlib (with LASzip DLL) are LAStools - a collection of highly-efficient, scriptable tools with multi-core batching that process LAS, compressed LAZ, Terrasolid BIN, ESRI Shapefiles, and ASCII. The program lastile.exe creates a tiling of LAS/LAZ files, lassort.exe z-orders them, and lasclip.exe clips away points falling into polygonal shapes (e.g. building footprints). The tool txt2las.exe converts LiDAR from standard ASCII to LAS/LAZ. The corresponding las2txt.exe turns LAS/LAZ into human-readable and easy-to-parse text. The tool lasinfo.exe prints out an overview of the contents of a LAS/LAZ file, las2shp.exe turns LAS/LAZ into ESRI's Shapefile format, shp2las.exe turns an ESRI's Shapefile into LAS/LAZ, lasmerge.exe can merge several LAS/LAZ files into one, e572las.exe extracts the points from the E57 format and stores them as LAS/LAZ files, las2las.exe filters, transforms, subsamples, clips, ..., lasthin.exe implements a simple point thinning algorithm, las2tin.exe triangulates the points of a LAS/LAZ file into a TIN, las2dem.exe rasterizes them into a DEM, las2iso.exe extracts, optionally simplified, elevation contours, and lasboundary.exe computes a boundary polygon (i.e. a concave or disjoint hull of the points). The little OpenGL viewer lasview.exe visualizes the contents of a LAS/LAZ file and can also compute a TIN.

Our powerful, lossless LiDAR compressor laszip.exe turns large LAS files into much smaller LAZ files that are only 7 - 20 percent of the original file size: compare this file before (53 MB) and after (5.1 MB) compression. 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) (LGPL source code) makes it easy to add read/write support of compressed LAZ files to your software.
Google Groups LAStools - efficient tools for LiDAR processing - Visit this group
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download: (updated on January 2nd, 2020, CHANGES.txt)

  • LASlib (with LASzip DLL) C++ API and source code: LASlib.zip and README
  • LAStools (source code, linux makefile, windows project, binaries): LAStools.zip and LICENSE
  • e572las.exe and README
  • demzip.exe and README.txt
  • lasground.exe and README and README
  • lasheight.exe and README.txt
  • lasclassify.exe and README
  • lascanopy.exe and README
  • lasoverlap.exe and README
  • lastrack.exe and README
  • lascolor.exe and README
  • lasoptimize.exe and README
  • lascontrol.exe and README
  • lasgrid.exe and README
  • lascopy.exe and README
  • lasvoxel.exe and README
  • lasdistance.exe and README
  • lastile.exe and README
  • lasoverage.exe and README
  • lassort.exe and README
  • lasclip.exe and README
  • lasinfo.exe and README
  • lasvalidate.exe and README
  • lasindex.exe and README and video
  • lasthin.exe and README
  • lasnoise.exe and README
  • las2las.exe and README
  • lasboundary.exe and README
  • lasduplicate.exe and README
  • las2tin.exe and README
  • las2dem.exe and README
  • blast2dem.exe and README and video
  • las2iso.exe and README
  • blast2iso.exe and README
  • lasmerge.exe and README.txt
  • lassplit.exe and README.txt
  • lasreturn.exe and README.txt
  • lasprecision.exe and README
  • laspublish.exe and README
  • las2shp.exe and README
  • shp2las.exe and README
  • lasview.exe and README
  • laszip.exe and README and paper and video
  • las2txt.exe and README
  • txt2las.exe and README
  • videos:

  • LiDAR processing with LAStools in the Canary islands
  • UNB Fredericton workshop on LiDAR Processing with LAStools
  • LASindex - simple spatial indexing of LiDAR data
  • LASzip: lossless compression of LiDAR data
  • LAStools' BLAST extension: Triangulating billions of LiDAR points
  • related publications:

  • [ilsst-tin2dem-06.pdf] Martin Isenburg, Yuanxin Liu, Jonathan Shewchuk, Jack Snoeyink, Tim Thirion, Generating Raster DEM from Mass Points via TIN Streaming, GIScience'06 Conference Proceedings, pages 186-198, September 2006.
  • [ilss-scdt-06.pdf] Martin Isenburg, Yuanxin Liu, Jonathan Shewchuk, Jack Snoeyink, Streaming Computation of Delaunay Triangulations, Proceedings of SIGGRAPH'06, pages 1049-1056, July 2006.
  • [ilss-lidar2iso-06.pdf] Martin Isenburg, Yuanxin Liu, Jack Snoeyink, Streaming Extraction of Elevation Contours from LiDAR points, draft, april 2006.
  • related downloads:

  • slides: tin2dem.ppt (+ vids + DivX codec for vids)
  • streaming delaunay demo: sd_demo.zip (11 MB)
  • lidar points to elevation contours demo: lidar2iso_demo.zip (47 MB)