libLAS 1.6.0

LAS 1.0/1.1/1.2 LiDAR data format translation

libLAS is a C/C++ library for reading and writing the very common LAS LiDAR format. The ASPRS LAS format is a sequential binary format used to store data from LiDAR sensors and by LiDAR processing software for data interchange and archival.

libLAS’ initial development was supported in 2007-2008 by the IGSB of the Iowa DNR for use in its state-wide LIDAR project. Ongoing support for libLAS is provided by a number of organizations including the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.

Pre-requisites

The Python bindings require the libLAS base C and C++ libraries be installed. Obtain a source copy of the library from http://liblas.org/download.html and follow the compilation instructions at http://liblas.org/compilation.html to build and install the library.

News

02/02/2011

libLAS 1.6.0 adds a number of new features:

• Compression/decompression support via LASzip

• Octree indexing

• Tiling support via lasblock

• Loading data to Oracle Point Cloud via las2oci

• Horizontal and vertical reprojection

• XML summary output via lasinfo

Updates to the Python API include support for manipulating raw point data, rescaling support through manipulation of point.header, and a number of additions to bring things in line with the libLAS C++ API.

Notes

The Windows builds provided by PyPI include statically-linked LASzip support, but do not provide coordinate system support via GDAL or libgeotiff. Because the Windows binaries provide LASzip support, which is LGPL, they should be considered LGPL as well.

If you need coordinate system support, or fully-featured tools, obtain an install via OSGeo4W. OSGeo4W does include its own Python 2.5, however, which may what you need, but libLAS’ bindings are not tied to any specific Python version (they use ctypes), and you should be able to piece together a system that way.

Documentation

A tutorial and class documentation are provided.

License

libLAS is available under the terms of the BSD License. See License for a copy.