pointclouds

Read, filter, decimate and grid point clouds (LAS / LAZ, and COPC/EPT) in Python.

A point cloud is a set of 3-D measured points - typically from lidar or photogrammetry - each carrying x, y, z plus per-point attributes such as intensity, return number and ASPRS classification. pointclouds reads the standard exchange formats, exposes the header without touching the records, and provides the operations a cloud needs before analysis or rendering: classification filtering, decimation, reprojection, and gridding to a raster surface (DSM / DTM / density).

Install

pip install pointclouds          # core: reads LAS/LAZ, grids to arrays, no GDAL required
pip install pointclouds[gis]     # + pyramids-gis: to_dataset() / to_feature_collection()
pip install pointclouds[cloud]   # + fsspec/s3fs: remote LAZ / COPC
pip install pointclouds[all]     # everything

The core depends only on numpy, laspy, pyproj and scipy - no GDAL - so it installs anywhere numpy runs. GIS interoperability (turning a cloud into a pyramids Dataset or FeatureCollection) is an optional extra.

Quick look

import pointclouds as pc

cloud = pc.PointCloud.read_file("survey.laz")
cloud.crs, cloud.bounds, cloud.count          # from the header, no record read
xyz = cloud.to_array(("X", "Y", "Z"))         # (N, 3) float64

# COPC: read a window instead of the whole cloud - only the chunks that overlap are decompressed
box = pc.PointCloud.read_window("survey.copc.laz", bbox=(155000, 463000, 156000, 464000))
coarse = pc.PointCloud.read_window("survey.copc.laz", resolution=5.0)   # ~one point per 5 m

# EPT (Entwine): same windowed read, by directory or URL (remote needs the [cloud] extra)
box = pc.PointCloud.read_window("s3://bucket/survey-ept", bbox=(155000, 463000, 156000, 464000))

ground = cloud.filter(classification=2)
thin = ground.decimate(target=2_000_000, method="random")

arr, transform, crs = ground.to_grid(cell_size=1.0, aggregate="min")   # pure NumPy
dtm = ground.to_dataset(cell_size=1.0, aggregate="min")                # needs [gis]

Where it sits

pointclouds is an independent package in the serapeum-org stack. It interoperates with pyramids (the raster/vector GIS engine) through two converter methods behind the [gis] extra, but does not depend on it for reading, gridding or classification. See planning/placement-decision.md for the full architecture rationale.

License

GPLv3.