LiDAR is all the rage and there’s a number of tools and resources at the disposal of the technology professional to help him/her work with better and smarter with point clouds and LiDAR data. The following are but of a few of the many resources out there that the user new to LiDAR might wish to consider checking out.
Lizardtech – The company has a number of fine solutions that will help the LiDAR user be much more productive including their LiDAR Compressor Tool – LiDAR Compressor enables you to reduce LiDAR file sizes by 75 percent or more while retaining all of your points and all of the precision and accuracy of your point data. Something new from Lizardtech is their GeoGofer Solution – Use powerful search and filter features to find imagery by keyword, by projection, by file format, and more. No more searching around the hard drives to locate your LiDAR data!
Global Mapper LiDAR Module – Here’s another “Swiss Army Knife” type of solution to keep in your toolbox! This major upgrade includes the ability to quickly identify and classify building and vegetation points in unclassified LiDAR data, a new tool to automate the feature extraction process for creating 3D vector buildings and trees, and dramatically improved automatic classification of ground points. The LiDAR Module offers an array of post-processing tools that enable the querying, filtering, editing, reclassifying, and exporting of LiDAR data – read more about the latest release of Global Mapper with enhanced LiDAR data support
RiALITY – LiDAR Data Visualization on iPad from Riegl – This new, innovative App, the first of its kind, allows users to experience LiDAR data in a completely new environment. It also allows easier LiDAR data demonstrations through the use of an iPad. RiALITY features true color point clouds and 3D navigation. In a breakthrough technological development, the app features an Augmented Reality Mode. The Augmented Reality Mode allows point clouds to be virtually projected into the real world – See the official announcement and also Find out more at www.riegl.com/app.
RiALITY from RIEGL
LiDAR in ArcGIS – ArcGIS offers many tools for managing lidar point clouds and deriving useful products from them to aid scientific research and decision making. Esri has a paper on their website offering up 5 tips for working with LiDAR more efficiently in ArcGIS. Also of interest, this video from 2012 from Esri shares how you can better leverage your LiDAR data in ArcGIS – Learn more about Working natively with Lidar data with Esri solutions.
LP360 – This solution turns ArcMap Basic edition into the world’s most powerful GIS environment for LIDAR point cloud processing. Available in three levels of capability, LP360 provides tools from rapid visualization and derived product generation through advanced features such as automatic ground classification and building footprint extraction.
BONUS…
FME – FME has a number of built in functionality that enables users to precess and analyze raster data products – Dale Lutz of Safe addressed the topic of LiDAR way back in 2011 in a blog post that discussed how Esri was knocking down the barriers to working with LiDAR data via their native support for LAS within ArcGIS at R 10.1. FME can support the transformation of point cloud data into over 300 data formats! See more on FME LiDAR solutions
More Geospatial solutions for LiDAR data: