LAStools@INTERGEO 2022! Visit rapidlasso’s booth C3.101/Hall 3 to meet our team and talk about LiDAR processing. Email to info@rapidlasso.de for free tickets. See you there!
LAStools@INTERGEO
Category Archives: product news
Development and perspective
Beside maintenance and customer support, LAStools will certainly need some updates and further development to remain competitive. We are currently working on the following tasks.
New GUI
LAStools is a fundamental element regarding LiDAR data processing, but the GUI is outdated. Young professionals require a more intuitive operation. Visualizing cloud points helps to understand about data and processing. We‘ve started to develop a new GUI wrapper. It‘s challenging, but certain parts are already running.
Linux
Compiling the open-source part of LAStools is quite easy and done by many users. The commercial part is more difficult to port due to various dependencies and the complexity of the code. Nevertheless, most of it is done. The binaries are too big to pack them into our regular releases. If you are interested in running the commandline version of LAStools in a native Linux environment, kindly contact us to join our Linux beta tester program.
Manuals
LAStools are basically commandline tools optimized for batch processing. The “–help” output and the *_README.txt files of each tool provide basic information. Additionally, there is a lot of information (forums, videos) that is not easy to find, especially for initial users. Our aim is to collect the scattered information and elaborate a user manual for each tool. Together with our tutorials, this results in a complete documentation of LAStools.
We look forward to your feedback and are always open for requests.
clone wars and drone fights
NEWSFLASH: update on Feb 5th and 6th and 17th (see end of article)
The year 2014 shapes to be a fun one in which the LiDAR community will see some major laser battles. (-: First, ESRI starts a “lazer clone war” with the open source community saddening your very own LAS clown here at rapidlasso with a proprietary LAZ clone. Then AHAB and Optech start to squirmish over the true penetration depth of their bathymetric systems in various forums. And now RIEGL – just having launched their Q1560 “crossfire” for battling Leica and Optech in the higher skies – is heading into an all-out “laser drone war” with FARO and Velodyne over arming UAVs and gyrocopters with lasers by rolling out their new (leaked?) RIEGL VUX-1 scanner … (-;
Some specs below, but no details yet on power-consumption.
- about 3.85 kilograms
- 225mm x 180mm x 125mm
- survey-grade accuracy of 25mm
- echo signal digitisation
- online waveform processing
- measurement rate up to 500 kHz
- field of view 300 degrees
- internal 360 GB SSD storage or real-time data via LAN-TCP/IP
- collects data at altitudes or ranges of more than 1,000 ft
- will be on display during ILMF 2014 (Feb 17-19, Denver, USA)
The new RIEGL VUX-1 laser scanner for UAVs
Below a proof-of-concept concept video by Phoenix Aerial on how such a system (here based on a Velodyne HDL-32E scanner) may look and operate.
A similar system introduced by Airbotix is shown below.
Aibot X6 with laser scanner from Velodyne HDL-32E
But before trusting these kind of drones with your expensive hardware you should make plenty of test flights with heavy payloads. Here a suggestion to make this more fun:
UPDATE (February 5th): It is reported by SPAR Point Group that the RIEGL VUX-1 LiDAR scanner for drones is to be shown at International LiDAR Mapping Forum in Denver later this month. Given the ceremony that the Q1560 “crossfire” was introduced with, it surely seems as if Geospatial World Magazine spilled the news early …
UPDATE (February 6th): RIEGL officially press-released the VUX-1 LiDAR. Its weight is below 4kg and its range up to 1000 ft …
UPDATE (February 17th): Today the new VUX-1 finally made it’s much anticipated world-premiere during ILMF 2014 in Denver. For more images of the official unveiling see RIEGL’s blog.
The VUX-1 LiDAR scanner for UAVs unveiled at ILMF 2014.
online Web viewer for LiDAR
Nifty! Am online Web viewer for LiDAR data in LAS or ASCII format that can load files from your local drive. Very handy in case you need to inspect or show off a LAS file but do not have any LiDAR viewer installed on your computer – especially in case it should run cross-platform in any browser (does it?). But no LAZ support yet … (-;
Below you see a screenshot of me testing the viewer after loading rapidlasso‘s decompressed “fusa.las” data set that is part of the LAStools distribution. Try it for yourself at this site: http://lidarview.com/ … who is behind this?
lidarview displaying the “decompressed “fusa.las” model that is part of the LAStools distribution
rapidlasso selects LIDAR Technology Co. as first LAStools reseller
Just in time for INTERGEO 2013, the creators of LAStools and LASzip have partnered with LIDAR Technology Co., Ltd. of Zhubei City, Taiwan as their first exclusive reseller for the Taiwanese market. The two companies decided to strengthen their ties after holding a successful LiDAR processing workshop together with over 60 attendees following the International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technologies (MMT 2013) in Tainan City last May. “We were looking for a partner with a strong technical mindset who is committed to capacity building,” says Dr. Martin Isenburg, founder of rapidlasso GmbH, “and LIDAR Technology Co., Ltd. is investing in R&D – including full waveform LiDAR – and has strong ties to academia. We couldn’t have found a better collaborator.” Dr. “James” Jin-King Liu, the CEO of LIDAR Technology Co., Ltd. concurs “our companies are a great match. LAStools is already widely popular in Taiwan, yet to employ them to their fullest potential can require some guidance. Our company has the technical expertise to provide this kind of support locally.”
About rapidlasso GmbH:
Technology start-up rapidlasso GmbH specializes in efficient LiDAR processing tools that are widely known for their high productivity. They combine robust algorithms with efficient I/O and clever memory management to achieve high throughput for data sets containing billions of points. The company’s flagship product – the LAStools software suite – has deep market penetration and is heavily used in industry, government agencies, research labs, and educational institutions. Visit http://rapidlasso.com for more information.
About LIDAR Technology Co., Ltd.:
LIDAR Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in 2010 out of the airborne LiDAR team of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a National Laboratory in Taiwan. Their primary business is research, development, and application of earth observation, geoinformatics, and location-based services. LIDAR Technology Co., Ltd. performs acquisition, handling, and analysis of space-borne and airborne data with a focus on LiDAR, including full waveform, for which the company has developed own specialized solutions for their customers. Types of applications include mineral resources, geological mapping, geo-hazards studies, land-use and land-cover mapping, coastal zone mapping, forestry mapping, … visit http://www.lidar.com.tw for more information.
With CEO “James” Jin-King Liu and General Manager Ian Hsu in front of the office of LIDAR Technology Co., Ltd.
rapidlasso adds LAStools LiDAR processing toolbox to QGIS
At the code sprint following the FOSS4G 2013 conference, rapidlasso GmbH completed a toolbox that exposes the extensive LiDAR processing capabilities of the LAStools software suite within QGIS. QGIS (previously known as “Quantum GIS”) is a comprehensive desktop geographic information system that is free and open source software (FOSS). QGIS has seen rapid growth in acceptance as a viable and cost-effective alternative to the commerical ArcGIS products of ESRI. The newly integrated “Processing” framework (previously known as “SEXTANTE“) allows to combine the LiDAR functionality of LAStools with native raster and vector operations of QGIS as well as capabilities of other popular GIS packages such as GDAL, GRASS, SAGA, TauDEM, PostGIS and the (geo-)statistics package R. Detailed instructions on how to add the new LAStools toolbox to QGIS are available here.
About rapidlasso GmbH:
Technology start-up rapidlasso GmbH specializes in efficient LiDAR processing tools that are widely known for their high productivity. They combine robust algorithms with efficient I/O and clever memory management to achieve high throughput for data sets containing billions of points. The company’s flagship product – the LAStools software suite – has deep market penetration and is heavily used in industry, government agencies, research labs, and educational institutions. Visit http://rapidlasso.com for more information.
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- rapidlasso writing Python scripts at the FOSS4G 2013 code sprint in Nottingham, UK
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- screenshot of lasground as exposed via the new LAStools toolbox for QGIS
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- a DSM and 2 meter contours created with las2dem and las2iso using the new toolbox
how to install LAStools toolbox in QGIS
The more complex installation instructions are only relevant for older QGIS versions. Starting with QGIS 2.10 or newer you can skip directly to step 4 and disregard most of step 6:
We had an ArcGIS LiDAR processing toolbox since April 2012 and now we have one for QGIS as well. It has been tested successfully with QGIS 1.8.0-Lisboa, 2.0.1-Dufour, 2.2.0-Valmiera, and 2.4.0-Chugiak. Download and install QGIS. For version 2.2.0-Valmiera and older follow all the steps. Do not delete or copy any files for the newest version 2.4.0-Chugiak but skip directly to step 4 and disregard most of step 6:
- If you already started QGIS then exit the application.
- Delete (or rename) the entire folder “C:\Program Files\QGIS Valmiera\apps\qgis\python\plugins\processing\lidar”.
- Put the “.\lidar” folder that is inside this ZIP file into its place. This ZIP file only works for QGIS 2.2.0-Valmiera. For QGIS 2.0.1-Dufour you need to use the contents of this ZIP file instead. And for QGIS 1.8.0-Lisboa use this ZIP file and delete the folder “C:\Users\Martin\.qgis\python\plugins\sextante\lidar” instead.
- Get the most recent version of LAStools by downloading the 36 MB “LAStools.zip” file.
- Drag and drop (or extract) the “.\LAStools” folder from inside the ‘LAStools.zip‘ file such that there is no space in the path (e.g. bad: “C:\Program Files\LAStools”, good: “D:\software\LAStools”).
- Start QGIS. If there is a Python script error carefully repeat steps 1 to 3.
- Turn on the “Processing Toolbox” as shown below.
- Switch the processing toolbox from “Simplified Interface” to “Advanced Interface” as shown below.
- Open the “Options and configuration” sub menu of “Processing” as shown below.
- Check the “Activate” button for “Providers->Tools for LiDAR data” and fill in the path to your local LAStools folder as shown below. Type or copy & paste the path to LAStools (as the browse popup is broken). Press <strong>ENTER</strong> after entering the path so the field is greyed out again <em>before</em> clicking <strong>OK</strong>.
- Now you should see the “Tools for LiDAR data” in the toolbox and all the LAStools as shown below.
- Start lasground via double click and fill in the settings as shown below.
- Look at the file you just created by running lasview from the toolbox. Yay!
- Create this with two quick calls to las2dem and las2iso … sooo easy.
Kudos to Victor Olaya for creating this whole framework and providing me with example scripts for a simple LAStools toolbox that I just had to modify … (-:
Exhibiting at LiDAR Technologies 2013
This week rapidlasso GmbH is exhibiting its LAStools LiDAR processing software in tropical Cairns (Australia) at the LiDAR Technologies 2013 conference that is emerging as the premier LiDAR event in Australia. This marks the first time that rapidlasso is acting as a sponsor with its own exhibition booth on the showfloor. During the technical program rapidlasso is providing an update on the recently released PulseWaves open data exchange format for storing full waveform LiDAR data. The PulseWaves DLL is now fully integrated into the RASP software of Airborne Research Australia (ARA) at Flinders University in Adelaide and full waveform data is showcased that was recently acquired by ARA as part of a TERN AUScover campaign.
About rapidlasso GmbH:
Technology start-up rapidlasso GmbH specializes in efficient LiDAR processing tools that are widely known for their high productivity. They combine robust algorithms with efficient I/O and clever memory management to achieve high throughput for data sets containing billions of points. The company’s flagship product – the LAStools software suite – has deep market penetration and is heavily used in industry, government agencies, research labs, and educational institutions. Visit http://rapidlasso.com for more information.
Having a laugh with Toby Clewett (Senior Geospatial Analyst at Sunshine Coast Regional Council) and Anne Henderson (catchement modeler and spatial analyst CSIRO Land and Water) at the rapidlasso booth
new scanner cross examines terrain
It seems Leica and Optech may have come a bit under “crossfire” (-: by the other big news (besides adding PulseWaves support to RiPROCESS) at the RIEGL LiDAR 2013 user conference in Vienna, namely the unveiling of the new LMS-Q1560 airborne laser scanner. Below you see the management team doing the ceremonial act.
The specification looks great and will especially make those happy looking for dense surveys in complex terrain or for more LiDAR returns from building facades in urban environments. By employing two units that “crossfire” at a particular angle while one unit looks forward and one backward, the combined system can provide a better point spacing on the ground and a better point coverage on vertical surfaces.
The new system combines two LMS-Q780 units each firing at rates of up 400 kHz via a shared rotating mirror in the center. The scan lines of the two laser-beam-emitting units are not perpendicular to the flight direction but angled at +12 and -12 degrees (actual number may be different) in the x-y plane to assure that they independently and consistently sample the covered terrain – unaffected from flying height or aircraft speed. Furthermore, the two fanning sheets of laser pulses are angled at +7 and -7 degrees (actual number may be different) in flight direction, meaning that one unit is forward-looking and the other backward-looking. This increases the likelihood that the sides of buildings are scanned as well. Colloquially put, those back-facing facades perpendicular to the flight direction that are not seen by the first round of laser pulses from the forward-looking unit will be hit by the second round of laser pulses from the backward-looking unit and vice-versa. The above details may not be 100% correct but are what I (wrongly?) remember from the technical presentation that Dr. Ullrich gave (see below).
The overall ability to sample so rapidly is realized by combining the “crossfire” that I have just described with the “rapidfire” of the earlier Q780 units. Each unit is able to operate with up to 10 pulses simultaneously in the air by subsequently resolving ambiguities off-line with the multiple-time-around (MTA) processing technique introduced for earlier models (see the product descriptions for the Q680i or the Q780 for more on that topic).
Hence, this new scanner with “crossfire technology” promises to give your terrain a dense cross examination … and yes, it is a full waveform scanner. (-:
Release of PulseWaves Full Waveform LiDAR Format
Just in time for the RIEGL LiDAR 2013 user conference, technology start-up rapidlasso GmbH has released an open data exchange format called “PulseWaves” for storing full waveform LiDAR data. The new format has been in development since December 2011 through transparent discussions at http://pulsewaves.org that involved many stake holders. The result is a specification simple to implement, yet versatile enough to store many different waveform flavors. PulseWaves standardizes storage and delivery for applications that benefit from information about the waveform such as forest management, biomass estimation, and LiDAR bathymetry. It complements the ASPRS LAS format for discrete returns and radically simplifies the exchange of full outgoing and returning waveforms.
The initial PulseWaves release comes with an open source reference implementation (LGPL) and a set of basic processing tools to display and convert the data. A compressed version of the PulseWaves format based on LASzip technology is in progress. With their latest release of their RiPROCESS software, RIEGL GmbH has become the first hardware vendor to allow exporting full waveform LiDAR data to the PulseWaves format. The development effort was in parts supported by RIEGL GmbH and by Airborne Research Australia (ARA) at Flinders University in Adelaide.
About rapidlasso GmbH:
Technology start-up rapidlasso GmbH specializes in efficient LiDAR processing tools that are widely known for their high productivity. They combine robust algorithms with efficient I/O and clever memory management to achieve high throughput for data sets containing billions of points. The company’s flagship product – the LAStools software suite – has deep market penetration and is heavily used in industry, government agencies, research labs, and educational institutions. Visit http://rapidlasso.com for more information.
An illustrative visualization of full waveform data as rendered by the latest version of pulseview.exe.
rapidlasso GmbH 