As we have discussed in the last two issues of LP360 News, breaklines are two- or three-dimensional graphic data (points, lines, polygons) that we introduce into an elevation model to alter the topology. When working with Geographical Information System (GIS) models, we nearly always model complex, irregular elevation data as a Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN).…
In the previous issue of LP360 News, I introduced the use of Triangulated Irregular Networks (TIN) for modeling point derived elevation data as well as the basic concepts of “soft” breaklines. I realized when writing that first article that it is probably a useful exercise to review contours. Thus this part II article will be…
Note: While the Arctoolbox tools are still an option within the product, the introduction of LAS File Analyst in v2018.1 and the ReProject/Shift LAS PCT in v2017.1, the new tools provide more efficient and robust tools and are now the recommended tools to use. LP360 has a set of four tools that can be accessed…
We often think of using LIDAR data either in simple operations for generating derived products, such as creating gridded elevation files, or for more esoteric operations, such as automatic extraction of building footprints. However, LIDAR data included as a standard layer in your ArcGIS® project (using LP360 for ArcGIS®, of course) can prove very useful,…
In a visual world an image is easily recognizable to viewers when compared to a monochrome point cloud and can be one of the biggest challenges when a new person attempts to interpret LIDAR data sets for the first time. The LAS format (v1.2 and later) supports the storage of point color values directly within…
In order to minimize the amount of effort required for performing quality control on data it is best to run macro-level quality control checks to quickly assess whether to invest the labor in micro-level quality assessments. Hillshade images can be used as part of a quick quality control analysis by providing an overview perspective on…
I often find myself running point statistics in LP360 (either LP360 for ArcGIS or the standalone LP360) using the stamp Point Cloud Task tools. This allows me to take multiple samples across the project for point density testing or classification counts. I realized that it is not obvious that you can append to a shape…
Unfortunately, much LIDAR data has been delivered in text format (American Standard Code for Information Interchange, ASCII) rather than the rich binary LAS format. Many agencies now have disk drives of LIDAR, in ASCII format, on the shelf that accompanied more familiar LIDAR-derived products such as gridded Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and digital contour files.…
LIDAR datasets are large and require extensive quality control and quality assurance procedures to ensure desired accuracies and product results. Statistics play an important role in evaluating LIDAR data in an efficient manner during such this QA/QC process. Statistics can be calculated for the LIDAR project dataset as a whole, for each file in the…
