Compressing and decompressing LiDAR data with LASTools
LiDAR files are quite large. LASTools provides an efficient way to compress and decompress them.
LiDAR files with the .las
extension are not compressed. Those with .laz
are compressed.
Compressing
- Open the Windows command prompt:
Win + X
then selectCommand prompt
- Navigate to the project folder:
CD C:\GossanHill
- My project folder contains these items:
29/03/2017 04:32 PM 946,176 las2las.exe
28/03/2017 09:25 AM 913,408 las2txt.exe
29/03/2017 04:19 PM 999,424 lasinfo.exe
28/03/2017 09:26 AM 966,656 laszip.exe
30/03/2017 08:17 PM 1,186,327,293 Merged.las
- Enter a command like this:
laszip Merged.las
laszip
is the program to runMerged.las
is the file to act upon
The program runs for a little while, then you’ll see that a new file Merged.laz
has been created. It is roughly 15% the size of the uncompressed file. If there’s already a Merged.laz
file, then it will be over-written.
Decompressing
The reverse process is virtually the same. Use the same command, but provide a .laz
file as an input. Here’s an example: laszip Merged.laz
. If there’s already a Merged.las
file, then it will be over-written.
This article is part of the Orienteering Mapping with LiDAR, Smartphones and Free Tools series.
Polite and constructive responses are always welcome.