You are here: LiDAR Data > LiDAR overview

LiDAR overview

You can use GeoExpress to compress, crop, and reproject LiDAR point clouds and create mosaics. Many of the switches for input and output options are the same for raster and LiDAR data.

For more information about the compressed output formats supported for LiDAR data, see Comparison of compressed output formats.

Basic LiDAR switches

Switch Notes
‑input / ‑i Identifies the input source file. It can be a full path name, or a path that is relative to the current working directory. Example: ‑i foo.las
‑inputformat / ‑if

Identifies the input file format. Accepted formats are:

  • las: LAS format
  • laz: LAZ format
  • sid: MrSID Generation 4 (MG4) LiDAR format
  • txt: LiDAR text file
‑mosaic / ‑mos Identifies the input file as a mosaic list. The file must have a .list extension. See below for more information.
‑output / ‑o Identifies the name of the file that GeoExpress creates. It can be a full path, or a path that is relative to the current working directory. Example: ‑o myfile.sid
‑outputformat / ‑of

Identifies the desired output format of the file that is to be encoded. Accepted formats are:

  • las: LAS format
  • laz: LAZ format
  • mg4: MrSID Generation 4 (MG4) LiDAR format

The default output format is MrSID Generation 4.

The following command creates a MrSID file from a LAS file:

mrsidgeoencoder -i in.las -o out.sid

Mosaics

To create point cloud mosaics in GeoExpress, create a text file that lists the point clouds that you want to mosaic. The file must have a .list extension. The point clouds that you want to mosaic must be georeferenced, and the resulting mosaic can only be saved to the MrSID Generation 4 (MG4) format.

For example, to create a mosaic of four LAS files, you might create the following file:

The following command uses the file to create a mosaic:

mrsidgeoencoder -i mosaic.list -mos -o mosaic.sid

LiDAR mosaics are different from raster mosaics. You cannot create composite LiDAR mosaics, and LiDAR mosaic files must have a .list extension, not .mos.