A Portal to High-Resolution Topography Data and Tools


myOpenTopo

Tools

Free Software Developed by GEON:

LViz: 3D LiDAR Visualization Tool

LViz is a tool developed designed for 3D visualization of LiDAR / ALSM point and interpolated data, the tool offers import of LiDAR point cloud data (delimited text file) or interpolated surfaces (in ascii or arc ascii grid formats). LViz also offers texture mapping and user control over display settings such as data and background color. LViz was originally written for visualization of outputs from the OpenTopography LiDAR system and is designed to run on Windows platforms. Although originally conceived for the 3D visualization of LiDAR data, LViz can be used to view any 3D point cloud data such as seismicity or gravity. Download and more info on LViz

GEON Points2Grid Utility

The GEON Points2Grid Utility is a lightweight tool for the generation of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) from LiDAR point cloud data.  The Points2Grid Utility is a Windows application that utilizes the same local binning algorithm deployed in the OpenTopography LiDAR system to offer rapid generation of DEMs from large volumes of LiDAR point return data. Download and more info on Points2Grid

Other Free and/or Open Source Software:

Utilities:

    LAStools: A powerful, free set of command line utilities for converting, viewing, compressing, and performing other processing tasks for LIDAR data in LAS format.  We have prepared a brief introduction to LAStools that you may find helpful.

    GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library): An open source translator library and command line utilities for raster geospatial data formats.  GDAL is very helpful for file format conversions, re-projection, and many other DEM management and processing tasks.  We have prepared a brief introduction to GDAL that you may find helpful.

    PROJ4 (Cartographic Projections Library): A powerful (and challenging) set of libraries and command line utilities for map projection.  PROJ4 is handy for tasks like mass re-projection of ascii LiDAR point cloud data.
      Note: for Windows or Linux users, the FWTools binaries are an easy way to get started with both GDAL and PROJ4.