r3.in.lidar(1)

NAME
r3.in.lidar - Creates a 3D raster map from LAS LiDAR points using univariate statistics.

KEYWORDS
raster3d, import, LIDAR, statistics, conversion, aggregation, binning

SYNOPSIS
r3.in.lidar
r3.in.lidar --help
r3.in.lidar [-dvopsg] [input=name] [file=name] [n=name] [sum=name] [mean=name] [proportional_n=name] [proportional_sum=name] [return_filter=string] [class_filter=integer[,integer,...]] [base_raster=name] [zscale=float] [intensity_range=min,max] [intensity_scale=float] [--overwrite] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

  Flags:

-d
    Use base raster actual resolution instead of computational region

-v
    Use only valid points
    Points invalid according to APSRS LAS specification will be filtered out

-o
    Override projection check (use current projects’s CRS)
    Assume that the dataset has the same coordinate reference system as the current project

-p
    Print LAS file info and exit

-s
    Scan data file for extent then exit

-g
    In scan mode, print using shell script style

--overwrite
    Allow output files to overwrite existing files

--help
    Print usage summary

--verbose
    Verbose module output

--quiet
    Quiet module output

--ui
    Force launching GUI dialog

  Parameters:

input=name
    LAS input file
    LiDAR input file in LAS format (*.las or *.laz)

file=name
    File containing names of LAS input files
    LiDAR input files in LAS format (*.las or *.laz)

n=name
    Count of points per cell
    Name for output 3D raster map

sum=name
    Sum of values of point intensities per cell
    Name for output 3D raster map

mean=name
    Mean of point intensities per cell
    Name for output 3D raster map

proportional_n=name
    3D raster map of proportional point count
    Point count per 3D cell divided by point count per vertical column

proportional_sum=name
    3D raster map of proportional sum of values
    Sum of values per 3D cell divided by sum of values per vertical column

return_filter=string
    Only import points of selected return type
    If not specified, all points are imported
    Options: first, last, mid

class_filter=integer[,integer,...]
    Only import points of selected class(es)
    Input is comma separated integers. If not specified, all points are imported.

base_raster=name
    Subtract raster values from the z coordinates
    The scale for z is applied beforehand, the filter afterwards

zscale=float
    Scale to apply to Z data
    Default: 1.0

intensity_range=min,max
    Filter range for intensity values (min,max)

intensity_scale=float
    Scale to apply to intensity values
    Default: 1.0

DESCRIPTION
The r.in.lidar module is very similar to the r3.in.lidar module and many parts of its documentation apply also for r3.in.lidar.

Figure: Proportional count of points per 3D cell. When 50% of all points in a vertical column fall into a given 3D cell, the value is 0.5. Here, the green color was assigned to 0.5, red to 1 and yellow to 0. The figure shows vertical slices and green color indicates high vegetation while red color indicates bare ground.

NOTES

    •   This module is new and partially experimental. Please don’t rely on its interface and be critical towards its outputs. Please report issues on the mailing list or in the bug tracker.

    •   No reprojection is performed, you need to reproject ahead or use a GRASS project with the coordinate system that matches that of the data.

    •   Some temporary maps are created but not cleaned up. Use of --overwrite might be necessary even when not desired.

    •   Expects points to have intensity and causing random (undefined) result for related outputs (sum, mean, proportional_sum) when the intensity is not present but the outputs were requested.

EXAMPLES

  Basic import of the data
Set the region according to a 2D raster and adding 3D minimum (bottom), maximum (top) and vertical (top-bottom) resolution.

g.region rast=secref b=80 t=160 tbres=5 -p3

Now, r3.in.lidar will create the 3D raster of the size given by the computation region:

r3.in.lidar input=points.las n=points_n sum=points_sum \
    mean=points_mean proportional_n=points_n_prop \
    proportional_sum=points_sum_prop

  Point density vertical structure reduced to the terrain
Create ground raster:

r.in.lidar input=points.las output=ground method=mean class_filter=2

Set vertical extent of computational region to (relative) coordinates above ground:

g.region rast=secref b=0 t=47 -p3

Compute point density:

r3.in.lidar input=points.las n=points_n sum=points_sum \
    mean=points_mean proportional_n=points_n_prop \
    proportional_sum=points_sum_prop \
    base_raster=ground

  Complete workflow for vertical structure analysis
Compute the point density of points in 2D while setting the output extent to be based on the data (-e) and the resolution set to a relatively high number (here 10 map units, i.e. meters for metric projections).

r.in.lidar input=points.las output=points_n method=n -e resolution=10

This step can be repeated with using different resolutions (and the --overwrite flag) to determine the resolution for the further analysis.

The class_filter option should be also provided if only part of the points is analyzed, for example class_filter=3,4,5 would be used for low, medium, and high vegetation if the LAS file follows the usedstandard ASPRS class numbers.

The resolution should be suitable for computing digital elevation model which will be computed in the next steps. Once you decided on the resolution, you can use the 2D raster to set the computational region extent and resolution:

g.region raster=points_n -p3

class_filter=2 is used to limit

r.in.lidar input=points.las output=ground_mean method=mean class_filter=2

The following steps are not necessary if the point density is high enough to fill the raster continuously.

Convert the raster to vector point resulting in a decimated point cloud:

v.to.rast input=ground_mean type=point output=ground_decimated use=z

Interpolate the ground surface from the decimated ground points:

v.surf.rst input=ground_decimated elevation=ground

Now we need to determine upper vertical limit for the 3D raster (the top value from g.region -p3). This can be potentially done with lower resolution. The -d flag ensures that the ground raster will be used in its actual resolution regardless of the resolution of the output.

r.in.lidar input=points.las method=max output=veg_max class_filter=3,4,5 base_raster=ground -d

With that, we can finally set up the 3D extent and resolution:

g.region rast=secref b=0 t=40 res=1 res3=1 -p3

Note that the 2D and 3D resolutions are separate so that user can perform the 2D calculations on a finer resolution than the 3D calculations. The vertical resolution can be and often is set to a different value as well. Here we use the same value for all resolutions for simplicity.

Finally, we perform the 3D binning where we count number of points per cell (voxel):

r3.in.lidar input=points.las n=n class_filter=3,4,5 base_raster=ground -d

REFERENCES

    •   V. Petras, A. Petrasova, J. Jeziorska, H. Mitasova (2016): Processing UAV and lidar point clouds in GRASS GIS. XXIII ISPRS Congress 2016 [ISPRS Archives, ResearchGate]

    •   ASPRS LAS format

    •   LAS library

    •   LAS library C API documentation

SEE ALSO
r3.in.xyz, r.in.lidar, v.in.lidar, r.to.rast3, r3.to.rast, r3.mapcalc, g.region

AUTHOR
Vaclav Petras, NCSU GeoForAll Lab

SOURCE CODE

Available at: r3.in.lidar source code (history)

Latest change: Wednesday Mar 05 14:10:57 2025 in commit: 8605efeb76f1112df8cc657220ce4e1f1c1b94f3

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