Lidar readers process the raw data generated by lidar sensors. There are a wide variety of lidar sensors available in the industry, which generate lidar data in different formats. Lidar Toolbox™ currently supports reading data in the PLY, Velodyne^® PCAP, PCD, LAS, LAZ and Ibeo sensor formats.

LAS is an industry-standard binary format for storing airborne lidar data. A LAS or LAZ data file contains lidar point cloud data. In addition to lidar point cloud data, a LAS data file can store references to feature classes containing surface classification data. Ibeo sensors, which are developed by Ibeo Automotive Systems, create Ibeo data container (IDC) files that can contain data for multiple sensors simultaneously, such as IMU, GPS, camera, and lidar. The Ibeo reader object extracts only lidar point cloud and plane data from the files.

Lidar Toolbox supports writing to PLY and PCD sensor formats.