I/O

Read, write, and visualize lidar data

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, Ibeo, Ouster^® and Hesai^® PCAP sensor formats.

You can also stream data from Velodyne and Ouster sensors. For more information, see

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, PCD, LAS and LAZ sensor formats.

Functions

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Readers

`hesaiFileReader`	Read point cloud data from Hesai PCAP file
`ousterFileReader`	Read point cloud data from Ouster PCAP file
`lasFileReader`	LAS or LAZ file reader
`ibeoLidarReader`	Ibeo data container (IDC) file reader
`velodyneFileReader`	Read point cloud data from Velodyne PCAP file
`pcread`	Read 3-D point cloud from PLY or PCD file

Writers

`lasFileWriter`	LAS or LAZ file writer
`pcwrite`	Write 3-D point cloud to PLY or PCD file

Visualization and Storage

`pcshow`	Plot 3-D point cloud
`pcshowpair`	Visualize difference between two point clouds
`pcplayer`	Visualize streaming 3-D point cloud data
`pointCloud`	Object for storing 3-D point cloud

Topics

Introduction to Lidar
High-level overview of lidar concepts and applications.
Read Point Cloud Data from LAZ File
This example shows how to read and visualize point cloud data from a LAS / LAZ file.
Read Lidar and Camera Data from Rosbag File
This example shows how to read and save images and point cloud data from a rosbag file.
Read, Process, and Write Lidar Point Cloud Data
This example shows how to read a point cloud into the workspace, select a desired set of points, and then write the selected points to a point cloud file format.