[GIS] Can ArcGIS Desktop create LAS (or lasd) files from ASCII data

arcgis-desktopconvertlaslidarxyz

I have many ASCII files containing LiDAR xyz values. In order to create an ArcGIS LASD file, I need to convert these ASCII files into las files. I can do this with FME or LAStools, but I can't see a way in ArcGIS.

Does anyone know if this is possible in ArcGIS Desktop 10.3.x?

Best Answer

I don't believe there's an option to convert any file format to LAS within ArcGIS, out of the box.

You can support this idea (there are also additional suggestions on the page): https://geonet.esri.com/ideas/4809

Related Solutions

[GIS] Clipping from a tiled LAS dataset with LASTools (for ArcGIS)

The "LAStools" toolboxes in ArcGIS, QGIS, and ERDAS IMAGINE all operate on one LAS / LAZ file at a time. The "LAStools Production" toolboxes in ArcGIS and QGIS take folders and wildcards instead of filenames as input and can then be run across hundreds of tiles and on multiple cores.

For faster performance it is instrumental that you first run lasindex to create *.lax files for each tile. Unfortunately the internal structure of ESRI's near-identical *.lasx files is a trade secret so you will have to index twice. Kind of a shame as these proprietary *.lasx files seem to be only a minor variation of the open source *.lax files LASindex produces.

FUSION – Clip Multiple .las Files to Polygon Shapefile Using FUSION Command-Line

Oh, this is a DOS thing, not fusion... you want to use DIR /B to generate a list of just the file names (/b means brief). If you want the full paths use DIR /B/S - this will also search all sub directories.

To get a list of just the las files in the current directory into a text file:

DIR /B *.LAS > FileList.txt

(the > means redirect the output into a text file)

To get a list of all las files in the current directory (and all sub directories) with full paths:

DIR /B/S *.LAS > FileList.txt

The text file will be in the current directory but if you wish you can also redirect with a full path to the text file (eg DIR /B/S > C:\SOME\PATH\LIST.TXT)... to append an existing file use >> for example:

dir /b/s .\batch1\*.las > c:\some\path\list.txt
dir /b/s c:\other\path\*.las >> c:\some\path\list.txt

Creates/overwrites on the first command then appends on the second.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[GIS] Clipping from a tiled LAS dataset with LASTools (for ArcGIS)

FUSION – Clip Multiple .las Files to Polygon Shapefile Using FUSION Command-Line

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