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Importing LiDAR in ASCII Format

Updated July 08, 2021


This article applies to:
  • Terrain 3D
  • Terrain Forestry
  • RoadEng Civil
  • RoadEng Forestry
This Knowledge Base article is an excerpt from one of our tutorial files. The files referenced in the article, as well as the full tutorial document, are available in our Tutorial Installer.  

Large data sets need to be loaded in such a way that they use the least amount of memory possible. In the next section, you will load a prepared LiDAR import format from an IOP (Input/Output Parameters) file.

Note: If your data is in LAS format, many of the steps in the next section are not required. However, the corridor thinning technique is required for both formats. LAS format is the preferred format for LiDAR, as it is compact and loads fast.

  1. File | Open <Terrain>\LiDAR\Empty.terx

  1. Setup | Module Setup button. This opens a Terrain Setup dialogue box.

    • Select the Import tab.

    • Check if LiDAR (x,y,z,code) already existing in the dropdown menu. If that format in not present press Merge button and browse to find the import options file. <Terrain>\LIDAR\Lidar2.iop.

    • Press OK.

    • IOP files are Import/Export File Format and was already created.

    • Press OK button to close the Module Setup dialogue box.