Discussion: LiDAR help

I have some LiDAR data which I want to make the best use of. I have been able to get contours from it in OCAD 10 (don't have 11 which is supposed to have better LiDAR processing). I tried using OL Laser but couldn't get that to produce anything.

I have had a look at Kartapullautin LAStools and Terje Mathisen's LiDAR tutorial but I am not a programmer and have never used a command line so most of that stuff doesn't make much sense to me.

My data comes in blocks that cover 1000x1500m
there are 3 files for each block.

The data in each file looks like this:

block name
38000.50 -95999.50 40.14
38001.50 -95999.50 36.96
38002.50 -95999.50 35.76
(obviously this is just xyz- this is the data I used to get contours in OCAD 10)

block name_grd (grd = ground??)
391917,38000.00,-95018.41,54.84
103664,38000.00,-95019.48,54.87
103672,38000.00,-95093.43,54.93
(I assume that is just the last strike points)

block name_org (org = original??)
1,38730.41,-95228.83,68.08,1
2,38730.23,-95229.31,65.04,1
3,38729.06,-95249.64,68.25,1
(in the first column the numbers go up to about 1500000. In the last column the numbers are either 1 or 4 - does that indicate first and last strike??)

So a few questions:

Would I be able to get that data to produce anything in Karttapullautin or OL Laser?

Would I get anything more than just contours from it? I am not after a usable O map - but I would like some vegetation or other info to make a better base map.

How hard is to do all this for a non IT professional?

Any suggestions of other online tutorials etc (pitched at a 'For Dummies' level) that might help me.

Extra Question
I might have access to some other LiDAR data (don't know what format yet) that is taken at a 5m density. (The above data is 1m density and the contours I got using OCAD 10 are generally excellent). Would this 5m stuff be of any use for orienteering base maps?

That should work with Karttapullautin. Before you try any command line stuff, just drag one of your tile files onto the pullauta.exe file. It's skipping a bunch of steps, but it will quickly let you see if it will work.

In OL-Laser, you have to open a lidar data file, create a ground grid, then create contours. For a quick test, try one of your ground tiles. If it won't create a grid, try changing the grid settings to "all returns". It's probably looking for data embedded with a classification (like ground, building), but your XYZ data doesn't have that.

Thanks - I have tried all those things. Dragging onto Karttapullautin.exe (i understood that much) just created a 'temp' folder with nothing in it. From the Karttapullautin read me file I figured I need to use Lastools to convert the data to a suitable format but LAstools has me totally baffled.

I can probably help you!

Pack one of those top files with zip and send me...

I will use something like "las2las -i block_file -iparse xyz -olaz" to convert to laz, then run my pipeline.

Hi Terje - thanks for the offer - I will contact you directly.

ok, I'm terje.mathisen(at)tmsw.no in case you have problems finding me!

@robplow: I haven't heard from you, have you tried to email me?