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Post by chadgolf on Mar 1, 2019 2:55:18 GMT -5
Hi everyone,
I wanted to make this a notable thread because this is currently the biggest issue with the lidar tools.
You have perfectly good lidar, but your government/lidar vendor isn't providing the classified version! This is frustrating right now and I'm looking for potential solutions.
Classification is where they run complex software over the lidar points a few times and determine what that point probably is. We just need to know ground/not ground. But there are lots of other potential classifications like: low vegetation, high vegetation, buildings, power lines, water, and so on.
There's only one free program out there called lastools, but the classify features are not commercially free and the trial "fuzzes" the data so that the points don't line up enough for our use case.
There are other expensive programs that are hard to use called Global Mapper or ArcGIS, but I haven't found an easy way for an end user to learn how to run these professional level software programs.
If we can't find something easy and free (or a web server exposed for us), I may need to implement a classification algorithm from scratch. This may take a long time to run and weeks of development time, but I don't want the lidar data going to waste.
Anyone have any ideas or connections? For now your best bet is to ask the agency who gave you the lidar if they can ground classify it for you.
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Post by paddyjk19 on Mar 27, 2019 13:06:06 GMT -5
Hi Chad,
Just had this issue also, any suggestions very welcome.
If I were to splash out on Global Mapper or Arc GIS would I be able to solve this?
Thanks
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Post by chadgolf on Mar 27, 2019 13:31:58 GMT -5
I don't think I can recommend buying Global Mapper or ArcGIS for this, but certainly those kinds of programs can do the job.
I think they have free trials, so if you work quickly, that may be an option.
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Post by nickro on Sept 19, 2019 17:26:46 GMT -5
Hi and thanks for all the great info on this site!
I have a set of LiDAR that is in this "unclassified" state. I don't know how to go about contacting the provider to have it "classified", but I do have access to ArcGIS software. I am hoping someone can let me know how I can use this software to modify my data to a point that I can get it to work properly with the tool. Thanks!
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Post by mngolfdesigns on Oct 7, 2019 11:00:58 GMT -5
Hi and thanks for all the great info on this site! I have a set of LiDAR that is in this "unclassified" state. I don't know how to go about contacting the provider to have it "classified", but I do have access to ArcGIS software. I am hoping someone can let me know how I can use this software to modify my data to a point that I can get it to work properly with the tool. Thanks! ArcGIS can classify the LiDAR data. Tons of help on the ArcGIS website. I just had success with a course in AZ with unclassified lidar data + ArcGIS classification algorithms. I have 20 more days of my free trial for arcGIS, so let me know if I can help you. |
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Post by paddyjk19 on Oct 26, 2019 5:11:35 GMT -5
Hi and thanks for all the great info on this site! I have a set of LiDAR that is in this "unclassified" state. I don't know how to go about contacting the provider to have it "classified", but I do have access to ArcGIS software. I am hoping someone can let me know how I can use this software to modify my data to a point that I can get it to work properly with the tool. Thanks! ArcGIS can classify the LiDAR data. Tons of help on the ArcGIS website. I just had success with a course in AZ with unclassified lidar data + ArcGIS classification algorithms. I have 20 more days of my free trial for arcGIS, so let me know if I can help you. If you could do a “how to” tutorial for ArcGIS I would love you forever! |
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Post by mngolfdesigns on Oct 27, 2019 6:31:38 GMT -5
ArcGIS can classify the LiDAR data. Tons of help on the ArcGIS website. I just had success with a course in AZ with unclassified lidar data + ArcGIS classification algorithms. I have 20 more days of my free trial for arcGIS, so let me know if I can help you. If you could do a “how to” tutorial for ArcGIS I would love you forever! My trial expired and I wont be forking over the 7500$ for the full license  I was able to get all my AZ data classified, though. I dont think this missing classification issue will be around for much longer. Lots of LiDAR initiatives across the country thru 2020. |
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Post by paddyjk19 on Nov 8, 2019 10:03:54 GMT -5
If you could do a “how to” tutorial for ArcGIS I would love you forever! My trial expired and I wont be forking over the 7500$ for the full license I was able to get all my AZ data classified, though. I dont think this missing classification issue will be around for much longer. Lots of LiDAR initiatives across the country thru 2020. Did you use ARC GIS or ARCGIS pro? I just got the pro version on trial but no idea what I'm doing! Would you mind sharing some advice so I can classify some of my data? Thanks |
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Post by mngolfdesigns on Nov 10, 2019 12:05:35 GMT -5
I got the arcGIS pro trial. You have to use the automated classification tools. If you do a quick youtube search for how to classify lidar data in arcgis pro, you will find what you need! It's not that hard to do, just takes some super computer processing!
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Post by paddyjk19 on Nov 10, 2019 16:23:28 GMT -5
Thanks mate but there’s other issues, I have Laz files and I need to convert them to LAS before then scripting the spatial analysis tool, from what I’ve seen, it requires basic python coding.
I’m either going off on the wrong path or I guess you’re assuming I’m computer programming sufficient to do this?
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Post by sandsaver01 on Nov 11, 2019 7:35:53 GMT -5
Thanks mate but there’s other issues, I have Laz files and I need to convert them to LAS before then scripting the spatial analysis tool, from what I’ve seen, it requires basic python coding. I’m either going off on the wrong path or I guess you’re assuming I’m computer programming sufficient to do this? You are best by going back and downloading the LAS files directly from the TNM site and use those. |
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Post by paddyjk19 on Nov 11, 2019 9:17:58 GMT -5
Thanks mate but there’s other issues, I have Laz files and I need to convert them to LAS before then scripting the spatial analysis tool, from what I’ve seen, it requires basic python coding. I’m either going off on the wrong path or I guess you’re assuming I’m computer programming sufficient to do this? You are best by going back and downloading the LAS files directly from the TNM site and use those. Thanks, what’s TNM? I’m in the uk so we get the lidar from DEFRA |
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Post by sandsaver01 on Nov 11, 2019 9:50:01 GMT -5
Sorry Pat, I forgot you were in the old country. TNM is The National Map website here in the U.S. When we go to download the Lidar files they give us a choice of LAZ or LAS files. I do not know about what options DEFRA gives you.
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andyf
Weekend Golfer
Posts: 76
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Post by andyf on Nov 11, 2019 10:17:53 GMT -5
Pat,
Can you not get the LIDAR point cloud data from the DEFRA website and just use that? I've not had a problem using LAZ files before.
If not then you'll need to convert the LAZ to LAS to be able to classify it. You should be able to do that using the laszip.exe file from the laszip.org website.
Then you should be all OK to automatically classify the data in ArcGis
Andy
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Post by paddyjk19 on Nov 11, 2019 10:45:43 GMT -5
Pat, Can you not get the LIDAR point cloud data from the DEFRA website and just use that? I've not had a problem using LAZ files before. If not then you'll need to convert the LAZ to LAS to be able to classify it. You should be able to do that using the laszip.exe file from the laszip.org website. Then you should be all OK to automatically classify the data in ArcGis Andy Thanks guys, I might be able to but I just can’t seem to find out how to classify the data on ArcGIS, I’ve watched tutorials but I don’t seem to have certain toolboxes or in some cases it’s just not relevant. Really frustrating as I’ve got 18 days left and had hoped to use the free trial to classify about 8 stunning courses. If anyone can help guide me to classify the data I would be very very grateful! |
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