Exporting coordinates from LAS files to CSV?

Question

Is there any tool available for extracting the X, Y and Z coordinates from a .las file and exporting them to a .csv or similar file?

Answer 1

las2txt from liblas.org may do what you want:

http://www.liblas.org/utilities/las2txt.html

Answer 2

Assume the following:

• .las file = input.las.
• input.las path: C:\lidar\input.las.
• .csv file: output.csv.
• output.csv path: C:\lidar\output.csv.

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With Fusion, the command line to export as CSV is LDA2ASCII. Its syntax is:

LDA2ASCII InputFile OutputFile format 

Write the following:

C:\Fusion\LDA2ASCII C:\lidar\input.las C:\lidar\output.csv. 0  

The argument 0 will export only the x, y and z coordinates (use 1 to also export: nadir angle and intensity values). It will create the file output.csv in the folder c:\lidar.

_{In the example above, Fusion was installed under C:\Fusion.}

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With R, there is the readLAS function from the rLiDAR package, which can be used to import .las files. Then, converting it as CSV is simple.

library(rLiDAR)
rLAS <- readLAS("C:\\lidar\\input.las", short=TRUE) #use short = FALSE to display more columns with data associated to each return. For example: classification code, gps time, etc.
rLAS <- data.frame(rLAS)
head(rLAS,3) #see first three rows

       X       Y      Z Intensity ReturnNumber
732652.6 7459140 31.194        24            1
732652.7 7459141 31.426        58            1
732652.7 7459141 31.253        17            1

write.csv(rLAS,"C:\\lidar\\output.csv")