readers.rdb

The RDB reader reads from files in the RDB format, the in-house format used by RIEGL Laser Measurement Systems GmbH.

Dynamic Plugin

This stage requires a dynamic plugin to operate

Streamable Stage

This stage supports streaming operations

Installation

To build PDAL with rdb support, set rdb_DIR to the path of your local rdblib installation. rdblib can be obtained from the RIEGL download pages with a properly enabled user account. The rdblib files do not need to be in a system-level directory, though they could be (e.g. they could be in /usr/local, or just in your home directory somewhere). For help building PDAL with optional libraries, see the optional library documentation.

Note

Minimum rdblib version required to build the driver and run the tests: 2.1.6
This driver was developed and tested on Ubuntu 17.10 using GCC 7.2.0.

Example

This example pipeline reads points from a RDB file and stores them in LAS format. Only points classified as “ground points” are read since option filter is set to “riegl.class == 2” (see line 5).

[
    {
        "type": "readers.rdb",
        "filename": "autzen-thin-srs.rdbx",
        "filter": "riegl.class == 2"
    },
    {
        "type": "writers.las",
        "filename": "autzen-thin-srs.rdbx"
    }
]

Options

filename: Name of file to read [Required]

count: Maximum number of points to read. [Default: unlimited]
override_srs: Spatial reference to apply to the data. Overrides any SRS in the input itself. Can be specified as a WKT, proj.4 or EPSG string. Can’t use with ‘default_srs’. [Default: none]
default_srs: Spatial reference to apply to the data if the input does not specify one. Can be specified as a WKT, proj.4 or EPSG string. Can’t use with ‘override_srs’. [Default: none]

filter: Point filter expression string (see RDB SDK documentation for details) [Optional] [Default: empty string (= no filter)]
extras: Read all available dimensions (true) or known PDAL dimensions only (false) [Optional] [Default: false]

Dimensions

The reader maps following default RDB point attributes to PDAL dimensions (if they exist in the RDB file):

RDB attribute	PDAL dimension(s)
riegl.id	Id::PointId
riegl.source_cloud_id	Id::OriginId
riegl.timestamp	Id::InternalTime
riegl.xyz	Id::X, Id::Y, Id::Z
riegl.intensity	Id::Intensity
riegl.amplitude	Id::Amplitude
riegl.reflectance	Id::Reflectance
riegl.deviation	Id::Deviation
riegl.pulse_width	Id::PulseWidth
riegl.background_radiation	Id::BackgroundRadiation
riegl.target_index	Id::ReturnNumber
riegl.target_count	Id::NumberOfReturns
riegl.scan_direction	Id::ScanDirectionFlag
riegl.scan_angle	Id::ScanAngleRank
riegl.class	Id::Classification
riegl.rgba	Id::Red, Id::Green, Id::Blue
riegl.surface_normal	Id::NormalX, Id::NormalY, Id::NormalZ

All other point attributes that may exist in the RDB file are ignored unless the option extras is set to true. If so, a custom dimension is defined for each additional point attribute, whereas the dimension name is equal to the point attribute name.

Note

Point attributes are read “as-is”, no scaling or unit conversion is done by the reader. The only exceptions are point coordinates (riegl.xyz) and surface normals (riegl.surface_normal) which are transformed to the RDB file’s SRS by applying the matrix defined in the (optional) RDB file metadata object riegl.geo_tag.

Metadata

The reader adds following objects to the stage’s metadata node:

Object “database”

Contains basic information about the RDB file such as the bounding box, number of points and the file ID.

Example:

 {
   "bounds": {
     "maximum": {
       "X": -2504493.762,
       "Y": -3846841.252,
       "Z":  4413210.394
     },
     "minimum": {
       "X": -2505882.459,
       "Y": -3848231.393,
       "Z":  4412172.548
     }
   },
   "points": 10653,
   "uuid": "637de54d-7e6b-4004-b6ab-b6bc588ec9ea"
 }

List “dimensions”

List of point attribute description objects.

Example:

 [{
   "compression_options": "shuffle",
   "default_value": 0,
   "description": "Cartesian point coordinates wrt. application coordinate system (0: X, 1: Y, 2: Z)",
   "invalid_value": "",
   "length": 3,
   "maximum_value": 535000,
   "minimum_value": -535000,
   "name": "riegl.xyz",
   "resolution": 0.00025,
   "scale_factor": 1,
   "storage_class": "variable",
   "title": "XYZ",
   "unit_symbol": "m"
 },
 {
   "compression_options": "shuffle",
   "default_value": 0,
   "description": "Target surface reflectance",
   "invalid_value": "",
   "length": 1,
   "maximum_value": 327.67,
   "minimum_value": -327.68,
   "name": "riegl.reflectance",
   "resolution": 0.01,
   "scale_factor": 1,
   "storage_class": "variable",
   "title": "Reflectance",
   "unit_symbol": "dB"
 }]

Details about the point attribute properties see RDB SDK documentation.

Object “metadata”

Contains one sub-object for each metadata object stored in the RDB file.

Example:

 {
   "riegl.scan_pattern": {
     "rectangular": {
       "phi_start": 45.0,
       "phi_stop": 270.0,
       "phi_increment": 0.040,
       "theta_start": 30.0,
       "theta_stop": 130.0,
       "theta_increment": 0.040,
       "program": {
         "name": "High Speed"
       }
     }
   },
   "riegl.geo_tag": {
     "crs": {
       "epsg": 4956,
       "wkt": "GEOCCS[\"NAD83(HARN) \/ Geocentric\",DATUM[\"NAD83(HARN)\",SPHEROID[\"GRS 1980\",6378137.000,298.257222101,AUTHORITY[\"EPSG\",\"7019\"]],AUTHORITY[\"EPSG\",\"6152\"]],PRIMEM[\"Greenwich\",0.0000000000000000,AUTHORITY[\"EPSG\",\"8901\"]],UNIT[\"Meter\",1.00000000000000000000,AUTHORITY[\"EPSG\",\"9001\"]],AXIS[\"X\",OTHER],AXIS[\"Y\",EAST],AXIS[\"Z\",NORTH],AUTHORITY[\"EPSG\",\"4956\"]]"
     },
     "pose": [
        0.837957447, 0.379440385, -0.392240121, -2505819.156,
       -0.545735575, 0.582617132, -0.602270669, -3847595.645,
        0.000000000, 0.718736580,  0.695282481,  4412064.882,
        0.000000000, 0.000000000,  0.000000000,        1.000
     ]
   }
 }

The riegl.geo_tag object defines the Spatial Reference System (SRS) of the file. The point coordinates are actually stored in a local coordinate system (usually horizontally leveled) which is based on the SRS. The transformation from the local system to the SRS is defined by the 4x4 matrix pose which is stored in row-wise order. Point coordinates (riegl.xyz) and surface normals (riegl.surface_normal) are automatically transformed to the SRS by the reader.

Details about the metadata objects see RDB SDK documentation.

List “transactions”

List of transaction objects describing the history of the file.

Example:

 [{
   "agent": "RDB Library 2.1.6-1677 (x86_64-windows, Apr  5 2018, 10:58:39)",
   "comments": "",
   "id": 1,
   "rdb": "RDB Library 2.1.6-1677 (x86_64-windows, Apr  5 2018, 10:58:39)",
   "settings": {
     "cache_size": 524288000,
     "chunk_size": 65536,
     "chunk_size_lod": 20,
     "compression_level": 10,
     "primary_attribute": {
       "compression_options": "shuffle",
       "default_value": 0,
       "description": "Cartesian point coordinates wrt. application coordinate system (0: X, 1: Y, 2: Z)",
       "invalid_value": "",
       "length": 3,
       "maximum_value": 535000,
       "minimum_value": -535000,
       "name": "riegl.xyz",
       "resolution": 0.00025,
       "scale_factor": 1,
       "storage_class": "variable",
       "title": "XYZ",
       "unit_symbol": "m"
     }
   },
   "start": "2018-04-06 10:10:39.336",
   "stop": "2018-04-06 10:10:39.336",
   "title": "Database creation"
 },
 {
   "agent": "rdbconvert",
   "comments": "",
   "id": 2,
   "rdb": "RDB Library 2.1.6-1677 (x86_64-windows, Apr  5 2018, 10:58:39)",
   "settings": "",
   "start": "2018-04-06 10:10:39.339",
   "stop": "2018-04-06 10:10:39.380",
   "title": "Import"
 },
 {
   "agent": "RiSCAN PRO 64 bit v2.6.3",
   "comments": "",
   "id": 3,
   "rdb": "RDB Library 2.1.6-1677 (x86_64-windows, Apr  5 2018, 10:58:39)",
   "settings": "",
   "start": "2018-04-06 10:10:41.666",
   "stop": "2018-04-06 10:10:41.666",
   "title": "Meta data saved"
 }]

Details about the transaction objects see RDB SDK documentation.