Readers

Readers#

Readers provide Dimensions to Pipeline. PDAL attempts to normalize common dimension types, like X, Y, Z, or Intensity, which are often found in LiDAR point clouds. Not all dimension types need to be fixed, however. Database drivers typically return unstructured lists of dimensions. A reader might provide a simple file type, like readers.text, a complex database like readers.pgpointcloud, or a network service like readers.ept.

readers.arrow: Read GeoArrow/GeoParquet formatted data.
readers.bpf: Read BPF files encoded as version 1, 2, or 3. BPF is an NGA specification for point cloud data.
readers.copc: COPC, or Cloud Optimized Point Cloud is an LAZ 1.4 file stored as a clustered octree.
readers.buffer: Special stage that allows you to read data from your own PointView rather than fetching data from a specific reader.
readers.draco: Read a buffer in Google Draco format
readers.ept: Used for reading Entwine Point Tile format.
readers.e57: Read point clouds in the E57 format.
readers.faux: Used for testing pipelines. It does not read from a file or database, but generates synthetic data to feed into the pipeline.
readers.fbi: Read TerraSolid FBI format
readers.gdal: Read GDAL readable raster data sources as point clouds.
readers.hdf: Read data from files in the HDF5 format.
readers.i3s: Read data stored in the Esri I3S format. The data is read from an appropriate server.
readers.ilvis2: Read from files in the ILVIS2 format.
readers.las: Read ASPRS LAS versions 1.0 - 1.4. Does not support point formats containing waveform data. LASzip support is also enabled through this driver if LASzip or LAZperf are found during compilation.
readers.matlab: Read point cloud data from MATLAB .mat files where dimensions are stored as arrays in a MATLAB struct.
readers.mbio: Read sonar bathymetry data from formats supported by the MB-System library.
readers.memoryview: Read data from memory where dimension data is arranged in rows. For use only with the PDAL API.
readers.nitf: Read point cloud data (LAS or LAZ) wrapped in NITF 2.1 files.
readers.numpy: Read point cloud data from Numpy .npy files.
readers.obj: Read points and a mesh from Wavefront OBJ files.
readers.optech: Read Optech Corrected Sensor Data (.csd) files.
readers.pcd: Read files in the PCD format.
readers.pgpointcloud: Read point cloud data from a PostgreSQL database with the PostgreSQL Pointcloud extension enabled.
readers.ply: Read points and vertices from either ASCII or binary PLY files.
readers.pts: Read data from Leica Cyclone PTS files.
readers.ptx: Read data from Leica Cyclone PTX files.
readers.qfit: Read data in the QFIT format originated for NASA’s Airborne Topographic Mapper project.
readers.rxp: Read data in the RXP format, the in-house streaming format used by RIEGL. The reader requires a copy of RiVLib during compilation.
readers.rdb: Read data in the RDB format, the in-house database format used by RIEGL. The reader requires a copy of rdblib during compilation and usage.
readers.sbet: Read the SBET format.
readers.slpk: Read data stored in an Esri SLPK file.
readers.smrmsg: Read from POSPac MMS post-processed accuracy files.
readers.stac: Read STAC JSON Catalogs and Items with the Pointcloud extension.
readers.terrasolid: TerraSolid Reader
readers.text: Read point clouds from ASCII text files.
readers.tiledb: Read point cloud data from a TileDB instance.
readers.tindex: The tindex (tile index) reader allows you to automatically merge and query data described in tile index files that have been generated using the PDAL tindex command.