3D Point Cloud Data Processing - Open Source Geospatial Tools: Applications in Earth Observation - page 263

15.3.2 PDAL Utilities

PDAL is a relatively new library for processing LiDAR data. It is an API that defines a
processing pipeline constructed of readers, filters, and writers to interact and process
point cloud data in a more generic way than a specific tool like libLAS. While a user
may program PDAL using C++, it is possible to exercise the functionality using the
following command line utilities:

pdal info
Provides basic information on a point cloud file, e.g. projection and geographical
extent, schema, metadata, summary statistics about the points, etc.
pdal translate
Converts point cloud file to different file-based formats (based on extension name).
pdal delta
Selects for each point in a given cloud point the nearest point in a number of can-
didate cloud point files.
pdal diff
Compares two cloud point files. Differences in schema, count, metadata, and point
data are reported.
pdal pipeline
Executes a sequence of operations described in an XML file.

The syntax of the command line utilities is a bit different than for libLAS.
PDAL utilities all start with pdal , followed by the specific utility name ( info ,
translate , delta , diff and pipeline ) and a processing option. For instance,
to show information on the first ten points in the point cloud, you can use the specific
info utility with the processing option --point 0-10 .
A point can also be queried using its location in X and Y, using the processing
option --query . The information is printed in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

pdal info --query "562978.06000000006, 5120886.7999999998"
→ st-helens.laz

{

"0":
{

"X": "562978.06000000006",
"Y": "5120886.7999999998",
"Z": "1161.95",
"Intensity": "0",
"ReturnNumber": "0",
"NumberOfReturns": "0",
"ScanDirectionFlag": "0",
"EdgeOfFlightLine": "0",
"Classification": "2",
"ScanAngleRank": "0",
"UserData": "0",
"PointSourceId": "20",
"Time": "0",