LiDAR Compressor - FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

G090701 - What is LizardTech LiDAR Compressor?

LizardTech LiDAR Compressor enables you to turn giant point cloud data into efficient MrSID files that retain 100 percent of the quantized raw data at just 25 percent of the file size (lossless compression).* If storage requirements are critical, you can reduce your LiDAR file sizes by 90 percent or more by choosing a higher compression ratio and letting LiDAR Compressor reduce point accuracy to reach a desired file size (lossy compression). Unlike raw LAS or ASCII data, LiDAR files compressed to MrSID are easily managed resources you can extract derivatives from over and over again.

*Quantizing is a rounding operation that discards some number of the least significant bits of data. Floating point values must be quantized before mathematical operations such as compression can be performed on them. Most LAS data is delivered to users already quantized. A typical exception is GPSTime.

This article was last updated or verified on 4 August 2012.