[Liblas-devel] libLAS/libPC -- looking for funding, sponsorship

[Peter Tittmann]

Howard et al,

I've used the Mayavi2 toolkit very clumsily but with quite hopeful 
results with the liblas python API as a pipeline to traited vtk. I'm 
assuming that the PCL hand-off you reference means that there is an eye 
to VTK?

Thanks loads.

Peter

On 04/07/2011 08:45 AM, Howard Butler wrote:
> On Apr 7, 2011, at 10:24 AM, Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
>
>> Do you use libLAS in your products, or would you if it had some additional
>> features you need?  If so, please read on.
>>
>>
>> libLAS has been a success, but the world of point cloud support for
>> geospatial applications goes well beyond just reading and writing the LAS
>> format -- we want support for other formats, spatial index integration, a
>> suite of core command line tools, database integration, and so on.  To that
>> end, as some of you may have already heard, the lasLAS team has begun work
>> on "version 2" of libLAS, known as libPC.  The project goals are:
>>
>> 1. libPC is a library which provides APIs for reading, writing, and
>>    processing point cloud data of various formats.  Additionally, some
>>    command line tools are provided.  As GDAL is to 2D pixels, libPC is to
>>    multidimensional points.
> I would add that I expect the scope of libPC is to focus almost *exclusively* on being a "GDAL for Point Cloud data" too.  It is going to try to hand off where appropriate to PCL<http://www.pointclouds.org>, GRASS/Fusion, and LAStools where appropriate.  libPC is going to start out focussing on format conversion and processing pipelines. The immediate format support will include Oracle, MG4, LAS/LAZ, BAG, and XYZ.
>
>> 2. From a market perspective, libPC is "version 2" of libLAS.  The actual
>>    code base will be different, however, and the APIs will not be
>>    compatible.
> I would say that libLAS : Shapelib :: libPC : GDAL.  It didn't make sense to keep gunking up libLAS with things like Oracle drivers and such, which may or may not have applicability for people doing LAS.  libLAS is also a point-at-a-time affair, and libPC works chunk-at-a-time (with variably-defined schemas).  This has some performance benefits but adds a little bit of complexity.
>
> Source code is at http://hg.libpc.org/main if you're interested in a look :)
>
> Howard_______________________________________________
> Liblas-devel mailing list
> Liblas-devel at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/liblas-devel

-- 
Peter Tittmann
Geography Graduate Group
UC Davis
c. 707 849 4135