[pdal] Writers.copc changes global encoding

[Howard Butler]

> On Mar 23, 2026, at 2:41 PM, Jukka Rahkonen via pdal <pdal at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
> 
> The error disappears if I add "forward":"all" into the pipeline but shouldn't the global_encoding value remain the same even without?


It has been PDAL's policy to refuse to guess. It makes sense that the modification of a single file would also bring along all of the attributes of things like global_encoding, but it becomes sticky if the user were reading multiple files at one time. PDAL would have to guess in that situation. forward=all is the way to tell PDAL to pull along the commonly expected things like global_encoding, or a more common sticking point, scale/offset factors.

> There seems to be a lot to learn, but I am making progress. The size differences are due to extra attributes. Basic pdal command drops them (-> smaller file), and the untwine command expands 

You'll need to add --writers.copc.extra_dims="all" or --writers.las.extra_dims="all" to make sure the extra attributes are copied.
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