Data Formats: LAS/LAZ

The LASer format is an exchange format for three-dimensional point clouds. It uses the .las extension.

LASer LiDAR files also come in a compressed variant, called LASzip. In that case, they have the .laz extension.

The specifications are maintained by the ASPRS foundation. See http://www.asprs.org/Committee-General/LASer-LAS-File-Format-Exchange-Activities.html for more information about the specifications.

The LASer format is a binary format roughly consisting of three parts:

A header, describing the number of points, the size of the point records and so on.
Various variable-length records. These records can contain the spatial reference, but can also contain vendor-specific data.
The point data, as a linear list of records. Each point has a location and various attributes.

Basics