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Reports: Maps, Inventories, and Risk Assessments
Skip hours of manual report assembly. Lidarvisor generates professional, client-ready documents directly from your processed data — a survey-wide project report carrying your own branding, topographic maps as DXF or printable PDF, tree-by-tree forest inventories with carbon estimates, and vegetation risk reports for utility compliance.
Project Report
What It Is
A survey-wide PDF report for the project as a whole — the document you hand to your client alongside the data. It describes where the site is, what data was received, how it was processed, the quality of the result, and every file delivered. It is the general survey report; the forest inventory and the vegetation encroachment report remain separate, specialized documents with their own content.
The report is generated by default for every processed project — the Generate Project Report option in the processing panel is on unless you untick it — and it adapts to what you actually ran: sections appear only when their source data exists, and an analysis that ran but found nothing is stated in a line rather than padded into a page.
What It Contains
One continuously paginated document with a cover, a table of contents, and numbered sections:
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Cover | Your deliverable identity (title, client, company, prepared by) and the survey outline |
| Purpose of this document | What this report is and what else the delivery contains |
| Location and extent | Where the site is and the extent that was surveyed |
| Data received | The point cloud as delivered: point count, density, colorization, coordinate systems |
| Acquisition | The flight chronology, reconstructed from the GPS timestamps in your data |
| Processing chain | What was run and with which parameters, with terrain and hillshade plates |
| Site plan | A full-page plan of the site with the surveyed features drawn on it |
| Cross-sections | Two cuts through the site, colored by classification |
| Quality control | The classification table, point densities, and quality maps |
| Absolute accuracy | Only when you provided ground control points — see below |
| Deliverables | Every file produced, with formats and contents |
| Limitations of use | What the data should and should not be used for |
| Provenance and legal notices | Sources, licenses, and attribution |
A section that cannot be built from your data is left out — the report never invents a value it cannot establish.
Your Branding, Not Ours
The project report is white-label: it carries your identity, not Lidarvisor's. In the project's Deliverable identity panel you can set:
- Title (defaults to the project name)
- Company (defaults to your account's company)
- Client
- Prepared by (defaults to your name)
- Document type
- Drawing no. and Revision
Fill it in once — the same identity appears on the project report's cover and on the topographic map's title block. Every field is optional: with nothing filled in, the report shows your project's real name and your account's company.
The Accuracy Statement (Ground Control Points)
If you uploaded ground control points, the report includes an Absolute accuracy section: how far the point cloud sits from the points you measured on the ground, stated in plain language with the RMS of the vertical differences — and, when the number of points supports it, a confidence range rather than a single figure that overstates certainty. When your checkpoints cover both kinds of ground, accuracy is reported separately for open ground and vegetated ground — the two figures surveyors know as non-vegetated and vegetated vertical accuracy (NVA and VVA).
See Ground Control Points for how to upload control points and what Lidarvisor does with them.
Who Uses This
- Survey firms and UAV operators delivering a finished document to their client, under their own name
- Civil engineers and architects who need the survey's context, quality, and limitations on record
- Anyone submitting LiDAR deliverables who needs the delivery documented: what was flown, what was produced, and how good it is
How to Access
After processing, the Project Report appears in the Reports section of the project tree. Click the download button to get the PDF.
Topographic Map (DXF or PDF)
What It Is
A layered CAD drawing that combines multiple elements of your survey into a single, print-ready topographic map. It comes in two formats:
- DXF drawing — the editable CAD file, in the standard exchange format for AutoCAD, Civil 3D, BricsCAD, and others. Choose this when you are going to work on the map: edit it, measure on it, or combine it with your own drawing.
- Printable PDF sheet — the same sheet at the scale printed on its title block, ready to plot or send to a client. Nothing to open in CAD, nothing to set up; printing it at 100% gives a plan you can measure on.
What It Contains
The topographic map includes separate layers for each feature type you enabled:
- Major and minor contour lines (with elevation labels)
- Elevation grid points
- Building footprints
- Tree top positions (with height annotations)
- Tree crown outlines
- Vegetation areas
- Power line cables
- Towers and poles
- Roads and rails
- Bridges
- Water bodies and shorelines
- Breaklines
- Cadastral parcels (where available, with the source credit)
Each element is placed on its own layer within the DXF file, so you can toggle them on or off in your CAD software — just like you toggle layers in Lidarvisor's viewer.
Layout and Customization
The sheet includes a title block with project information, date, coordinate system, and scale, and an automatic scale selection (from 1:100 to 1:10,000 depending on the area size).
Before processing, the Customize button next to the topographic map option lets you set:
- Paper size — A0 (default), A1, A3, or ARCH D
- Color scheme — Cartographic (black linework, a finished topographic-plan look, best for printing) or Technical (a distinct color per feature, best for working in CAD)
- Background imagery — reference layers such as the hillshade, DSM, CHM, or slope map behind the drawing
- The title block fields (title, company, client, prepared by, document type, drawing number, revision) — shared with the Deliverable identity used by the project report, so you fill them in once
About background imagery: the DXF references the imagery files by name, it does not embed them. Download the corresponding raster assets separately and place them in the same folder as the DXF for the imagery to display in CAD.
Who Uses This
- Surveyors delivering topographic survey results to clients
- Civil engineers using the map as a base for design work
- Architects incorporating terrain data into site plans
- Permit applicants submitting site documentation to authorities
How to Access
After processing, the topographic map appears in the Reports section of the project tree. Click the download button and choose the DXF drawing or the printable PDF sheet. Maps generated before the PDF sheet existed have the DXF only — regenerate the report to produce the sheet.
Digital Forest Inventory
What It Is
A comprehensive tree-by-tree analysis of every tree detected in your survey area. It includes both a visual PDF report and a detailed CSV spreadsheet.
What the PDF Contains
Introduction page — project overview with summary statistics:
- Total number of trees detected
- Average and maximum tree height
- Average crown area
- Total canopy cover
Full-extent map — a bird's-eye view of the entire survey area showing:
- The Canopy Height Model (vegetation height map) as background
- All detected tree crowns as colored outlines
- Tree top positions as dots
- Tree ID labels
- A 250-meter reference grid
Detail pages — zoomed-in views of each grid cell, showing individual trees clearly with their IDs and measurements
Carbon estimation summary (if enabled) — a section summarizing:
- Total above-ground biomass (AGB) in tonnes
- Total below-ground biomass (BGB) in tonnes
- Total carbon stock in tonnes
- Total CO2 equivalent in tonnes
- Breakdown by species (if multiple species are present)
What the CSV Contains
A row for each detected tree with columns including:
- Tree ID
- X and Y coordinates (geographic position)
- Height above ground (meters)
- Crown area (square meters)
- Estimated trunk diameter (DBH — Diameter at Breast Height)
- Above-ground biomass (if carbon estimation enabled)
- Below-ground biomass (if carbon estimation enabled)
- Carbon stock (if carbon estimation enabled)
- CO2 equivalent (if carbon estimation enabled)
Carbon Estimation
When you enable the Carbon Estimation option, Lidarvisor calculates the carbon stored in each tree using scientifically validated formulas called allometric equations. These equations estimate the mass of a tree based on its measurable dimensions (height and crown size).
To get the most accurate results, you need to select:
Allometric Region — the geographic region closest to your survey area:
- Europe
- Canada
- USA
- Tropical
- Australia
- Boreal / Russia
- East Asia
- African Dryland
Dominant Tree Species — the most common tree species in the area. The list changes based on the selected region. Examples include:
- Europe: Scots Pine, Norway Spruce, European Beech, Pedunculate Oak, Silver Birch, etc.
- USA: Douglas Fir, Loblolly Pine, Red Maple, White Oak, etc.
- Tropical: Generic tropical hardwood, Teak, Mahogany, Eucalyptus, etc.
The carbon estimation follows methodologies referenced by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and uses region-specific root-to-shoot ratios to estimate below-ground biomass.
Who Uses This
- Forestry professionals managing timber resources
- Environmental consultants assessing ecological value
- Carbon credit projects quantifying sequestered carbon for trading or offsetting
- Government agencies monitoring forest health and growth
- Research institutions studying forest dynamics
How to Access
After processing, the forest inventory appears in the Reports section of the project tree. Click the download button to get a ZIP file containing the PDF report and CSV spreadsheet.
Vegetation Encroachment Report
What It Is
A specialized report for utility companies and vegetation management teams that identifies trees and vegetation posing a risk to power line infrastructure.
What It Contains
The report goes straight to the vegetation analyses — the general project pages (cover, situation map, point cloud statistics) live in the Project Report. It opens with a findings summary stating what each analysis found, followed by the analyses you enabled:
Buffer zone analysis — maps and lists of vegetation found within each defined buffer zone around the power lines. Each zone corresponds to a different risk level.
Clearance violations — specific locations where vegetation is closer to a power line than the minimum safe distance you defined. Each violation includes:
- GPS coordinates
- Distance to the nearest wire
- Type of vegetation
- Height of the vegetation
Right-of-way (ROW) corridor analysis — vegetation found inside the right-of-way corridor you defined along the line.
Fall-risk trees — trees identified as tall enough to potentially reach a power line if they fell. Each at-risk tree includes:
- GPS coordinates
- Tree height
- Distance to nearest wire
- The wire span affected
Overview maps — bird's-eye view maps showing the power line corridor with color-coded risk areas.
Only the analyses you enabled are included. The same findings are also downloadable as vector layers (GeoJSON, Shapefile, DXF) for use in GIS and CAD.
Regulatory Context
Many countries and regions require utility companies to maintain minimum clearance distances between vegetation and power lines. In the United States, the NERC FAC-003 standard mandates regular vegetation management around transmission lines. This report provides the documentation needed for compliance.
Who Uses This
- Utility vegetation management teams planning trimming and removal programs
- Power companies documenting compliance with regulations
- Arborists and tree service contractors prioritizing work orders
- Insurance assessors evaluating risk exposure
- Government regulators reviewing compliance reports
How to Access
After processing (with power line extraction and buffer/clearance options enabled), the report appears in the Reports section of the project tree. Click the download button to get the PDF.
Report Formats Summary
| Report | Formats | Contains |
|---|---|---|
| Project Report | Survey-wide report with your branding | |
| Topographic Map | DXF or PDF | Layered CAD drawing / printable sheet |
| Forest Inventory | PDF + CSV (in ZIP) | Visual report + tree data spreadsheet |
| Vegetation Encroachment | Findings summary + risk analyses |
Tips for Working with Reports
- PDF reports can be opened in any PDF viewer (Adobe Reader, web browser, Preview on Mac).
- CSV files can be opened in any spreadsheet application (Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc).
- DXF files can be opened in any CAD application. Free options include LibreCAD, FreeCAD, or the free viewer from Autodesk.
- All geographic data in the reports uses the same coordinate system as your original LiDAR file, so positions match your survey control.
- Reports stay in step with your edits. If you edit vector layers (delete a false tree, reshape a building footprint, ...), the reports that depend on them are marked out of date in the project tree — click the regenerate icon on the report to rebuild it from the updated vectors.
- Downloading reports requires a paid subscription — viewing your results in the 3D viewer stays free. See Downloading and Exporting.
Next Step
Let's explore the interactive measurement tools. Head to Measurement Tools.