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Vectorization: Contour Lines, Buildings, Trees, and Power Lines
Lidarvisor automatically extracts real-world features from your point cloud — building outlines, contour lines, individual trees, road surfaces, power line cables — and delivers them as clean, ready-to-use vector files for CAD and GIS.
All vector outputs from Lidarvisor are available in three formats:
- GeoJSON — a web-friendly format viewable in any browser or GIS application
- Shapefile (.shp) — the most widely used GIS vector format, compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS, etc.
- DXF — a CAD format compatible with AutoCAD, Civil 3D, and other engineering software
This page explains each vector output in detail.
Contour Lines
What Are Contour Lines?
Contour lines are curves drawn on a map that connect points of equal elevation. If you have ever seen a topographic map with wavy lines going up a hillside, those are contour lines.
Where contour lines are close together, the terrain is steep. Where they are far apart, the terrain is flat. Contour lines never cross each other.
What Lidarvisor Generates
Lidarvisor generates two sets of contour lines:
- Major contour lines — spaced at a wider interval (e.g., every 5 meters), typically drawn with thicker lines and labeled with the elevation value. These give you the overall shape of the terrain.
- Minor contour lines — spaced at a narrower interval (e.g., every 1 meter), providing detail between the major lines.
You set the intervals when configuring processing. For example, Major = 500 cm (5 m) and Minor = 100 cm (1 m) means you will get a bold contour line every 5 meters with four thinner lines between each pair.
Choosing Intervals
| Terrain Type | Suggested Major | Suggested Minor |
|---|---|---|
| Flat terrain (less than 10 m elevation change) | 1 m | 0.25 m |
| Gently rolling hills | 5 m | 1 m |
| Hilly terrain | 10 m | 2 m |
| Mountainous terrain | 25 m | 5 m |
In the Viewer
Major and minor contour lines appear as separate layers in the project tree. You can toggle each independently to reduce visual clutter — for example, show only major contours for an overview, then add minor contours when you need detail.
Common Uses
- Topographic maps and survey deliverables
- Engineering site plans
- Flood zone delineation
- Landscape architecture
Elevation Grid
What It Is
An elevation grid is a regular pattern of points placed across your terrain model, each labeled with its elevation. Think of it as a net of evenly spaced dots, where each dot has a height value.
What You Configure
- Grid spacing (50 to 10,000 cm): The distance between points. A 500 cm (5 m) spacing means one elevation point every 5 meters in both directions.
Common Uses
- CAD spot elevation maps
- Volume calculations in engineering software
- Quick reference for terrain heights at regular positions
Building Footprints
What They Are
Building footprints are polygons (outlines) of detected buildings as seen from above. Each polygon represents the boundary of one building's roof.
How They Are Created
- The AI identifies which points are classified as Building.
- Points are grouped into clusters — each cluster is one building.
- The outline of each cluster is extracted and simplified into a clean polygon.
Simplification Modes
You choose a simplification mode during processing:
- Rural — Produces simple, clean outlines with straight edges and right angles. Ideal for isolated houses, barns, and rural structures where buildings have simple shapes.
- Urban — Produces more detailed outlines that follow L-shaped, T-shaped, and other complex building footprints. Ideal for city centers with attached buildings and complex roof shapes.
- Natural — Follows the detected shape closely with minimal geometric correction. The outlines may look more organic and less "square."
What Each Building Polygon Contains
Each building footprint comes with attributes:
- Height — the estimated height of the building above the ground
- Area — the footprint area in square meters
- Elevation — the ground elevation at the building location
Common Uses
- Cadastral mapping and property boundaries
- Urban planning and zoning
- 3D city models (using height to extrude footprints)
- Insurance and risk assessment
Roads
What They Are
Road vectors are polygons and lines representing detected road surfaces.
How They Are Created
Lidarvisor uses an AI-powered image recognition approach to detect roads. It generates an overhead image from the point cloud, analyzes it to identify road surfaces, and then converts the detected areas into vector polygons.
Modes
- Rural — Optimized for country roads, forest tracks, and unpaved surfaces that may be less well-defined.
- Urban — Optimized for paved streets, intersections, and well-defined road networks.
Note: Road extraction is currently a beta feature. Results may vary depending on road visibility in the LiDAR data (roads under heavy tree canopy may not be fully detected).
Common Uses
- Road inventory and mapping
- Transportation planning
- Access route planning for forestry and utility maintenance
Tree Tops
What They Are
Tree top points represent the location and height of individual trees. Each detected tree is marked with a single point at its highest position.
What Each Point Contains
- Tree ID — a unique number identifying the tree
- Height — the tree's height above the ground in meters
- Position — X, Y coordinates (geographic position) and Z (elevation)
How Trees Are Detected
Lidarvisor's algorithm analyzes the Canopy Height Model (CHM) and uses a watershed-based method to identify individual trees. It finds the peak (highest point) of each tree and records its position and height.
Common Uses
- Counting trees across a large area
- Measuring tree heights for timber inventory
- Identifying the tallest trees (for clearance or risk assessment)
- Plantation row analysis
- Urban tree inventory
Tree Crowns
What They Are
Tree crown polygons represent the canopy boundary of individual trees — the outline of each tree as seen from above. Each polygon encircles one tree's leaf canopy.
What Each Polygon Contains
- Tree ID — a unique number matching the corresponding tree top
- Height — the tree's height above the ground
- Crown area — the area of the canopy in square meters
- Position — centroid coordinates
Crown Shape Setting
- Narrow — better for coniferous (needle-leaf) trees like pines and spruces, and for dense forests where trees are packed closely. Produces smaller, more compact crown shapes.
- Wide — better for deciduous (broad-leaf) trees like oaks and maples, and for open forests where individual trees have room to spread. Produces larger, rounder crown shapes.
In the Viewer
Tree crowns appear as colored polygons overlaid on the point cloud. Combined with tree tops, you can see both the location and the extent of each tree.
Common Uses
- Forest inventory — measuring canopy cover and density
- Individual tree analysis — crown competition, growth space
- Urban tree management — identifying trees that need pruning or removal
- Carbon estimation input (crown area correlates with biomass)
- Habitat assessment — canopy structure determines habitat suitability
Power Lines
What They Are
Power line vectors are 3D lines that follow the cables of overhead power lines. Each line segment represents one wire span between two poles or towers, including the natural curve (catenary sag) of the cable.
What You Also Get
When you enable power line extraction, you can also enable several analysis layers:
Buffer Zones (up to 3)
A buffer zone is a band of a specific width centered on the power lines. Any vegetation found within this band is flagged. You can define up to three zones with different widths to represent different risk levels:
- Zone 1 (e.g., 5 m) — immediate proximity, highest risk
- Zone 2 (e.g., 10 m) — moderate proximity, medium risk
- Zone 3 (e.g., 20 m) — broader monitoring zone
Clearance Zone
The clearance zone identifies vegetation that is too close to the power lines. You define a minimum safe distance, and any tree or vegetation closer than that distance is flagged. This is essential for regulatory compliance.
Tree Fall Risk
The tree fall risk layer identifies trees that are tall enough to hit a power line if they were to fall over. Lidarvisor checks: "Is this tree taller than its distance to the nearest wire?" If yes, it is flagged as a fall risk.
Common Uses
- Power line corridor inspection
- Vegetation management planning
- Regulatory compliance (NERC FAC-003 and similar standards)
- Post-storm damage assessment priorities
- Utility asset inventory
Towers
What They Are
Tower vectors represent the locations and shapes of transmission towers, pylons, and poles detected in the point cloud.
What Each Tower Contains
- Position — geographic coordinates
- Orientation — the direction the tower faces
- Geometry — a simplified outline of the tower's footprint
Common Uses
- Utility infrastructure inventory
- Asset management databases
- Tower inspection planning
- Telecom site analysis
Viewing Vectors in the 3D Viewer
All vector layers appear in the project tree in the left panel after processing. To view them:
- Check the checkbox next to the layer name to make it visible.
- The vectors will appear overlaid on the point cloud in the 3D viewer.
- You can show multiple vector layers at the same time.
Combining Layers
Some powerful combinations:
| Combination | Why It Is Useful |
|---|---|
| Contour lines + DTM hillshade | Classic topographic map visualization |
| Building footprints + classified point cloud | Verify building detection accuracy |
| Tree crowns + tree tops | See both tree locations and canopy boundaries |
| Power lines + buffer zones + tree crowns | Full utility vegetation management view |
| Contour lines + buildings + roads | Comprehensive site overview |
Downloading Vectors
All vector layers can be downloaded individually from the project tree. Click the download button next to any vector layer, then choose your format:
- GeoJSON — in WGS84 coordinates (latitude/longitude), compatible with web maps and most GIS tools
- DXF — in the original projected coordinate system, compatible with CAD software
- Shapefile — in the original projected coordinate system, compatible with GIS tools
See Downloading and Exporting for more details.
Next Step
Let's look at the report outputs. Head to Reports.