What Is Lidarvisor?

Process LiDAR in Minutes, Not Hours

Lidarvisor is a cloud-based platform that turns raw LiDAR data into ready-to-use maps, 3D terrain models, and professional reports — all from your browser, with no software to install, no hardware to maintain, and no parameters to tune.

Upload your file, click a button, and Lidarvisor's AI does the rest. What used to require expensive desktop software, a powerful workstation, and hours of manual work now happens automatically in minutes.

What Is LiDAR?

LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging. It is a technology that uses laser pulses to measure distances. A LiDAR sensor — typically mounted on a drone, airplane, or helicopter — fires millions of laser beams toward the ground per second. Each beam bounces off a surface (the ground, a tree, a building, a power line) and returns to the sensor. By measuring the time each beam takes to come back, the system calculates the exact distance to that surface.

The result is a point cloud: a massive collection of 3D points (often millions or billions) that together form a highly detailed 3D representation of the scanned area. Think of it as a 3D photograph made of dots instead of pixels.

Each point in the cloud contains at minimum an X, Y, and Z coordinate (its position in space), and often extra information like:

• Intensity — how strongly the laser signal bounced back
• RGB color — if a camera was paired with the LiDAR sensor
• Classification — what the point represents (ground, tree, building, etc.)

Who Uses LiDAR?

LiDAR is used across many industries:

• Drone operators collecting aerial data for their clients
• Land surveyors creating topographic maps and terrain models
• Forestry professionals measuring tree heights, canopy cover, and timber volumes
• Utility companies inspecting power lines and managing vegetation clearance
• Civil engineers planning roads, buildings, and infrastructure
• Environmental scientists studying terrain, erosion, and habitats

The Problem Lidarvisor Solves

Raw LiDAR data — typically stored as .LAS or .LAZ files — is not immediately useful. Before you can extract maps, measurements, or reports, the data needs to be processed:

1. Classified — each point needs to be labeled as ground, vegetation, building, etc.
2. Transformed — the point cloud needs to be turned into deliverables like terrain models, contour lines, or building footprints
3. Visualized — you need a way to see and explore the data in 3D

Traditionally, this required expensive desktop software, powerful hardware, and specialized knowledge of LiDAR processing parameters. It could take hours of manual work for a single dataset.

Lidarvisor handles all of this automatically. You upload your file, choose what you need, click a button, and the platform does the rest. Its AI-powered classification engine identifies what each point is, and its processing pipeline generates the deliverables you need — typically in minutes, not hours.

What Can You Do with Lidarvisor?

Here is an overview of what the platform offers. Each feature is covered in detail later in this guide.

Upload and Visualize

• Upload LAS, LAZ, or COPC files from any LiDAR sensor
• Explore your point cloud in a full 3D viewer directly in your browser
• View points colored by their original color (RGB), classification, laser intensity, or elevation
• Add an orthophoto (aerial image) to overlay on your data

Automatic AI Classification

• Lidarvisor's deep learning models automatically classify every point into categories like ground, vegetation (low, medium, high), buildings, water, roads, power lines, towers, poles, vehicles, fences, and more — up to 25+ distinct classes
• Accuracy is 95%+ for common classes like ground, buildings, and high vegetation

Generate Terrain Models

• DTM (Digital Terrain Model) — a smooth surface of the bare ground, with all trees and buildings removed
• DSM (Digital Surface Model) — the top surface including trees and structures
• CHM (Canopy Height Model) — a map of vegetation height above the ground
• Slope Map — shows how steep the terrain is
• TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) — a faceted 3D terrain mesh

Create Vector Deliverables

• Contour lines — elevation lines at intervals you choose
• Building footprints — outlines of detected buildings
• Tree tops and tree crowns — individual tree locations and canopy boundaries
• Power lines and towers — 3D cable lines and tower positions
• Roads — detected road surfaces
• Elevation grid — a regular grid of elevation points for CAD

Generate Professional Reports

• Topographic map — a layered CAD-ready DXF map
• Digital forest inventory — a detailed tree-by-tree report with heights, crown areas, and optional carbon estimation
• Vegetation encroachment report — for utility companies, identifies trees that pose a risk to power lines

Measure and Analyze

• Measure distances and areas directly on the point cloud
• Extract elevation profiles (cross-sections) along any line you draw
• Manually edit classifications with brush, height, color, and intensity selection tools

Share and Export

• Share a project with anyone via a link — they can view it in 3D without creating an account
• Download results in standard formats: LAS, LAZ, COPC, E57, PLY for point clouds; GeoTIFF for rasters; DXF, Shapefile, GeoJSON for vectors; PDF and CSV for reports

How It Works — The Big Picture

You upload a LAS/LAZ file
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Lidarvisor tiles it for 3D viewing
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You explore it in the 3D viewer
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You choose processing options and click "Process"
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AI classifies every point automatically
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The platform generates your chosen deliverables
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You view, download, or share the results

Do I Need to Know About LiDAR or GIS?

No. Lidarvisor is designed so that anyone can use it. You do not need to understand coordinate systems, projection parameters, classification algorithms, or raster processing. The platform handles the technical details automatically.

If you are new to LiDAR, the Glossary at the end of this guide explains every technical term in plain language.

Next Step

Ready to get started? Head to Getting Started to create your account and upload your first file.