Point Clouds (LAS & LAZ)
Point clouds are large collections of georeferenced 3D points captured by LiDAR scanners or photogrammetry. Import them to view terrain, buildings, and vegetation in full 3D detail.
Supported formats
| Format | Extension | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| LAS | .las | Uncompressed point cloud |
| LAZ | .laz | Compressed LAS — same data, smaller file |
Importing
- Open the Layers panel and click +.
- Select Import file and choose your
.lasor.lazfile (max 100 MB). - The point cloud loads in the viewer. Points are colored by their classification or intensity by default.
Coordinate systems
LAS/LAZ files store coordinates in the CRS defined in the file header. AugmentCity reads the CRS from the header and reprojects to WGS 84 automatically. Common systems are supported including UTM, national grids, and geographic coordinates.
If the CRS is not recognized, points are placed at the raw coordinates — which may result in the data appearing in the wrong location.
Performance
Point clouds are rendered using Cesium's 3D Tiles streaming engine. This means:
- Very large files (hundreds of millions of points) stream progressively — the viewer loads the most important points first
- Zoom in to see full resolution; zoomed out views show a reduced representation
- Files up to 100 MB are supported for import; larger datasets may need to be split or hosted externally (see Cesium Ion)
Limitations
- Color channels (RGB) from the LAS file are used where present; otherwise points are colored by intensity or classification
- Full-waveform LAS data is not rendered (only the discrete return positions are used)