Introduction to ENVI LiDAR

ENVI LiDAR transforms point clouds into geographical information system (GIS) layers that can be exported to many output formats. ENVI LiDAR creates a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and automatically identifies landscape features such as buildings, trees, power poles, and power lines, making point cloud data processing quick and easy.

You launch ENVI LiDAR by:

• Opening a .las file in ENVI using File > Open
• Selecting LiDAR > Launch ENVI LiDAR in the ENVI Toolbox
• Windows users: Clicking the Start menu and selecting ENVI x.x > ENVI LiDAR x.x, where x.x is the version number.

The recommended ENVI LiDAR workflow to create a project and process the data is:

1. Start a new project and import the raw point cloud.
2. Generate a density map to check the raw data point density and coverage.
3. Set the project properties for processing and process the data.
4. Perform quality assurance (QA Mode) and make manual corrections to the data as needed.
5. Reprocess the data and re-export vector data.
6. Export files to additional formats.

For Windows users, there are many ways you can explore the data in your project, including calculate Viewshed Analysis. Also, you can use the ENVI API to programmatically create a project and process the data.

The ENVI LiDAR user interface is not available on Linux; however, Linux users can use the ENVI API to programmatically create a project and process the data.

For basic information on the ENVI LiDAR user interface, see The ENVI LiDAR User Interface.

For a simple example of how to open and process the sample data provided with your ENVI LiDAR installation, see Create and Process a Project Tutorial.