Help with getting elevation data from LiDAR data?

[ElizabethYoung]

I was wondering if someone would be able to provide some assistance.  I am reasonably familiar with ArcGIS but have never worked with a LiDAR dataset before.  I have recently been sent one and would like to use the elevation data but I am struggling to know what to do with the files.  They are raster files, and in ArcCatalog the preview shows images with only 1 or 2 colours.  The attribute table only has three rows with values 0, 1, and 2, and a large integer in the un-titled column next to these.  When I plot the data in ArcScene and get base heights from the raster I see topography, but when I go to identify a point I don't get anything that looks like an elevation reading.  For this data to be useful I need to know what elevations I'm dealing with.  Does anyone know how I would find this information?

Thanks.

[JulianO_Neill]

Hi,

I have had a similar problem in the past with LiDAR data. It has come to me in an ASCII format, and by default Arc will display this as integers, rather than float precision.

The way around this is to import the file into ArcMap using the ASCII to Raster conversion tool, ensuring you change the output datatype to Float.

Hope that helps.

Jools