I am a masters student working with LIDAR and 4 - band satellite imagery to remotely measure above ground biomass of the shrub community encroaching the Illinois Lake Plain region. I am new to working with LIDAR data, and I am contemplating if creating an LAS dataset is necessary or if I should just import the LAS files directly. When working with LAS datasets, if you reclassify a point, will the classification change be reflected in the LAS file or will you have to do that separately?
Belynda, I'm new to LIDAR as well, but have learned a few things. I hope one of the more experienced users will join in, but for now:
A lot depends on your hardware - LIDAR files in .las format are huge, and without a good GPU it will be difficult to work with them. I have imported them into ArcGIS Pro on a Windows 10 PC (Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.41 GHz and a Radeon AMD R7 350X GPU). Even as individual .las file is very slow to render.
I am now working on a remote PC with an 8GB NVIDIA GPU. It's a DELL (Intel Xeon E5-2603 v4 CPU with 6 cores at 1.7Ghz.)
NOTE: I did create an LAS Dataset in order to make working with the LIDAR files easier. I'm told that the LAS Dataset "references" the .las files, but does not bring them directly into the map. (I'm using ArcGIS Pro 2.7)
Rendering the LAS Dataset is noticeably better on the remote PC, but still takes some time. I am not any kind of expert in this, but I know my manager has requested an even more powerful machine for my use - I'm using the LIDAR as an input in the attempt to implement the Deep Learning tools in our mapping.
