Getting Leica Cyclone Point Clouds into Projected Cooridnates

[John Wall]

Hello all,

I am attempting to ascribe projected coordinates to my terrestrial lidar point cloud so that I can create a DEM and edit that DEM in ArcGIS 10.2.2. Right now, I understand that I can collect point clouds using my HDS3000 Leica scanner. These can then be merged together into a single cloud and referenced using Cyclone 5.1 (the version I have). Then, using Martin's PTS/PTX to LAS tool (see here), I can convert it to a more familiar format for manipulation in ArcGIS. While in Cyclone, however, I understand I can assign XYZ values to the point directly below the lidar scanning unit. However, it is unclear to me how I am able to get the point clouds into a projected (e.g. UTM Zone 17 N) coordinate system. Is that possible? If so, how?

Thanks,

John

[Michal Gallay]

Hello John,

if I understand it right, your lidar point cloud is/will be in the
coordinates of a local coordinate system of the scanner. In that case
you must acquire several control points (at least four) for
transforming the point cloud into the UTM, whichever geodetic system
(to georfernce it). Ideally, you do it during the scannig or after,
revisitng the field with a GPS reciever. Or you acquire the position
of the scanner mounting a GPS on the tripod and take one more GPS
control point for bearing. There other apporaches and there are plenty
of papers on TLS.

Best regards

Michal

> --
> Download LAStools at
> http://lastools.org
> http://rapidlasso.com
> Be social with LAStools at
> http://facebook.com/LAStools
> http://twitter.com/LAStools
> http://linkedin.com/groups/LAStools-4408378
> Manage your settings at
> http://groups.google.com/group/lastools/subscribe



--
Mgr. Michal Gallay, PhD.
zástupca riaditeľa pre vedecko-výskumnú činnosť a zahraničné vzťahy
výskumný pracovník
Ústav geografie, Prírodovedecká fakulta
Univerzita Pavla Jozefa Šafárika v Košiciach
Jesenná 5
040 01 Košice

Deputy director for research and foreign relations
Research assistant
Institute of Geography
Faculty of Natural Sciences
Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice
Jesenná 5
040 01 Košice, Slovakia

Tel: 00421 (0) 55 234 2352
Web: http://geo.ics.upjs.sk/
Web:http://www.upjs.sk/prirodovedecka-fakulta/