POINT CLOUD
STREAM's streaming point cloud viewer opens large LAS and LAZ files and turns them into usable terrain. Build a bare-earth model from ground points, a surface model from all points, or an orthophoto — then measure and analyze the result like any DEM.
A point cloud is a dense set of 3D points (x, y, z) captured by LiDAR or produced by photogrammetry. LAS is the standard format; LAZ is its compressed form.
Point clouds are rich but heavy. To get engineering results you usually need to turn them into a surface — a DEM or a mesh — which is exactly what STREAM does on import.
Load large LAS and LAZ files with class information; streaming import feeds the points through in fixed-size chunks instead of pulling the whole cloud into memory.
Build a clean bare-earth DEM from ground-classified points, a surface model from all points, or an orthophoto — automatically on import.
Sample the cloud onto a regular grid at the resolution you choose to get a clean, analyzable elevation raster.
Once rasterized, run volumes, cross-sections, stockpiles, slope and hydrology on the point-cloud-derived surface.
Select the LAS or LAZ file. STREAM streams large clouds rather than choking on the point count, and keeps the classification information.
Decide whether the import produces a bare-earth DEM from the ground-classified points, a surface model from all points, or an orthophoto.
Pick the cell size the cloud is sampled onto. This is the resolution every later measurement and analysis will run at.
Inspect the derived surface in 2D and 3D and confirm the coordinate system before adding it to the project.
Run volumes, cross-sections, stockpiles, slope and hydrology on the surface derived from the cloud.
A LAS file is a point cloud from laser scanning or photogrammetry, and any point cloud viewer will open it. STREAM opens it for a different reason: not to spin it around, but to turn it into usable terrain — a bare-earth DEM from the ground points, a surface model from all of them, and then contours, volumes and cross-sections. LAZ is simply LAS compressed; it opens directly too, with no need to unpack it first.
No. STREAM reads LAS and LAZ. RCP and RCS are Autodesk ReCap project formats and E57 is not supported yet; export to LAS or LAZ from whichever package produced them.
Yes. STREAM opens both LAS and LAZ point clouds and can rasterize them into a DEM or surface model at the resolution you choose.
Yes. STREAM builds a clean terrain model from ground-classified points, a surface model from all points, or an orthophoto — automatically on import.
STREAM is designed for large clouds; it streams the data and converts it to a fast internal format so it stays responsive on big datasets.
If you only need to spin a LAS/LAZ file around, a free web viewer may be enough. STREAM is for when you need to turn that point cloud into a bare-earth DEM, a surface model, or an orthophoto — then measure volumes, cross-sections, and slopes on it.
Free beta for Windows x64. Works fully offline with GeoTIFF, LAS/LAZ and DXF.
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