// Services
LiDAR Point Cloud Processing & Deliverables
A raw point cloud is potential, not product. We classify, QA, and convert LiDAR data into the surfaces, contours, and GIS layers your team actually designs with.
- FAA-Certified Pilots
- Licensed Surveyor Partners
- Serving All 50 States
- 24-Hour Quote Turnaround
01// The Service
From Raw Returns to Design-Ready Files
A LiDAR flight produces hundreds of millions of raw returns. Point cloud processing is everything that happens next: correcting the sensor trajectory against base station data, aligning overlapping flight lines, classifying every point to the ASPRS LAS scheme, and building the derived products — terrain models, contours, planimetrics — that engineering and GIS workflows consume. It's where accuracy is proven and where most of the value in a LiDAR project is realized.
You need this service in two situations: as the back half of every scan we capture, and as a standalone service when you already have data — your own sensor, a legacy dataset, or public LiDAR — and need it classified, verified, or converted into something your software can use.
02// Pipeline
What Happens in Processing
Step 01
Trajectory & Alignment
PPK trajectory correction, boresight calibration, and strip alignment so overlapping flight lines agree with each other before anything else is derived.
Step 02
Classification
Ground, vegetation, building, and noise classes per the ASPRS spec — automated first pass, manual cross-section review of the ground class.
Step 03
Surface Generation
Bare-earth DTMs, first-return DSMs, TINs, and contours — cut to your interval, typically 1-ft — on NAD83 state plane with NAVD88 elevations.
Step 04
QA & Packaging
Checkpoint verification, a written QA summary, and files tiled and named for your target software so they load correctly on the first try.
03// Output
Formats That Fit Your Workflow
Standard deliverables: ground-classified LAS/LAZ, DEM/DTM/DSM GeoTIFFs, CAD contours in DWG/DXF, and SHP/DBF/SHX for GIS. We also produce breaklines, planimetric linework, and volume reports where scope calls for them. Every package ships with metadata — coordinate system, geoid model, point density, and classification summary — so the dataset is defensible years later.
Engineering firms are our most frequent processing clients, importing surfaces straight into Civil 3D. Land surveyors use us to offload classification and drafting during busy season while keeping their own stamp on the final product. And because processing is centralized, the same standard applies whether the data was flown in any of the 50 states we capture in — or handed to us on a drive.
04// FAQ
Point Cloud Processing Questions
Can you process point clouds we captured ourselves?
Yes. If your firm flies its own sensor or has raw data from another provider, we can take LAS/LAZ (or raw trajectory plus range data) through classification, surface generation, and deliverable production. We will flag data-quality limits honestly — classification cannot manufacture accuracy that was not captured in the field.
What is the difference between a DEM, DTM, and DSM?
A DSM (digital surface model) includes everything the laser hit — canopy, rooftops, vehicles. A DTM (digital terrain model) is bare earth only, built from ground-classified points. DEM is the umbrella term, though it is often used interchangeably with DTM. We deliver whichever your workflow calls for, typically as GeoTIFF rasters at a resolution matched to point density.
How is the classification quality-checked?
Automated routines do the first pass, then a technician reviews the ground class in cross-section — the step that catches the failure modes automation misses, like dense understory pulled into the ground or berms and swales smoothed away. Surfaces are then verified against independent checkpoints before deliverables are cut.
What software will the deliverables work in?
Civil 3D, Carlson, MicroStation, ArcGIS, QGIS, Revit via recap workflows — we deliver in neutral formats (LAS/LAZ, GeoTIFF, DWG/DXF, SHP) rather than anything proprietary. Tell us your target software and version and we tile, name, and structure files so they load correctly the first time.
How fast is turnaround on processing?
Processing time scales with site size, point density, and deliverable list — small sites typically turn around in days, large or corridor datasets take longer, and we commit to a delivery date in the quote. Rush processing is available when a submittal deadline demands it.
05// Start a Project
Get Your Processing Quote
Tell us what data you have — or need captured — and the formats your team works in.
- Direct line
- (877) 729-5311
- team@prolidar.com