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libLAS' Relationship to `LAStools`_
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libLAS is available under the terms of the `BSD License`_. Many parts of `LAStools`_,
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especially those that are similar to those provided by libLAS, are now
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LGPL. See http://www.cs.unc.edu/~isenburg/lastools/download/LICENSE.txt for
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specific details on which utilities and libraries are licensed as free software.
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Because libLAS' focus is on being a software development library to enable
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LAS processing, and not so much a processing library per se, libLAS *did*
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re-implement many of the `LAStools`_ :ref:`command-line utilities <utilities>`
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to provide utility and test the functionality of the library. libLAS' port
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of these utilities will always lag LAStools implementations, however, and if
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you are looking for the latest and greatest in functionality, you should
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look there. The port that libLAS contains of the LAStools has been blessed
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by the Isenburg and Shewchuk as BSD-licensed.
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Additionally, the libLAS version of the LAStools utilities are no longer
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command-line compatible. So while they may have some common heritage, and
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the two packages copy each other in terms of features and behaviors, they
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are now quite divergent.
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Which one to use for what
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* Manipulating LAS files directly in C, C++, Python, .NET, and Ruby (caveats
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* Embedding LAS read/write support in your own commercial software
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* Plucking out first/last returns (:ref:`las2las` or do it yourself with
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libLAS' programatic API)
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* Reclassifying point data with your own algorithm(s)
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* Decimating data (simple thinning by removing a given number of points)
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* Converting data between formats (1.0 <-> 1.2, etc)
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* Converting data to `OGR-writeable`_ formats
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* Adding coordinate system info to an LAS file
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* Reprojecting data from one coordinate system to another (vertical datum
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transformation included soon!)
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* Spatially indexing data for fast bounds lookup
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* Working in a commercial setting
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* Creating DEMs from LAS data
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* Creating TINs from LAS data
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* Calculating convex or concave hulls from LAS data
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* Generating contours from LAS data
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* Advanced LAS command-line attribute processing (`las2las
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<http://www.cs.unc.edu/~isenburg/lastools/download/las2las_README.txt>`__)
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* Plucking out first/last returns (:ref:`las2las` or yourself with a
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* Decimating data (thinning by removing points within a grid or window)
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* Converting data between formats (1.0 <-> 1.2, etc)
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* Working in an academic or non-commercial setting
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.. _`LAStools`: http://www.cs.unc.edu/~isenburg/lastools/
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.. _`BSD license`: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
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.. _`OGR-writeable`: http://gdal.org/ogr/ogr_formats.html
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