R: Voxelize a point cloud

voxelize_points {lidR} | R Documentation

## Voxelize a point cloud

### Description

Reduce the number of points by voxelizing the point cloud. If the Intensity is part of the attributes it is preserved and aggregated as `mean(Intensity)`. Other attributes cannot be aggregated and are lost.

### Usage

    voxelize_points(las, res)

### Arguments

`las` | An object of class LAS or LAScatalog.
`res` | numeric. The resolution of the voxels. `res = 1` for a 1x1x1 cubic voxels. Optionally `res = c(1,2)` for non-cubic voxels (1x1x2 cuboid voxel).

### Value

If the input is a `LAS` object, returns a `LAS` object. If the input is a `LAScatalog`, returns a `LAScatalog`.

### Working with a `LAScatalog`

This section appears in each function that supports a LAScatalog as input.

In `lidR` when the input of a function is a LAScatalog the function uses the LAScatalog processing engine. The user can modify the engine options using the available options. A careful reading of the engine documentation is recommended before processing `LAScatalogs`. Each `lidR` function should come with a section that documents the supported engine options.

The `LAScatalog` engine supports `.lax` files that significantly improve the computation speed of spatial queries using a spatial index. Users should really take advantage a `.lax` files, but this is not mandatory.

### Supported processing options

Supported processing options for a `LAScatalog` (in bold). For more details see the LAScatalog engine documentation:

- chunk size: How much data is loaded at once.

- chunk buffer*: Mandatory to get a continuous output without edge effects. The buffer is always removed once processed and will never be returned either in R or in files.

- chunk alignment: Align the processed chunks.

- progress: Displays a progression estimation.

- output files*: Mandatory because the output is likely to be too big to be returned in R and needs to be written in las/laz files. Supported templates are `{XLEFT}`, `{XRIGHT}`, `{YBOTTOM}`, `{YTOP}`, `{XCENTER}`, `{YCENTER}` `{ID}` and, if chunk size is equal to 0 (processing by file), `{ORIGINALFILENAME}`.

- select: The function will write files equivalent to the original ones. Thus `select = "*"` and cannot be changed.

- filter: Read only points of interest.

### Examples

    LASfile <- system.file("extdata", "Megaplot.laz", package="lidR")
    las = readLAS(LASfile, select = "xyz")

    las2 = voxelize_points(las, 2)
    #plot(las2)

[Package lidR version 3.2.2 Index]