LAS Format

Stream LAS LiDAR point clouds as one record per point.

Overview

Property	Value
Format id	las
Class	LASIterable
Extensions	.las
Read	Yes
Write	No
Extra	lidar (laspy)
Maturity	experimental

Record shape

{
    "x": 1.0,
    "y": 2.0,
    "z": 3.0,
    "intensity": 100,
    "classification": 2,
    "return_number": 1,
}

intensity, classification, and return_number may be None when absent from the point format.

Parameters

Parameter	Default	Description
chunk_size	50000	laspy chunk iterator size

Requires a filename. totals() returns the point count. Streaming via chunked reads.

Usage

from iterable import open_iterable

with open_iterable("cloud.las", format="las") as source:
    print(f"points: {source.totals()}")
    for pt in source:
        print(pt["x"], pt["y"], pt["z"], pt["classification"])

Install with pip install iterabledata[lidar].

Error Handling

• Missing dependency: optional libraries raise ImportError with an install hint (pip install 'iterabledata[<extra>]' when an extra exists).
• Read-only: opening with mode="w" raises WriteNotSupportedError or ValueError.
• Bad or unsupported input: may raise ValueError, OSError, or library-specific errors.
• See Troubleshooting for decoding, detection, and engine issues.

See also

• ASCII Grid — raster grids
• XYZ — coordinate tables
• Supported formats