It’s no longer a rumor. I just received a heads up from Clayton Crawford at Esri announcing the availability of the “LAS Optimizer”. From the website:
- This executable is used to optimize and compress LAS format lidar. It creates *.zlas files, an optimized version of LAS that’s useful for archiving, sharing, and direct use. zLAS files are much smaller and more efficient to use, especially on the cloud and over networks, than regular LAS.
- The standalone executable does not require an ArcGIS install or license.
- The same executable is used for both compression and decompression.
- The download zip file contains more information and help in an included pdf document.
The second bullet is particularly interesting. ArcGIS 10.2.1 is also available for general release on January 7. It supports direct read of optimized LAS (*.zlas) via the LAS dataset.
[…] (January 7th): It is official now. Apparently, Gene who has mentioned our rumors on his blog just received heads up from Clayton Crawford at ESRI that the LAS Optimizer is available for download here. The EzLAS.zip […]