Open Source LiDAR Software

SAGA - System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses - is a Geographic Information System (GIS) software with immense capabilities for geodata processing and analysis. SAGA is programmed in the object oriented C++ language and supports the implementation of new functions with a very effective Application Programming Interface (API). Functions are organised as modules in framework independent Module Libraries and can be accessed via SAGA’s Graphical User Interface (GUI) or various scripting environments (shell scripts, Python, R, ...). Please provide the following reference in your work if you are using SAGA: Conrad, O., Bechtel, B., Bock, M., Dietrich, H., Fischer, E., Gerlitz, L., Wehberg, J., Wichmann, V., and Boehner, J. (2015): System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA) v. 2.1.4. Geosci. Model Dev., 8, 1991-2007, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1991-2015. For more information visit the project homepage and the wiki.

This software is designed to help users visualize and analyze 3D point clouds with an associated real value, in a fast and flexible fashion. The primary use is in Atom Probe Tomography, which is an atomic imaging technique. However the program may also be useful in other areas, such as geospatial data, lidar, etc.

A new algorithm for extracting roof tops was developed. Using the assumption that roof tops are planar in construction, a new approach was developed using volume of point clouds to determine whether a cluster contains planar points. This approach yields very promising results and with attention applied to its weaknesses, should provide another algorithm which can rival currently available roof top detection methods.