Getting Started With LIDAR using Autodesk Land Desktop 2004

Create Project Set Projection to KS83-NF Define Terrain Open Terrain Manager Create New Surface Add point file as ENZ (Easting, Northing, Z(elevation)) Build Surface Right Click on surface and choose build View as Surface To view as a surface choose Terrain > Surface Display > 3D Faces on the toolbar Create Contours When creating contours you can specify an interval to determine distance between coutours When creating contours if you create as a polyline you will receive attribute information

Contours Generated From LIDAR Data using Autodesk Land Desktop

Getting Started With LIDAR using ArcGIS

To Import ASCII Data, open ArcToolbox and click on the 3D Analyst toolbox > Conversion > From File > ASCII 3D to Feature Class (must have 3D Analyst extension turned on). If you import a folder you must specify a suffix when using the ASCII 3D to Feature Class tool (XYZ). To Create a terrain from which you can generate a DEM or a Hillshade you must place the output of the ASCII 3D to Feature Class inside a Feature Dataset of a Geodatabase. To create a terrain you can right click inside the feature dataset where you output  the feature class in step 1, select new and then click terrain,  or you can use the terrain tools within the 3D Analyst Toolbox of ArcToolbox. When generating a terrain from the 2006 LIDAR data, set the average/nominal point spacing to 4.6 feet. After you have a terrain you can convert it to Raster using the Terrain to Raster tool.  Once the data is in a raster format you are able to generate various datasets such as hillshades, slopes, and contours.

Terrain Generated From LIDAR with ArcGIS