.. _home:

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PDAL - Point Data Abstraction Library
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.. image:: ./_static/pdal_logo.png
   :alt: PDAL logo
   :align: right

PDAL is a C++ `BSD`_ library for translating and manipulating `point cloud
data`_.  It is very much like the `GDAL`_ library which handles raster and
vector data.  The :ref:`about` page provides high level overview of the library
and its philosophy. Visit :ref:`readers` and :ref:`writers` to list data
formats it supports, and see :ref:`filters` for filtering operations that you
can apply with PDAL.

In addition to the library code, PDAL provides a suite of command-line
applications that users can conveniently use to process, filter, translate, and
query point cloud data.  :ref:`apps` provides more information on that topic.

Finally, PDAL speaks Python by both embedding and extending it. Visit
:ref:`python` to find out how you can use PDAL with Python to process point
cloud data.

The entire website is available as a single PDF at http://pdal.io/PDAL.pdf

News
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**10-12-2017**
................................................................................

PDAL 1.6.0 has been released. Visit :ref:`download` to obtain a copy of the
source code, or follow the :ref:`quickstart` to get going in a hurry with
`Docker`_.


.. _`Docker`: https://www.docker.com/

.. _`Howard Butler`: http://github.com/hobu
.. _`Brad Chambers`: http://github.com/chambbj
.. _`FOSS4GNA 2016`: https://2016.foss4g-na.org
.. _`Point cloud web services with Greyhound, Entwine, and PDAL`: https://2016.foss4g-na.org/session/point-cloud-web-services-greyhound-entwine-and-pdal
.. _`Filtering point clouds with PDAL and PCL`: https://2016.foss4g-na.org/session/filtering-point-clouds-pdal-and-pcl

About
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.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   about


Download
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.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   download

Quickstart
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.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   quickstart

Applications
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.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   apps/index

Community
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.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   community

Drivers
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.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :glob:

   pipeline
   stages/readers
   stages/writers
   stages/filters

Dimensions
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.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   dimensions

Python
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.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   python

Tutorials
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.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :glob:

   tutorial/index

Workshop
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.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   Workshop <workshop/index>

Development
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.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   development/index
   api/index
   faq
   copyright

.. toctree::
   :includehidden:

   references



Indices and tables
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* :ref:`genindex`
* :ref:`search`

.. _`GDAL`: http://www.gdal.org
.. _`BSD`: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
.. _`point cloud data`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_cloud
.. _`LIDAR`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIDAR

