OpenTopography Tool Registry

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The OpenTopography Tool Registry provides a community populated clearinghouse of software, utilities, and tools oriented towards high-resolution topography data (e.g. collected with lidar technology) handling, processing, and analysis. Tools registered below range from source code to full-featured software applications. We welcome contributions to the registry via the Contribute a Tool page.

Appearance of a tool in the OpenTopography Tool Registry does not imply endorsement, recommendation, or support, by the NSF OpenTopography Facility and is meant simply as a service to our users. OpenTopography does not guarantee the completeness or accessibility of specific content and links contributed by users. If you have been directly involved with the development of a registered tool and are not the original contributor of the tool to the registry, please email info@opentopography.org to supply updates or modifications to its entry.
Tool Name Date   Tool Type Rating
1   Potree 30 Dec 2014 Visualization, Point Cloud Analysis
Keywords: WebGL, Viewer
License: Other

Description: Potree is a free and open source WebGL based viewer for large point clouds. ( 20 billion and more )
Some of its features include distance & area measurements, height profiles, clip volumes, various point rendering qualities (square, circle, interpolation, splats) and different types of materials.


2   CHaMP Topo Processing Toolbar 4 Sep 2014 DEM generation
Keywords: total station surveys, topographic
License: GNU General Public License

Description: The CHaMP Topo Processing Toolbar exists to take raw data from CHaMP ground-based topographic surveys and run these through steps of 1) survey data evaluation, 2) generating topographic surfaces, 3) DEM derived products and metrics (including, detrending, derivation of cross sections, profiles, thalwegs, bankfull, etc.), 4) QA/QC. Although the overall workflow of the tool is focused on CHaMP topographic data, many of the individual commands and steps will be more generically useful to some.

3   River Bathymetry Toolkit (RBT) 18 Mar 2011 Software Suite
Keywords: LiDAR, bathymetry, river, raster, detrending, water, RBT
License: Free to use/Unspecified

Description: The (RBT) is available for free and is under active development. Tools exist for cutting cross sections and longitudinal profiles into high resolution DEMs to extract hydrologic parameters such as wetted area, bankfull width, hydraulic radius, gradient and sinuosity. It is possible to save the cross section properties as a ShapeFile and then add them to a map. Using an automated detrending algorithm we are able to remove the overall valley slope. Tools are being created that use the detrended raster to investigate flooding outside a main channel at any prescribed discharge or flow stage.

4   TopoToolbox 21 Jul 2015 Visualization, DEM Analysis
Keywords: MATLAB, tectonic geomorphology, DEM analysis
License: BSD license

Description: TopoToolbox is a suite of MATLAB functions for topographic analysis. The major aim of TopoToolbox is to offer helpful analytical GIS utilities in a non-GIS environment in order to support the simultaneous application of GIS-specific and other quantitative methods. Key methods include advanced methods of flow direction derivation, stream network extraction and manipulation, slope-area analysis, chiplots, and swath profiles.

5   terrainShadingMask 6 Jul 2016 Visualization, DEM Analysis
Keywords: terrain, shading, mask, profile, horizon, angle, Meteonorm, PVSOL, PVsyst, IES VE, Trnsys 3D
License: GNU General Public License

Description: terrainShadingMask is a free collection of terrain masks for various locations. They are given in geometrical (.obj files) and textual (.hor files) forms.
A terrain shading mask is a diagram which maps the silhouette of the surrounding terrain (hills, valleys, mountains, tree tops...) around the chosen location.
Building simulation softwares (IES VE, Trnsys 3D, Design Builder...) can use the .obj geometry files, while solar-photovoltaic-thermal software (PV*SOL, PVsyst...) can use .hor files.