Create virtual plots from LiDAR data

Clips circular plots from a LiDAR catalog at specified point locations. Processes points in batches to avoid memory exhaustion with large datasets.

Usage

gla_create_virtual_plots(
  points,
  folder,
  output_dir,
  plot_radius,
  filter = "-keep_class 1 2 9",
  chunk_size = 0,
  batch_size = 1000,
  resume = TRUE,
  check_las_catalog = FALSE,
  ...
)

Arguments

points

sf object with point locations

folder

Directory containing LAS/LAZ files

output_dir

Directory to save clipped plot files

plot_radius

Radius of circular plots in meters

filter

LAS filter string (default: "-keep_class 1 2 9")

chunk_size

Chunk size for LAScatalog processing (default: 0)

batch_size

Number of plots to process per batch (default: 1000). Reduce if encountering memory errors with large datasets.

resume

Skip points with existing output files (default: TRUE)

check_las_catalog

Run las_check on catalog (default: FALSE)

...

Additional arguments passed to readLAScatalog

Value

sf object with added las_files column containing paths to clipped plots

Details

Processes plots in batches to prevent memory exhaustion. With large datasets (e.g., 5000+ plots), processing all at once can fail. The batch_size parameter controls how many plots are clipped simultaneously. Default of 1000 works well for most systems. Reduce to 500 or lower if still encountering memory issues.

Examples

# \donttest{
  points_path <- system.file("extdata", "points.geojson", package = "gaplightr")
  dem_path <- system.file("extdata", "dem.tif", package = "gaplightr")
  las_folder <- system.file("extdata", "lidar", package = "gaplightr")

  points <- gla_load_points(points_path, dem_path)
#> Assigning sequential point_id (1 to 3).
  points <- gla_create_virtual_plots(
    points = points,
    folder = las_folder,
    output_dir = tempdir(),
    plot_radius = 50
  )
#> Clipping 3 circular plots with radius 50m
#> Processing batch 1/1 (3 plots)
#> Created 3 new plot files
# }