3D points treated as Lidar data can be colored using various point attributes.
To change the draw mode of loaded Lidar data, use the Lidar Draw Mode drop down at the beginning of the Lidar Toolbar. (This drop-down requires a Global Mapper Pro license). Individual layers can also have explicit draw modes, set on the Lidar Display tab of the Layer Options.
Draw/color options on the dropdown menu include:
Color Lidar by RGB/Elev — Colors the Lidar points by Red, Green, Blue (RGB) values if present, otherwise will use the elevation values.
Color Lidar by Elevation— Applies a color spread to the range of elevations found in the Lidar data.
Color Lidar by Intensity — Color lidar points from black to white by the intensity of the return pulse. Lidar classified with this method can sometimes be used in place of aerial imagery. Most topographic lidar systems record the intensity of the return pulse, measuring the strength of the return. The number of returns will be determined by the composition of the surface object reflecting the return.
The Intensity values can be used to create an image, and are commonly used for identifying and classifying different ground features.
Color Lidar by Classification — Colors Lidar points by the ASPRS defined classification values. Customize the colors from the Filter Lidar Data tool.
Color Lidar by Return Number — Applies a color spread to the range of return values, which typically range from 1 to 5.
Color Lidar by Height Above Ground — The ground height is calculated from the Lidar point cloud, either from the surface group of Lidar classes (Ground, Road and Water) or by the minimum elevation in large chunks. When there are no points classified in a surface class, such as ground, this height above ground calculation is not exact. The process may take a few moments to calculate the first time, as ground height is determined for each individual point.
Color Lidar by Scan Angle - Lidar points will be colorized using the scan angle attribute. Values range from -90 to 90. The color of the points will be determined by the Shader Option chosen in the workspace.
Color Lidar by Point Source ID — This value will indicate the file from which the point originated. Valid values are between 1 and 65,535. Allows for flight paths of Lidar data collection to be visualized.
Color Lidar by Source Layer — Applies a unique color to each loaded point cloud layer. A specific color can be selected for a layer in the Lidar Display for the layer.
Color Lidar by Segment — This will distinctly color points based on the segment ID assigned with the Geometric Segmentation tool, or by the Automatic Building and Tree Classification and Building Extraction tools.
Color Lidar by Point Index— This will color the points in 512 point chunks with the same color, allowing visualization of how the points are stored spatially in the file. This is useful for things like improving compression by visualizing the spatial arrangement and testing re-arrangement to get better compression. If there is no pattern to the point index display colors, and this display mode shows a noisy mix of colors, the point cloud is not ordered in a way that is spatially organized, and that can impact display and processing times. See the Global Mapper Package export or Selected Layers Context Menu for options to reorder points spatially.
Color Lidar by Return Height Delta —This will color points by the difference in elevation between the first and last return of a multiple return. This will be the height in meters between the elevation of the first return and last return. For example, for a tree where the first return was near the top of the tree and the last return was off the ground, it could be the height of the tree.
Color Lidar as CIR (Color Infrared)— This will color points with the band layout NIR/Red/Green. This is how 4-band infrared data is commonly visualized. The vegetated areas tend to be red.
Color Lidar using NDVI (Vegetation) — Colors points using the calculated NDVI value (computed from NIR and Red bands) using Global Mapper's built-in NDVI shader. Vegetated areas will be green and non-vegetated areas will be a shade of blue.
Color Lidar using NDWI (Water) — Colors points using the calculated NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index) value (computed from the NIR and Green bands) using the new built-in NDWI shader. Water areas (NDWI > 0) will be blue and non-water will be white/gray.
Color Lidar by Point Density —Color points using calculated point density. The point density is calculated based on the full point cloud loaded in the layer. To visualize the point density for a single classification, the subset of points must be loaded or copied to new layer.
Color Lidar by Withheld Flag — Points flagged as withheld will appear red. All other points will appear blue.
Color Lidar by Key Point Flag — Points flagged as Key Points will appear red. All other points will appear blue.
Color Lidar by Overlap Flag — Points flagged as Overlap points will appear red. All other points will appear blue.
Color Lidar by Generic Value — Lidar supports a generic attribute field that can be assigned any display name. In GM, these are written by the Compare Point Clouds tool (DIST_M) and the Variography and Kriging tool (GENERIC). This draw mode will work on any value in the Generic field, regardless of display name.
Color Lidar by Generic Uncertainty Value — Colors points based on uncertainty score of the kriged estimate for the point.