I have to ask another set of these data, but for the mean time, i need to proceed with these data as I need to get the statistical summary of the returns which were not in these raw XYZ format.
I would also suggest using LAStools. It has a wide range of 'modules' to allow you to analyse and query your data or to extract variables that you want.
It is mostly OS, meaning that it can be used for research etc. but not commercially without paying for a licence. There is also the LASmoons program, where you can write a bid for a full user licence (for a short period of time) to help you with your research.
I feel LAStools is best integrated into other software eg ArcGIS or similar - there is a toolbox available for this.
Regards,
Jon.
Most of XYZ files from LIDAR are saved in ascii files. However the most popular is *las format. In such a files you have: x, y, z, intensity, angle, echo, number of echos, classification, date, direction, even RGB value (if point cloud were colourized). If you do not have *asc file (ascii) directly converted from *.las file, you have just information about three coordinates i.e. *xyz file and there is no information about returns. If you can take a quick look at your file and you see other columns than coordinates you can use tools recommended by other colleagues.
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