Requires an LP360 Geospatial Standard or above, LP360 Drone, or LP360 Land Standard license.

The Ground Cleanup tool is part of a collection of Cleanup Tools on the Ground Classification Tab of the ribbon to help streamline the ground classification workflow.

The cleanup tool runs the Adaptive TIN PCT with different settings depending on the mode you choose and moves the new edited/cleaned ground points from Class 1 (Unclassified) to Class 20 (Ignored Ground). Using a separate “edited/cleaned” class allows you to see the changes and reset (or undo) the edits quickly if necessary OR commit them to the Ground Class (2) if satisfied with the results.

Note: These cleanup tools generate seed points and may not perform well in areas with large ground voids under canopy or other features. For such cases, use the Ground Cleanup tool with manual seed point creation. These tools won’t help where ground returns are sparse or absent due to poor canopy penetration or collection design—they don’t generate synthetic ground points. A future update will include a “No Seed” mode and a customizable cleanup option.

Tip: Most point cloud datasets are denser than needed for standard topographic products like 1’ contours or DEMs. You don’t need to classify every ground return or clean all unclassified points for many deliverables.

Method

When preparing to run the Ground Cleanup tool, there are two methods that can be used:

• Manual Ground Cleanup
  • Allows users to manually select ground points during the Execution process.
  • If after cleaning up the ground surface with the above tools there are still areas that need editing, move on to using Manual Ground Cleanup. This provides two options to either Add or Remove points from the ground class interactively. Add will move all points from Unclassified (Class 1) to Added to Ground (Class 20). Remove will move all points from Ground (Class 2) back to Unclassified (Class 1). You can use the Reset Classes tool to quickly revert any changes if necessary.
• Assisted Ground Cleanup
  • This is a full automated tool that doesn't allow for manual inputs.
  • When you find a section of the ground surface that needs cleanup, open the Cleanup tool to start an interactive review session. Start by using the Assisted Ground Cleanup options in interactive mode. Select a cleanup mode as discussed below and use the Draw Polygon (or Rectangle or Circle) option to outline the area you want to clean up.

Settings

There are 5 different Cleanup Modes that can be used to classify ground:

• Normal – This is a densification tool. Use this for areas with some unclassified ground but no unusual features or steep edges.
  • This mode uses the standard Adaptive TIN PCT with default Angle of 2° and Distance 0.1 m, but with a denser seed grid (1 m).
  • Be careful not to include any non-ground features larger than 1 m in your area.
  • Always start with this mode before moving to any of the other more aggressive modes below.
• Aggressive – A more aggressive version of the standard Adaptive TIN PCT for areas with steeper slopes.
  • This mode increases the Angle to 3° and Distance to 0.2 m.
• Very Aggressive – For areas with much steeper slopes.
  • This mode uses a 0.5 m grid and increases Angle to 4° and Distance to 0.3 m.
  • Use with caution.
• Steep Slope – Specifically for vertical surfaces like stream banks or embankments over 70°.
  • Uses edge climbing to extract steep edges not captured by other modes.
  • Use with caution. This mode can climb tree trunks and increase misclassification.
• Extreme – For open terrain with significant voids and no non-ground features.
  • Uses a 0.5 m grid, 6° Angle, 0.5 m Distance, and runs 10 iterations.
  • Use with caution.

Execute

Options for executing the tool on the input LAS Layer(s).

How to use the Cleanup tool

See How to use the Ground cleanup tools in LP360