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Export E57

LP360 Support
  • Updated
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Requires an LP360 Drone, LP360 Land Standard, or LP360 Geospatial Basic license.

The Export E57 tool, on the Project tab of the ribbon, converts one or more LAS/LAZ point cloud files from your LP360 project into the industry-standard ASTM E57 format. Optionally, geotagged photos from a photo layer can be embedded directly into each E57 file, producing a self-contained package of point cloud data and calibrated imagery.

E57 is widely supported by third-party point cloud and BIM applications. All point attributes are preserved during conversion, and each input LAS file produces one corresponding E57 output file.

Figure 1: Export E57 - Input Point Clouds step
❌ Critical:
LAS coordinates must be in meters. The E57 standard requires SI units, and the tool enforces this strictly — if the LAS layer's embedded coordinate reference system declares linear units of feet (US survey feet or international feet), the export will be immediately rejected with the following error:

"Please make sure to convert your LAS file in meters as E57 format only supports SI units. You need to re-project your LAS file first."

No E57 file will be written. The tool does not reproject or rescale coordinates automatically. You must re-project the LAS layer to a meter-based coordinate reference system before running the export.

Opening the Tool

Access the Export E57 dialog from the LP360 EQC application menu. The dialog is a three-step wizard:

Tab Purpose
1. Point Clouds Select the LAS layer to export
2. Photos (Optional) Select one or more photo layers to embed
3. Output Choose the output folder and review the storage estimate

Navigate between tabs using the < Previous and Next > buttons. The Export button becomes active only when all required settings are valid — a LAS layer is selected and an output folder is specified.

Step 1 — Point Clouds

The Point Clouds tab lists all LAS layers currently loaded in the project. Each row in the grid shows:

Column Description
Use Checkbox — select this layer for export
Name Layer name
Files Number of LAS files in the layer
Points Total point count
Spatial Reference System Coordinate reference system (WKT)
GUID Internal unique identifier for the layer

Selection rules:

  • Only one LAS layer can be selected at a time. Checking a second layer automatically unchecks the first.
  • You must select a layer before the Next > button becomes enabled.

If no LAS layers are found in the project, the grid displays "No LAS Layers found."

Step 2 — Photos (Optional)

The Photos tab lists all photo layers loaded in the project. Including a photo layer is optional. If you do not need photos embedded in the E57 output, leave this tab empty and proceed directly to Next >.

Figure 2: Export E57 - Optional Input Photo step

Each row shows:

Column Description
Use Checkbox — include this photo layer in the export
Name Layer name
Type Photo layer type (e.g., pinhole or panoramic camera)
Photos Number of photos in the layer
Spatial Reference System Coordinate reference system (WKT)
GUID Internal unique identifier for the layer

Multiple photo layers may be selected simultaneously.

How Photo Embedding Works

When a photo layer is selected, the tool reads the companion shapefile (.shp) associated with that layer. Photos are matched to each LAS scan by GPS time: only photos whose recorded GPS acquisition time falls within the GPS time range of the corresponding scan are embedded.

Each embedded photo includes:

  • The original JPEG image data (byte-identical copy)
  • Camera pose: position (X, Y, Z) and orientation (as a quaternion)
  • Camera model: pinhole (focal length, pixel size, principal point) or spherical (equirectangular/panoramic)
  • GPS acquisition time
  • Camera GUID and Camera ID

If no photo layers are found in the project, the grid displays "No Photo Layers found."

Step 3 — Output

The Output tab is where you specify the destination folder for the generated E57 files.

Figure 3: Export E57 - Output step

Output Folder

  • The field defaults to a subfolder named E57 located alongside the LP360 project file (e.g., D:\MyProject\E57\).
  • Select Browse… to open a folder picker and choose a different location.
  • The folder will be created automatically if it does not already exist.
⚠️ Important:
Ensure the target drive has sufficient free space. The Output tab displays an estimated storage requirement before you export.

Storage Estimate

Before exporting, the dialog calculates and displays an estimate of the data you are about to write:

"You have selected X.XX GB of LAS data and ~X.XX GB of Image data (estimated). Select a folder location that has sufficient available storage." 

  • LAS data size is calculated from the actual file sizes on disk.
  • Image data size is estimated by sampling the first photo in each selected photo layer and multiplying by the total photo count.

Running the Export

Press Export to begin. During the conversion:

  • A progress bar and status label appear, showing the current file being processed (e.g., "Converting file 2 of 5: scan_001.las").
  • The dialog buttons are temporarily disabled while the export is running.
  • Each LAS file is converted independently; one E57 file is produced per LAS file.

Output File Naming

Output files are named after the input LAS file stem:

<OutputFolder>\<LAS_filename_stem>.e57

For example: scan_001.las → scan_001.e57

On Completion

Result Message
All files succeeded "E57 export completed successfully. N LAS file(s) exported to: <folder>"
The output folder opens automatically.
Some files failed "E57 export completed with N error(s) out of N file(s)."
A list of failed files and their error details is shown. The output folder opens if at least one file succeeded.
Unexpected error A detailed error message is displayed and no files are written.

Tips and Troubleshooting

Symptom Resolution
Next > button is greyed out on the Point Clouds tab No LAS layer is checked. Check the Use column for one layer.
Export button is greyed out on the Output tab Either no LAS layer is selected or the Output Folder field is empty.
"The selected LAS layer has no files" The checked layer exists but contains no associated LAS files. Reload the layer or choose a different one.
"Could not retrieve LAS file paths" The layer's file references may be missing or broken. Verify the LAS files are accessible on disk.
"No output folder specified" The Output Folder field is blank. Browse to or type a valid path.
Export fails for specific LAS files Check that the LAS coordinates are in meters. E57 requires SI units; files in feet or other units will not convert correctly.
Storage estimate seems very large The image estimate is based on the size of the first photo multiplied by the total photo count. If photos vary significantly in size, the estimate may be high. Verify available disk space before proceeding.

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