# vtkLASReader()
**URL:** https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtklasreader/438
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 10, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtklasreader/438 "2019-03-10T20:08:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@clairecita](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/clairecita)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtklasreader/438/1 "2019-03-10T20:08:59Z")
Hi,
I saw somewhere that vtk has a reader for .las files (lidar data) (vtkLASReader) but when I try to use it it says that there is no such attribute. What am I missing ?
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### Author:  [@danlipsa](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/danlipsa)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2019, 10:30pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtklasreader/438/2 "2019-03-10T22:30:36Z")
Can you share your data?
You can also try vtkPDALReader which should be more complete.
Dan
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### Author:  [@banesullivan](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/banesullivan)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2019, 5:20am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtklasreader/438/3 "2019-03-17T05:20:35Z")
FYI: Here is a function using [`laspy`](https://github.com/laspy/laspy) and [`vtki`](http://docs.vtki.org) to read LAS point clouds I made.
The `vtkLASReader` is only available if VTK is compiled with an option for it (not sure about the details). I’ve been working with a lot of point clouds lately and I needed to use the VTK module available on PyPI so I made this snippet.
Note that `vtki` is simply a helper module for VTK - the returned `poly` object is an instance of `vtk.vtkPolyData`
```python
from laspy.file import File
import numpy as np
import vtki
def read_las(filename):
"""Reads a LAS lidar point cloud to vtkPolyData"""
inFile = File(filename, mode='r')
I = inFile.Classification == 2
points = np.c_[inFile.X, inFile.Y, inFile.Z][I]
inFile.close()
poly = vtki.PolyData(points)
poly.point_arrays['intensity'] = inFile.Intensity[I]
poly.point_arrays['classification'] = inFile.Classification[I]
poly.set_active_scalar('intensity')
return poly
```
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### Author:  [@clairecita](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/clairecita)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2019, 11:53am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtklasreader/438/4 "2019-03-18T11:53:17Z")
Hi,
Thank you for your answers. I decided to use your script Bane, it works perfectly.
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### Author:  [@banesullivan](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/banesullivan)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2019, 12:24am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtklasreader/438/5 "2019-03-19T00:24:06Z")
Glad to hear, @clairecita! Would you please mark that comment as the solution to close this thread
Also, this might be of interest to you when I merge it into `vtki`: [https://github.com/vtkiorg/vtki/pull/128](https://github.com/vtkiorg/vtki/pull/128)
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### Author:  [@banesullivan](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/banesullivan)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2019, 12:47am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtklasreader/438/6 "2019-03-19T00:47:02Z")
And this thread as well [Eye-Dome Lighting: vtkEDLShading (example request)](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/eye-dome-lighting-vtkedlshading-example-request/508/4)