copc-rust

Pure-Rust COPC reader, writer, and shared core primitives for cloud-optimized point clouds. No C libraries, no build scripts; internal unsafe is limited to read-only memory mapping of writer spill files.

Crates

Crate	Description
copc-core	Shared COPC metadata, hierarchy entries, voxel keys, bounds, LAS-native column batches, streaming LAS records, and errors
copc-reader	COPC header/info parsing, recursive hierarchy access, chunked-LAZ row iteration, and materialized column reads
copc-writer	COPC writer with source-trait point access, column-batch source support, native LOD distribution, mmap spill support, and streaming LAS/LAZ intake

Usage

use copc_reader::CopcFile;

let file = CopcFile::open("cloud.copc.laz")?;
for entry in file.hierarchy_walk() {
    println!("{:?} points={}", entry.key, entry.point_count);
}

use copc_reader::{BoundsSelection, CopcReader, LodSelection};

let mut reader = CopcReader::from_path("cloud.copc.laz")?;
for point in reader.points(LodSelection::All, BoundsSelection::All)? {
    let point = point?;
    println!("{},{},{}", point.x, point.y, point.z);
}

use copc_core::{ColumnData, LasDimension};
use copc_reader::{ColumnSelection, CopcReader, PointQuery};

let mut reader = CopcReader::from_path("cloud.copc.laz")?;
let batch = reader.read_columns(
    PointQuery::all(),
    ColumnSelection::from_dimensions([
        LasDimension::X,
        LasDimension::Y,
        LasDimension::Z,
        LasDimension::Classification,
    ]),
)?;

if let Some(ColumnData::F64(xs)) = batch.column(LasDimension::X) {
    println!("decoded {} x coordinates", xs.len());
}

use copc_writer::{convert_las_to_copc_streaming, CopcWriterParams};

convert_las_to_copc_streaming(
    "input.laz".as_ref(),
    "output.copc.laz".as_ref(),
    &CopcWriterParams::default(),
    std::env::temp_dir().as_ref(),
    &copc_core::NeverCancel,
)?;

Column Ownership Model

copc-core owns the LAS/COPC-native column model: LasDimension, ColumnSpec, ColumnData, ColumnView, ColumnSelection, and LasColumnBatch. These types are dependency-light and do not depend on Arrow, DataFusion, or engine-specific point-cloud crates.

copc-reader exposes materialized column batches with CopcReader::read_columns and CopcReader::read_columns_with_cancel. Existing row iteration with points, points_for_query, and points_with_cancel remains supported.

The column API is materialized. COPC point data is still read from compressed LAZ chunks, decoded, filtered, transformed, and appended into owned column buffers. It is not a zero-copy view into compressed COPC files.

Downstream engines should adapt LasColumnBatch into their own canonical memory model. For example, roteiro-engine maps these native batches into its PointCloud struct-of-arrays representation. Arrow conversion is intentionally out of scope for copc-rust today; it belongs in downstream engine code or behind a future optional feature.

Supported Now

• Public COPC hierarchy types for availability, indexing, and tile serving
• COPC info VLR and recursive hierarchy page parsing
• Chunked-LAZ point iteration in copc-reader
• All-points, LOD-selected, and bounds-selected reader point iteration
• Materialized LAS/COPC-native column batches in copc-reader
• Source-trait writer API for caller-owned point storage
• COPC writing from neutral LasColumnBatch values via ColumnBatchSource
• Streaming LAS/LAZ-to-COPC conversion through a disk-backed mmap spill
• Streaming conversion preserves WKT CRS records, LAS Extra Bytes payloads and descriptors, and source non-CRS VLRs/EVLRs
• LAS 1.4 point formats 6 and 7 with LAZ variable-size chunks
• Interior-node representative points for native LOD reads

Not Yet Supported

• Zero-copy column views directly over compressed COPC/LAZ point data
• Built-in Arrow or DataFusion conversion
• GeoTIFF-only CRS conversion to WKT during LAS/LAZ-to-COPC conversion

Testing

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo test --workspace

Checked-in external COPC fixtures from PDAL and QGIS are exercised by:

cargo test -p copc-reader --test external_fixtures

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0