COPC in brief
Cloud Optimized Point Cloud is built on LAS 1.4 and LAZ compression, with added hierarchy information that describes spatial nodes and their point data.
Cloud optimized point clouds
COPC Viewer — Explore Cloud Optimized Point Clouds
COPC is a LAZ-based point-cloud format organized for spatial, view-dependent access. WolkeViz can open a local COPC file or stream one from a compatible HTTPS URL, requesting useful spatial nodes as you navigate instead of loading the entire dataset first.
At a glance
What to know before opening the file
Why hierarchy matters
A viewer can start with broader nodes and refine the area in view. This limits unnecessary work and makes exploration of larger datasets more responsive.
Local or remote
Local COPC uses random-access file slices. Remote COPC requires HTTPS, CORS permission, and correct HTTP byte-range responses from the source host; WolkeViz does not proxy the file through a Klar3D server.
Practical workflow
Explore a COPC dataset progressively
- Open a COPC file in WolkeViz or choose an available COPC sample.
- Start with a fitted, broad view to understand coverage and point density.
- Zoom into a feature of interest; a view-dependent workflow can refine that part of the cloud first.
- Use colour modes and measurement tools to validate the point attributes and geometry you need.
Technical notes
How a COPC viewer avoids doing all the work at once
A conventional point cloud may be stored in an order that is convenient for capture or processing but not for a camera view. COPC adds a spatial hierarchy so clients can locate nodes that intersect the current camera frustum and choose an appropriate level of detail.
COPC remains compatible with the LAS/LAZ ecosystem: the point records retain LAS semantics while the COPC metadata and hierarchy describe where encoded chunks live. This preserves available attributes such as classification, intensity, RGB, and GPS time.
The point budget controls how much detail is displayed, not the total number of points in the source. For COPC export, WolkeViz currently exports loaded visible points within active clipping rules; it does not fetch every source node intersecting a crop, so that output is not a complete source-volume extraction.
Questions and answers
Common questions
What is the difference between COPC and LAZ?
COPC uses LAZ compression but adds standardized spatial hierarchy information for efficient, view-dependent access. A regular LAZ file is compressed, but it is not necessarily organized for the same kind of spatial streaming.
Can COPC work with very large point clouds?
It is designed to make large clouds more practical to browse by loading or decoding spatially relevant portions first. The usable scale still depends on the client device, point budget, and where the file is hosted.
Do COPC files retain LAS classifications and intensity?
COPC stores LAS point records, so dimensions supported by the underlying LAS point format can be preserved. Availability depends on the source dataset and point format.
Keep exploring