lidar2map — free tool to generate LiDAR relief maps (hillshade / SVF) for Locus

[nico579]

Hi all,

A sibling to the gpxsolar tool I posted here recently — same idea, different data.

lidar2map is a free open-source tool (GPLv3) that turns high-resolution LiDAR into shaded-relief map overlays you can load in Locus Map. It downloads the elevation data, builds the relief, and tiles it for you.

What it produces: multidirectional hillshade and Sky-View Factor (SVF) relief — the kind of visualization that reveals micro-terrain you can't see on satellite or standard maps (old paths, terraces, earthworks, drainage). Useful for hiking route-finding and terrain reading.



Same place: satellite, OpenStreetMap, then the LiDAR relief (SVF) — the relief reveals what the other two don't show.

And loaded as an overlay inside Locus Map:



Heads-up on coverage: the built-in data source is the French national LiDAR HD (IGN), so out of the box it covers France only. The processing itself is generic — if you have your own LiDAR tiles for another region, the relief pipeline works on those too.

How to use it in Locus Map:
[list=1]

• Generate an MBTiles or SQLiteDB output (the SQLiteDB uses the RMaps schema Locus reads natively).
• Load it as a map overlay (Settings → Maps → overlay), or as a standalone map.
• Stack it under your usual map at reduced opacity to combine relief with your base layer.

Outputs: MBTiles (universal), SQLiteDB (RMaps schema — Locus / OsmAnd), Mapsforge .map, RMAP (CompeGPS / TwoNav). Runs on Windows / Linux / macOS, GUI or CLI.

Repo (code, build, docs): https://github.com/nico579/lidar2map

Hobby project — feedback welcome, especially on the Locus loading side.

[nico579]

Update, one month later: no longer France-only.

Since the original post, lidar2map has grown from 1 to 30+ LiDAR sources
covering 20+ countries. For Locus users the highlights are probably:

- Czechia: CUZK DMR 5G (1 m)
- Austria: Tyrol and East Tyrol (0.5 m)
- Germany: Bavaria, NRW, Lower Saxony, Thuringia (1 m)
- Switzerland: swissALTI3D (0.5 m)
- Netherlands: AHN (0.5 m)
- UK: England, Scotland, Wales
- Plus Scandinavia, Estonia, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Japan, US, Canada,
  Australia, New Zealand...

The pipeline is unchanged: pick a town or a bbox, the tool downloads the
official national LiDAR tiles, computes archaeology-oriented visualizations
(hillshade, SVF, openness, LRM, plus a new VAT composite that combines
them into a single readable layer), and produces offline MBTiles/SQLiteDB
ready to drop into Locus. There is now a small GUI, so no command line
needed, presets that auto-tune the visualization to each country's
resolution, and the tile cache is compressed by default (about half the
disk space).

Still free and GPL: https://github.com/nico579/lidar2map/releases

If you try it on your local data, especially in CZ/AT/DE, I would really
appreciate feedback on how the maps behave in Locus in the field.