.. _writers:

Writers
=======

Writers consume data provided by :ref:`readers`. Some writers can consume any
dimension type, while others only understand fixed dimension names.

.. note::

    PDAL predefined dimension names can be found in the dimension registry:
    :ref:`dimensions`

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1
   :glob:
   :hidden:

   writers.arrow
   writers.bpf
   writers.copc
   writers.draco
   writers.ept_addon
   writers.e57
   writers.fbi
   writers.fbx
   writers.gdal
   writers.gltf
   writers.las
   writers.matlab
   writers.nitf
   writers.null
   writers.ogr
   writers.pcd
   writers.pgpointcloud
   writers.ply
   writers.raster
   writers.sbet
   writers.text
   writers.tiledb

:ref:`writers.arrow`
    write Apache Arrow Feather- or Parquet-formatted files

:ref:`writers.bpf`
    write BPF version 3 files. BPF is an NGA specification for point cloud data.

:ref:`writers.copc`
    COPC, or Cloud Optimized Point Cloud, is an LAZ 1.4 file stored as a
    clustered octree.

:ref:`writers.draco`
    Write a buffer in Google Draco format

:ref:`writers.ept_addon`
    Append additional dimensions to Entwine resources.

:ref:`writers.e57`
    Write data in the E57 format.

:ref:`writers.fbi`
    Write TerraSolid FBI format

:ref:`writers.fbx`
    Write mesh output in the Adobe FBX format.

:ref:`writers.gdal`
    Create a raster from a point cloud using an interpolation algorithm.

:ref:`writers.gltf`
    Write mesh data in GLTF format.  Point clouds without meshes cannot be
    written.

:ref:`writers.las`
    Write ASPRS LAS versions 1.0 - 1.4 formatted data. LAZ support is also
    available if enabled at compile-time.

:ref:`writers.matlab`
    Write MATLAB .mat files. The output has a single array struct.

:ref:`writers.nitf`
    Write LAS and LAZ point cloud data, wrapped in a NITF 2.1 file.

:ref:`writers.null`
    Provides a sink for points in a pipeline. It's the same as sending pipeline
    output to /dev/null.

:ref:`writers.ogr`
    Write a point cloud as a set of OGR points/multipoints

:ref:`writers.pcd`
    Write PCD-formatted files in the ASCII, binary, or compressed format.

:ref:`writers.pgpointcloud`
    Write to a PostgreSQL database that has the PostgreSQL Pointcloud extension
    enabled.

:ref:`writers.ply`
    Write points as PLY vertices. Can also emit a mesh as a set of faces.

:ref:`writers.raster`
    Writes rasters using GDAL. Rasters must be created using a PDAL filter.

:ref:`writers.sbet`
    Write data in the SBET format.

:ref:`writers.text`
    Write points in a text file. GeoJSON and CSV formats are supported.

:ref:`writers.tiledb`
    Write points into a TileDB database.
