STRIPALIGN 2.29 • STRIP ALIGNMENT
Fast, robust, accurate flight line adjustment.
Large-scale airborne LiDAR strip alignment, faster and more accurate than existing software, using advanced fully automatic algorithms. No need to preprocess, classify or filter your data. Works with most UAV scanners and some sonar point clouds, too.
WHAT IT DOES
Align every swath, automatically.
Attitude and position errors are among the major sources of uncertainty in airborne LiDAR. Using swath overlaps, StripAlign registers point clouds onto each other and computes optimal corrections automatically, from relative displacements, using a rigorous model and Bayesian inference. Both relative and absolute accuracy improve, even on very large datasets.
StripAlign on Windows. The same simple command-line interface runs on Linux and macOS.
Vertical difference between overlapping strips. Left: original data. Right: geometric corrections applied (high-frequency drifts, calibration). Registration stays robust to vegetation, mismatched surfaces and differing viewpoints.
SEE THE DIFFERENCE
Systematic errors, treated as parameters.
Boresight, lever-arm and internal geometry are estimated for the whole dataset at once. High-frequency IMU drift is corrected automatically. The result: most biases eliminated, so swaths can be fused into the highest-accuracy elevation model your data allows.
CROSS-SECTIONS
Three slices, before and after.
Vertical cuts through the same point clouds, coloured by flight strip. On the left, the raw data as delivered by the sensor: each surface appears several times, once per strip. On the right, the same points after StripAlign.
Building and vegetation
Overlapping strips double the roof planes and thicken the ground return. After adjustment the surfaces collapse onto a single, sharp geometry, and the vegetation stops smearing.
BEFORE
AFTER
Gable roof, two swaths
The cyan and yellow returns come from two different strips. Before, they sit a few centimetres apart and the roof reads as two surfaces. After, they coincide.
BEFORE
AFTER
Roof ridge and ground
The vertical offset between strips is visible along the whole slice, on the roof as well as on the flat ground. It is removed globally, without cutting or resampling the cloud.
BEFORE
AFTER
FEATURES
Built for large, complex projects.
- ✓Fast registration compared to ICP or feature matching
- ✓No flight-line geometry restrictions: uses all swath overlaps
- ✓No classification needed: robust to vegetation, viewpoint and noise
- ✓Improves relative accuracy and minimizes absolute error
- ✓Integrated boresight, lever-arm and internal geometry calibration
- ✓Automatic high-frequency trajectory and attitude drift correction
- ✓Automatic sensor calibration option, without correction
- ✓Multi-channel scanners (Riegl *1560, dual VUX)
- ✓Groups and reference strips for large, complex projects
- ✓Blend feature to fix edge distortions
- ✓Corridor mapping support with limited overlap
- ✓Scanning module for LiDAR and position & orientation files
- ✓Fast QC with GCP and easy-to-read reports
- ✓XYZ GCP support to constrain horizontal accuracy
- ✓3D error analysis: vector images and statistics
- ✓Z-difference, density, hillshade, roughness and elevation maps
- ✓Auto merge/cut of flight lines from trajectory and time gaps
- ✓Direct tiled output and trajectory-free correction options
- ✓Corrects PulseWaves geometry when provided with LAS data
- ✓XML-like option file input
- ✓Improved support for UAV LiDAR and sonar
YOUR BENEFITS
Why teams switch to StripAlign.
Accuracy improvement
Treating biases as parameters and solving them with Bayesian inference dramatically reduces both relative and absolute uncertainty. The more strips and overlap, the bigger the gain.
Full automation
Grid size, iterations, internal parameters: that's the algorithm's problem, not yours. Alignment is computed automatically and stays robust to occlusions and noise.
Uncertainty management
Per-point uncertainty is computed automatically (kernel regression, nonparametric model) so the most accurate points carry the largest weight during alignment.
TECHNICAL SPECS
Inputs, outputs and platforms.
Input
LAS/LAZ 1.5 or ASCII separate flight lines, projected. SBET/SOL/TRJ/POF/BIN/ASCII position & orientation, projected or geodetic. Optional PulseWaves PLS/PLZ with related swaths, GCP file, parameters and option file.
Output
Corrected LAS/LAZ strips, PLS/PLZ or tiles. QC maps, images, stats, logs and reports. Updated position & orientation and corrections.
Supported platforms
Windows, Linux and macOS, 64-bit. Simple command-line interface, multi-core, ready for batch and production pipelines.
Build & resources
Latest build 2.29, 08/03/2026. Request a demo · online StripAlign documentation · BayesMap Software User Group.
30-DAY FREE TRIAL
Put StripAlign on your own data.
Request a fully functional 30-day demo license, or send us a sample dataset and we'll align it for you, free and with no commitment.