Skip to content

Configuration Reference

Blaze uses a JSON configuration file to control the processing pipeline. This file allows you to customize grid generation, contour intervals, feature detection parameters, and output rendering styles.

Example Configuration

{
  "las_files": [],
  "steps": ["tiles", "combine"],
  "output_directory": "out",
  "grid": {
    "bin_resolution": 0.5,
    "downsample_factor": 3,
    "vegetation_grid_resolution": 3.0,
    "contour_dem_resolution": 9.0
  },
  "ground": {
    "min_ground_intensity": 0,
    "max_ground_intensity": 65535
  },
  "contours": {
    "normal": {
      "interval": 5.0,
      "min_points": 5,
      "color": "brown",
      "width": 0.14
    },
    "index": {
      "interval": 25.0,
      "min_points": 5,
      "color": "brown",
      "width": 0.25
    }
  },
  "water": {
    "stream": {
      "catchment": 0.03,
      "color": "blue",
      "width": 0.18
    }
  },
  "vege": {
    "background_color": "50% yellow",
    "height_configs": [
      {
        "name": "canopy",
        "min_height": 2.5,
        "max_height": 100,
        "colors": [
          {
            "blocking_threshold": 0.1,
            "color": "white"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "buildings": {
    "color": "black"
  },
  "render": {
    "scale": 10000,
    "dpi": 600
  },
  "colors": {
    "primitive": {
      "brown": { "cmyk": [0, 56, 100, 18] },
      "blue": { "cmyk": [100, 0, 0, 0] }
    },
    "composite": {
      "50% yellow": { "yellow": 0.5 }
    }
  }
}

Sections

Grid

Controls the resolutions used by various stages of the processing pipeline.

  • bin_resolution: Underlying grid cell size in meters. Raw LiDAR points are binned at this resolution; the ground / building / water / intensity rasters are produced at this resolution. For dense LIDAR (e.g. ACT) values around 0.5m work well; for sparser data this should be increased (e.g. ~2.5m for NSW). Default: 0.5.
  • downsample_factor: Integer factor used to downsample the bin grid into the smooth ground DEM that is the basis for slope, hill-shade and smooth_ground.tif. Effective smooth-DEM resolution = bin_resolution * downsample_factor. Default: 3.
  • vegetation_grid_resolution: Resolution (in meters) of the vegetation / canopy maps. Vegetation point counts are aggregated from the bin grid to this resolution. Should be >= bin_resolution. Default: 3.0.
  • contour_dem_resolution: Resolution (in meters) of the DEM used for contour generation, stream extraction and depression filling. Computed by further downsampling the smooth ground DEM. Should be >= bin_resolution * downsample_factor. Larger values produce smoother contours but lose fine terrain detail. Default: 9.0.
  • export_fine_slope: When true (default), writes fine_slope.tif from ground.tif at bin resolution, in addition to slope.tif from smooth_ground.tif. Set to false to skip the finer slope raster.

Ground

Parameters for ground point classification and filtering.

  • min_ground_intensity: Minimum intensity value for ground points.
  • max_ground_intensity: Maximum intensity value for ground points.
  • use_only_ground_class: When true (default), only LiDAR points classified as ground are used for the DEM minimum. Set to false to use the lowest point in each cell regardless of class.
  • outlier_threshold_m: Maximum vertical spike height (m) removed from the ground DEM. 0 (default) uses automatic thresholds: bin_resolution on the fine ground grid, scaled by downsample_factor on the smooth ground DEM.

Contours

Defines contour lines. You can define multiple types (e.g., normal, index).

  • interval: Vertical distance between contours in meters.
  • min_points: Minimum points required to form a contour segment.
  • color: Name of the color (defined in colors section).
  • width: Line width in mm.

Water

Defines watercourse detection based on catchment area.

  • classified_overlay_color: Color for LiDAR-classified water cells on the final map overlay (default: cyan).
  • sink_min_area_m2: Minimum depression area (m²) to treat as a sink when filling the DEM for streams.
  • sink_depth_m: Minimum depth (m) below the filled surface for a sink region.
  • Per-stream entries:
  • catchment: Threshold for catchment area to define a stream.
  • color: Color of the water line.
  • width: Line width in mm.

Vegetation

Configures vegetation density and height mapping.

  • background_color: Base color for the vegetation layer.
  • height_configs: List of height bands (e.g., low vegetation, canopy).
  • min_height: Minimum height of vegetation in this band.
  • max_height: Maximum height.
  • smooth_radius: Radius of the low-pass filter applied to the blocked-proportion map before polygonization, in vegetation grid cells (default: 3). Larger values produce smoother boundaries. Set independently per height band (e.g. canopy vs green).
  • colors: List of colors based on blocking threshold (density).

Buildings

  • color: Color for building footprints.

Render

Output settings.

  • scale: Map scale (e.g., 10000 for 1:10000).
  • dpi: Dots per inch for the output image.

Colors

Defines the color palette.

  • primitive: Basic colors defined by RGB or CMYK.
  • RGB example: "red": { "rgb": [255, 0, 0, 255] }
  • CMYK example: "cyan": { "cmyk": [100, 0, 0, 0] } (Values 0-100)
  • composite: Mixed colors defined by percentage of other colors.
  • Example: "light_green": { "green": 0.3 } (30% green)