Today LiDAR technologies are becoming more common, as it is cost-effective, rapid operation, large area coverage… etc. This technology replaces the traditional surveying, particularly stereo imagery and stereo plotter. It’s able to work, if the area is not easy to touch or the building shape is complex. Base on my understanding, this technology has been applied in Hong Kong for a long while.

Autodesk just releases subscription advantage pack for AutoCAD Map 3D 2010 contains valuable new functionality for using and visualizing point clouds that further extends the capabilities of AutoCAD Map 3D 2010 software.

Point Clouds
Import and visualize large sets of point cloud data, such as 3D laser scanning/LiDAR data sets with millions of points, in AutoCAD Map 3D 2010 with the Point Clouds feature.

Some common users of LiDAR data in AutoCAD Map 3D 2010 may include creating DEMs and contour data from DEMs, digitizing as-built features for design and records management, and visualizing power lines and surrounding vegetation for right-of-way management.

Autodesk Map 3D - Subscription Advantage Pack
LiDAR of Wiki