# readers.mbio¶

The mbio reader allows sonar bathymetry data to be read into PDAL and treated as data collected using LIDAR sources. PDAL uses the MB-System library to read the data and therefore supports all formats supported by that library. Some common sonar systems are NOT supported by MB-System, notably Kongsberg, Reson and Norbit. The mbio reader reads each “beam” of data after averaging and processing by the MB-System software and stores the values for the dimensions ‘X’, ‘Y’, ‘Z’ and ‘Amplitude’. X and Y use longitude and latitude for units and the Z values are in meters (negative, being below the surface). Units for ‘Amplitude’ is not specified and may vary.

Dynamic Plugin

This stage requires a dynamic plugin to operate

Streamable Stage

This stage supports streaming operations

## Example¶

This reads beams from a sonar data file and writes points to a LAS file.

{
"pipeline":[
{
"type" : "readers.mbio",
"filename" : "shipdata.m57",
"format" : "MBF_EM3000RAW"
},
{
"type":"writers.las",
"filename":"outputfile.las"
}
]
}


## Options¶

filename
Filename to read from [Required]
format
Name of number of format of file being read. See MB-System documentation for a list of all formats. [Required]
count
Maximum number of points to read [Optional]