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You can use this driver - https://github.com/ipa320/softkinetic - to get a pointcloud from the camera. I'm not sure why it's not released as a ROS package, perhaps there are still issues to work out.

Sure, you can convert a single pointcloud into a flat 2D map. However without SLAM you will not be able to properly stitch multiple clouds together to obtain a combined map, so you will be limited by the sensor's FOV and occlusion.