Drone data processing, from flight photos to a shared map
Dronemapping takes geotagged JPEGs from any mapping drone and returns an orthomosaic, elevation models, a 3D model and measurements you can share by link. Here is what happens at each of the five stages, and what each plan includes.
Stage 1
Capture: fly for mapping
Good results start in the air. Fly a grid with enough front and side overlap for the surface you are mapping, keep the altitude consistent, and avoid motion blur with a fast enough shutter. As general guidance, 75 to 80 percent front overlap and 65 to 75 percent side overlap suit most sites, with more over trees, crops, water edges and other uniform texture.
- Any drone that saves geotagged JPEGs, RGB on every plan, multispectral on Business
- Ground control points and checkpoints surveyed with GNSS when accuracy matters
- Oblique photos around structures for a better 3D model
Pick your altitude with the ground sampling distance calculator, and read drone mapping overlap for the reasoning behind the numbers.
Stage 2
Upload: drag photos into the browser
Create a project, choose the coordinate system by EPSG code and drag the photos in from a laptop, a PC or a Mac. Uploads resume if the connection drops, so a field office connection is enough. On Team and above, add your GCP file and tag each point on a few photos. Business also accepts uploads through the API.
- Each photo counts once toward the monthly image quota
- Starter: 3,000 images a month, Team: 15,000, Business: 50,000, Enterprise: custom
Stage 3
Process: photogrammetry processing software in the cloud
The cloud engine aligns the photos, refines camera positions and lens parameters, builds a dense point cloud, then a surface model, a terrain model and an orthomosaic. With GCPs, the model is tied to your control and the checkpoints are held out to measure the fit.
| Output | Starter | Team | Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orthomosaic (GeoTIFF) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Surface model (DSM) and terrain model (DTM) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 3D textured model (OBJ) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Point cloud (LAS, LAZ) | No | Yes | Yes |
| GCP accuracy report | No | Yes | Yes |
| Contours (DXF, SHP) | No | Yes | Yes |
| NDVI, NDRE and zonal statistics | No | No | Yes |
| Parallel processing jobs | 1 | 2 | 4, priority queue |
Enterprise adds dedicated processing capacity and a custom quota.
Stage 4
Measure: numbers drawn on the map
Open the result in the browser and measure where you look. Every plan includes distance, area, perimeter, elevation profiles and volume with three base plane methods: lowest point, average of perimeter and custom elevation.
- Team and above: stockpile reports and cut and fill as PDF, against a design surface or an earlier survey, plus comments and annotations
- Business: a progress timeline across flights of the same site and change detection
- Measurements export as CSV on every plan
See stockpile measurement for how volume is computed.
Stage 5
Share: one link for clients
Send a view link and your client opens the map, the 3D model and the measurements in any browser, without a seat. Links can expire on a date you set. Team and above add a branded share page with your logo and colours. Exports go to CAD and GIS as GeoTIFF, JPG, PNG, KML and CSV on every plan, and OBJ, LAS, LAZ, DXF and SHP on Team and above.
- Business: project roles, an audit log of downloads and shares, API and webhooks
- Enterprise: SSO with SAML, Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra ID, SCIM, retention rules, US or EU data region
Try it first
See stages 1 and 4 in the demo
The demo checks your own flight photos for mapping readiness by reading their metadata in the browser, and lets you measure volumes on a sample elevation surface. Nothing is uploaded.
Pricing
Start with the plan that matches your month
Starter is $99 per month for orthomosaics, elevation models, measurements and view links. Team at $249 per month adds the 3D model, point cloud, GCP accuracy report, contours and PDF reports. Business at $599 per month adds the timeline, multispectral indices and the API.
Questions
Drone data processing FAQ
It depends on the number of photos, their resolution and the outputs you ask for. A small site processes much faster than a large corridor or a multispectral dataset, and the progress is shown on the project page. Parallel jobs on Team and Business let several projects run at once.
No. Upload, processing, viewing and measuring all happen in the browser. A regular laptop or a Mac is enough.
Yes, on Team and above. Add the GCP file and reprocess, and the accuracy report shows the residuals at each checkpoint. Reprocessing counts the images again toward the quota.
Move to a higher plan for that billing period. There are no credits and nothing to top up.
Yes. You can export originals and every output at any time, on every plan.
Upload your first flight
Five stages, one browser tab, and a link for your client at the end.