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GIS Question

Planet_Earth

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Hello!

This may not be the right place to post this, but I was looking for a good GIS app to use with my Mavic 2 Pro. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Am I asking the wrong question (I'm new to GIS, but my understanding of the concept is exciting)?
 
Not sure what you want out of GIS, as there are many different areas within GIS. I have done a few ‘mapping’ projects around some lands I own in BC and Alberta using the DroneDeploy app to setup the flight plan and to do the post processing. It has worked well for me. Good luck!
 
If you are more specific on what your intent is I might be of some help. Your post is a bit vague.
 
Yeah, please get us some details what you intend to do!
If it's such a basic thing like displaying your flight route over a basemap, then you don't need a fully fletched GIS solution. ;)
 
As the GIS industry standard, ESRI has ArcGIS unlocked available for non-commercial use at $100 per year- trust me, thats a deal if you want to learn about GIS, and there are lots of tutorials for it. GrassGIS and QGIS are free open source GIS, but have limitations compared with ArcGIS in that they cannot do 3d mapping from photos as well.

If you really want to do it right, get programs like ArcGIS and use DroneDeploy or Agrisoft to do 3D mapping from your drone photography. But together the commercial versions cost at least twice the amount than a Mavic 2 Pro :(

A cheaper option is using a pay as you go cloud based 3D photo mapping tool like Mapsmadeeasy.com, or a free versions reviewed here:

 
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Yes, my question was a bit vague, and I apologise. Sometimes I have trouble asking the what I'm seeking.

@AMann Thank you for those suggestions! I will check them out.

At the moment I am looking for an app that will allow me to stitch together multiple images to create one large image. I'd also love to do some thermal imaging and LIDAR looks interesting, but I don't think my Mavic 2 Pro operates that way, and I completely forgot 3D imaging was a thing, but now that I remember I am all about it!
 
Not sure what you want out of GIS, as there are many different areas within GIS. I have done a few ‘mapping’ projects around some lands I own in BC and Alberta using the DroneDeploy app to setup the flight plan and to do the post processing. It has worked well for me. Good luck!

I've seen that DroneDeploy is a subscription based service, but is the app free to use?
 
A really good free stitching program is Microsoft ICE.

I just checked that out, and that is amazing!

There are a variety of large geographical locations that I want to map out, and I've been wanting to do something creative and fun with Kung Fu lately, and this looks like it satisfies both. Thank you!

But, I'm still open to more ideas and suggestions (always am). ?
 
Dronedeploy is a tool that is aimed at the professional to semi-pro drone market. It is subscription based, and has different levels of service. There is a demo section, but I am not sure what limitations they put on the data set. I did a small project last summer, an 8 acre piece of land I partly own. The raw data set was some 200+ vertical photos. The output was an orthorectified single image of the entire property. Also a 3D elevation model. You can also set-up a series of Ground Control Points (GCP) to get more accurate results if you wish. I did set out 6 GCP, but I did not use them in the post processing because I did not have them ‘surveyed’ to get there exact UTM coordinates and heights. I will try and post a DropBox link to the final products later today, so you can have a look.
 
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Dronedeploy is a tool that is aimed at the professional to semi-pro drone market. It is subscription based, and has different levels of service. There is a demo section, but I am not sure what limitations they put on the data set. I did a small project last summer, an 8 acre piece of land I partly own. The raw data set was some 200+ vertical photos. The output was an orthorectified single image of the entire property. Also a 3D elevation model. You can also set-up a series of Ground Control Points (GCP) to get more accurate results if you wish. I did set out 6 GCP, but I did not use them in the post processing because I did not have them ‘surveyed’ to get there exact UTM coordinates and heights. I will try and post a DropBox link to the final products later today, so you can have a look.

Yeah I wasn’t sure how accurate he wanted his map, or even if he cared that it was not an orthophoto. The nice thing about Microsoft ICE is that it handles really big files, and it’s free!

One of the least expensive ways I know to make orthophoto and 3D maps is to use mapsmadeeasy.com- It’s just a pay as you go online cloud processing mapping service. They only charge you based on how large your maps are, there is no subscription fee. They also give you a lot of credit if you want to just try it out for free at first.
 
AMann thanks for the info on the two programs, I will give them both a try :)

Hopefully the link below takes folks to a dropbox folder with a geo-tiff and a couple of support files. If you click on the kml file and you have Google Earth it should open the image in Google Earth and you can do all the measurement stuff that is included in Google Earth. The image is my house in SE BC, and a portion of the lot.

 
Wow, nice place! Can I sea kayak there, too? :). Love your part of the world, it’s a nice contrast with my favorite desert back here!
 
Wow, nice place! Can I sea kayak there, too? :). Love your part of the world, it’s a nice contrast with my favorite desert back here!
Thanks, our place is about 45 minutes north of the Canada/US border. On our little beach you will see one Kayak, the other was in the garage when I did the flight. Actually lots of kayaks on Kootenay Lake. The lake is about 80 miles long and a few miles wide, so if its windy a sea going unit would be nice. The sail boat in the cove just south of the house is our main summer toy, it is a Catalina 270. I just got a new MP2 so I want to do some more videos this summer. The lot has a creek with a nice waterfall that I want to do some flights over. I worked for a US based aerial Mapping company for some 35 years, I was not a map maker. My job was to maintain and operate the various sensors we used. From large format cameras to Lidars to imaging Radars etc. I think that is where I got the Drone addiction I now seem to have.
 
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Yes, my question was a bit vague, and I apologise. Sometimes I have trouble asking the what I'm seeking.

@AMann Thank you for those suggestions! I will check them out.

At the moment I am looking for an app that will allow me to stitch together multiple images to create one large image. I'd also love to do some thermal imaging and LIDAR looks interesting, but I don't think my Mavic 2 Pro operates that way, and I completely forgot 3D imaging was a thing, but now that I remember I am all about it!
 
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I didn't expect so much discussion and suggestions when asking this question, but I'm enjoying it all! I'm glad it has expanded so much and many are participating.

This is all new to me and I was unaware of the various everything that is involved and offered. This is wonderful. :-D

This image I attached is a series of images taken of a small local harbor and stitched together via Microsoft ICE. For some reason I couldn't get it to add on the extended end of the harbor, but it could have been the way I took the images (?). I will try again soon.

I will check out these other suggestions as well and look into the various different techniques and words I've read here (don't mean to sound simple in saying that).

@Casper52 That is a wonderful image of your house; I'm a little envious of it's location as well.DJI_Harbor_stitch.jpg
 
I like open drone map (WebODM) and QGIS Desktop to make my orthophotos.

Cost is essentially zero if you know your way around the computer.

Are you using the WebODM server for it or manually using the GIThub files? I keep getting a #1 error with the server but I have a 6-core 64gb i7.
 
Hey Planet Earth, that stitched image look really good! If you look close at the image of my house, you will see two of me in the parking area. I was walking around a bit during the flight and I was picked up in a couple of frames that got used in the final image. I too got some good hints and suggestion from other GIS Mapper in this thread. Thanks to all!
 
I didn't expect so much discussion and suggestions when asking this question, but I'm enjoying it all! I'm glad it has expanded so much and many are participating.

This is all new to me and I was unaware of the various everything that is involved and offered. This is wonderful. :-D

This image I attached is a series of images taken of a small local harbor and stitched together via Microsoft ICE. For some reason I couldn't get it to add on the extended end of the harbor, but it could have been the way I took the images (?). I will try again soon.

I will check out these other suggestions as well and look into the various different techniques and words I've read here (don't mean to sound simple in saying that).

@Casper52 That is a wonderful image of your house; I'm a little envious of it's location as well.View attachment 75980

He sure to have at least 35% overlap on all the edges with adjacent photos , and beyond the outer boundary when you take the images and all of your stitching should work out really well.
 
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