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For design and planning purposes, a terrain model is typically more useful than a surface model. By contrast, when a surveyor uses ground-based equipment to capture elevation data, he typically measures the elevation of the ground or terrain - not intervening trees or structures - to generate a digital terrain model (DTM). DroneDeploy uses this data to generate a digital surface model, or DSM. However, one important thing to note is that drones capture the elevation of the surface of the earth as seen from above, which may include trees, buildings and cars.
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The new contour export makes it much easier to deliver professional-quality drone-generated survey maps. dxf, an open-source equivalent to Autodesk’s proprietary. If you plan to import your contour map to CAD software, export as. If you plan to use your contour map in ArcGIS, you’ll want to export as a shapefile (.shp).
#DRONE DEPLOY ELEVATION SOFTWARE#
It’s as fast and easy as a few clicks to export an accurate contour map with DroneDeploy in a format that can be easily imported to your software of choice.įinally, select the file format in which you would like to export your contour map. Our users asked for a better alternative - and with the release of today’s new contour export tool, now there is one. However, this process was time-consuming and complicated. In the past, to address this issue DroneDeploy users manually reduced the granularity of their DroneDeploy elevation data by converting their maps and models to contour lines using third party software. Many of the common software tools used to analyze elevation data and develop plans aren’t prepared to handle the volume and granularity of information contained in a drone-generated 3D model or point cloud. To generate contour maps, surveyors traditionally use ground-based LIDAR stations to measure the elevation of thousands of points on the site in a painstaking, sometimes dangerous process that can take days or weeks.ĭrones can capture much more detailed elevation data - millions of points - in a matter of minutes - but that can pose another problem. Contour Map ExportĪ contour map is a ubiquitous tool used for building and landscape design, construction and mine planning and more and is one of the standard outputs that surveyors deliver to their clients.
#DRONE DEPLOY ELEVATION FREE#
The elevation profile tool is available to all DroneDeploy paid customers and is part of the DroneDeploy free trial.
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Want to measure the slope of a roof, visualize crop height variability or see the highwalls of your mine in profile right from your map? Just draw a line between any two points on your map, and a line will appear in the side panel showing you the cross-section of the elevation data along that line, along with measurements of elevation and length that let you easily calculate slope. Today, we’re thrilled to announce the addition of two new powerful features to make the elevation data in your maps even more useful: the ability to visualize elevation profiles and to export contour maps. Over the last few months, we’ve rolled out a number of tools to help companies leverage elevation data, including improved volume calculations, the ability to see the elevation of a particular point, and more. Businesses are beginning to look to drones as a faster, safer, more cost-effective alternative to traditional ground-based survey methods of capturing elevation data. Elevation data is crucial to many industries.
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