Which is the Best Free Drone Mapping Software to Practice On?

We are hey everyone and welcome to another insightful thought, provoking episode of ask a drone. You my name is paco paco that’s, a new one? Did you mean to say that i did mean to say that that was my nickname in spanish class at bishop fireton for like three years really uh huh? You know what my nickname was for years, what from some buddies one in particular, i haven’t, talked to in a long long long time. O, this is gon na be good. Da, dumb weddo, like white boy, right yeah, and he was way wider than me Laughter. I don’t know where it came from. I have no idea um, but any who thank you for joining us today. My name’s rob very thankful for all of you for the questions for those of you who take a couple of minutes to send in a question and if you’re willing ask droneyou.com, we want to hear from you. I thought you were going to say a nickname. Like the hammer Laughter, i was getting ready. I was going to be like oh here we go here. We go here. We go crash and burn uh anyway, i’m. Sorry to let you down. Yeah it’s, u redu, To je, okay uh, i don’t think anyone’s surprised out there um, but anyway, let’s get into today’s show today we’re talking about um the best ways to break into drone mapping, um and uh, trying it out as far as processing is concerned.

That’S. What our question is today: processing options that are free or little to no charge um to kind of get your foot into the door so i’m actually excited about this uh today’s question is brought to you by that’s right, our virtual drone mapping, bootcamp um. I actually am quite surprised at the response to our evening university style, Uh, drone mapping, boot camp it’s, Uh 16 sessions, although i think we’re taking it down to 14, because we kind of built a buffer in there just to ensure that we got through all the Content and some more that we added to these classes and we actually have two separate uh virtual mapping, bootcamps going on right now that end this week, which means we’re starting some new ones here pretty soon. So if you would like to learn drone mapping if you’d like to learn pix4d, if you like to learn drone, deploy, if you’d like to learn how to actually make deliverables how to actually get from processing to delivery to client well, we are happy to help you In fact, like i said our evening, class right now is the literally the most sold out class we’ve ever had um. I i can’t believe how many people are in that class right now, which means we’re doing more of them, just like i said so, join us for a drone mapping bootcamp, where you can learn everything from acquisition to processing the different types of processing, the numerous different Outputs and deliverables, and how to get those to your clients, you’ll also learn which drone processing platforms are great for scaling your team and which are great for well.

Just you as a dsp join us, go to droneu.education scroll down, check out drone events and you’ll, see it there. Hey paul, Hej, rob camp new jersey. Opet, i just had a quick question about free mapping software options out there, starting in 2021, an example would be something you wanted to do for just for practice and maybe using pix4d capture your images and then something i found called meshroom for uploading and creating a 3D model i’m, just wondering if you have other examples of free software out there, that mappers can use just for practicing not creating professional deliverables, but literally just for practice. Thank ken thank you for uh, calling in it’s been a little while, since we’ve heard from you and so it’s nice to hear from you again hope all is well. Thank you for the question ask droneyou.com for your questions. We want to hear from you free mapping. Software mapping processing software is what ken’s looking for things that he could practice with um. What have you used? What have you heard is good, i mean there’s quite a few out there. Zapravo, Mislim, surprisingly, there is now there’s been a big. There has been a big shift in day trading, just kidding sorry about that market’s closing uh anyway. If you don’t know that sound, then uh well there’s more to learn. Uh anyway, there has been a big evolution into uh free uh drone, uh mapping, processors, just like free trading applications that you shouldn’t use like robinhood anyway, uh that’s, a diatribe for another time uh.

To je rekao, open drone map it’s, actually kind of surprising. How far open drone map has become – and i would say, To je – probably the absolute best opportunity to learn mapping is probably through open drone map. zapravo, we were using poetry, which is a service through open drone map that allows us to actually host our point clouds on our own website. zapravo, i need to follow up with tim on something about that. Um. To je rekao, open drone map does allow you to process export etc for free um. To je rekao, you might be surprised actually at some of the other free offerings and some how the free offerings might have changed from some of the powerhouse players. So let’s first go into reality capture capturing reality, whichever name they decide to use we’ll use both. To je rekao, you can actually use capture reality for free, uh it’s, just the exports that you have to pay money in order to actually export your products now capture reality. Does work in a very unique way in regards to the other drone mapping, processors, because you pay for credits and those credits are used to actually produce deliverables themselves. Thanks to a student in our membership, i actually purchased a scheisse ton of credits in january during their uh their sale, because i knew that i wanted to get into capture reality this year and really really dive down the rabbit hole. Um. To je rekao, there’s nothing better than capture reality when it comes to 3d models and that’s.

Zašto? I said that okay, so the thing is again: we can process with capture reality really focus on 3d modeling visualizations vfx, that kind of stuff, but you only have to pay when you export okay number two or we want over number two number three um pix4d mapper. Tako, as many of you know, you’re allowed to have a two week trial with pix4d mapper, and it gives you the discovery mode um. You are able to produce certain results, but you cannot download them um. To je rekao, i really want to talk and it might be too much talking frankly for the show to keep it succinct, but i will say that i think forcing yourself to work within that two week window that pix4d gives you is actually a good catalyst to provide Pressure to you to actually like learn and go through exercises and try data sets. I find it to be a good kind of nudge to be like keep going. znaš, don’t, like keep going, be consistent, keep learning yeah um. To je rekao, one of the benefits of attending our mapping classes, especially the eight week boot camps, where they’re done in the evenings, is that you students gain an educational license for that eight weeks and they’re able to use uh pix4d in its entirety. For those eight weeks you know, we’ve been working with drone deploy as well and drone deploy, has a two week trial as well, and what i love that drone deploy has been doing and big shout out to andrew dennison for making this happen for our students.

We really appreciate it. Um is, znaš, join a play as a two week trial as well, and if you do attend our class, they extend the trials to allow you to utilize drone deploy uh so that you can see the difference and a lot of people understand why people use Drone deploy in the cloud it’s one of the most efficient workflows out there yeah and for a lot of deliverables, To je, probably the most efficient workflow. That said there are uh. I just thought it was a good opportunity to thank drone to play because i’m grateful that they’ve helped our students that’s. What i really appreciate – absolutely yeah they’ve been great, so uh. This is a short show, because the answer free mapping softwares, i would recommend i would recommend open drone map uh. The last thing i want to say is: pix4d react. U redu. This is something actually i was talking to marriott about this. Just the other day. This morning, are they using it uh they want to? I have to do a demo with them on friday, gotcha um, but i personally love pix4d react, especially as i learn more and more about our enterprise clients and how they are using drone mapping, especially orthomosaics in our props mapper program, which which is really built for Enterprise drone teams – To je, it teaches them. The final workflow recap is you’re going to go out, get an ortho. Do these these photos, progression photos and super smooth drone video and i keep telling our clients like.

Have you looked into pixford e react and the answer is always no and they’re like what what is it and i was like it’s the fastest ortho mosaic generator on the planet, literally the fastest um and i say it’s the fastest, because drone deploys extremely fast. But it requires internet pix4d, react does not, which is why i say it’s the fastest, because you can you kind of inhibit the whole. Transferring data thing yeah, da, yeah um, that said, pix4d react, really only works when you fly a single grid, nader tilt on the camera. U redu, which brings me to an important point for all of you. Looking into getting into drone mapping right, it’s important to know uh. The different acquisition, styles and it’s important to know the different types of processing engines from cloud to desktop and all in ones and we’ve got a really great page, which is the droneu.com forward, slash what is drone mapping software uh with uh? What is it called dashes in between each word and it’ll? Take you to this page that i worked really hard on to give everyone a sense of what drone mapping is understanding, some of the terms, understanding, common deliverables, the history, the different programs et cetera, and i will just say that, frankly, there is so much to learn And it’s a it’s an extremely long learning curve, and that said, understand whatever you process, okay is only going to be as good as your acquisition, meaning how you flew the photos that you took, what the photos are like, etc and um it’s important to know that You can only map what you can see and it’s, not what rob can see or you can see in this video it’s what your drone can see: visual line of sight.

U redu, that said, there’s a lot to learn with drone mapping don’t, let it overwhelm you it’s, really fun once you get into it once you get the basic workflow, you understand it, it’s really exciting, because one of those things that like continues to challenge you and if You’Re, Kao što sam ja, and you like to keep learning and you like to keep advancing your skill, Postavi, itd. Um drone mapping is one of those rabbit holes that just it keeps going and going and going and uh. I love it there’s. So many things you can do with it i mean it’s uh seems like there’s new things coming out every week that you can do with mapping there are there uh yeah, there sure are, there sure are um. Some you don’t want to do that’s. Zapravo, what was on the top of my mind? Uh? Just now i figured yeah what’s your response. Hence my comment yeah. I appreciate sorry uh anyway. Um long story short is um check out. Pix4D react it’s, not free it’s. I think i want to say it’s, kao što je ‘ a month or 300 for the year, but again you’re only going to output orthomosaics with that. U redu, just orthos not georeferenced, important to know and just know that with drone mapping there’s hundreds of deliverables start slow, okay and don’t think that you can do the most complex jobs right away. Could get you in a lot of trouble, good advice, To je.

All i got rob that’s plenty that’s gon na. Do it then for us thanks again for joining us? If you found this useful, please leave us a review. We do greatly appreciate it. Spotify uh apple podcast, overcast stitcher, wherever you listen to the show. Please leave us a review and send in those drone questions. Ask drone you dot com coming up in the show, or the next couple shows we’re gon na be talking and diving into the dji fpv drone. Sada, if you’ve been reading, my articles thedronu.com forward, slash blog. If you’ve been reading my articles, then you know that we accurately predicted what the fpv drone would do to this industry and, as i got a text message this morning from the faa, the faa is already planning on responding, so uh the waves and the ripples are Being heard, felt and uh reacted to Laughter so which i think is good, because if you, if you look at some of like the, i would call it the veteran drone influencers we’re all saying the same thing. You know and uh, and so that actually gives me great gives me actually makes me feel good well. The last thing we need is more reason for more restrictive rules and guidelines and laws etc. Just rip into the clouds rob just rip into the clouds, just not in america anyway, but uh that’s gon na there’s gon na be a series of shows on that. We are excited for dji fpv we’ll.

We we will be covering it in the don’t crash course. For everyone wondering if you are a existing member, it will be free to you. That said thanks again for joining us, my name is paul. My name is rob and if you’re building a drone team, you seriously need to check out propsflightschool.com there’s a reason i’m.