Managing Drone Captures

Overview

After OpenSpace Air processes your drone capture, you’ll be able to view your orthomosaic, pinned photos, videos, panoramas, 3D mesh, point cloud, and elevation model. 

Permissions

Orthomosaic

The orthomosaic provides a detailed overview of the site that you can use for logistics, site planning, tracking progress, and QA/QC. The orthomosaic is overlaid on the map and you can toggle it on and off. 

Additional drone images

You can upload additional flight images—images taken outside of a mapping flight—and OpenSpace Air will automatically pin them to the map. To view these images in full screen, click the image icon on the map.

Videos

You can upload drone videos to OpenSpace Air and we’ll pin them to the map where they were captured. To watch a video, click the video icon on the map. If the video was recorded with per-frame GPS, OpenSpace Air also displays the drone's flight path alongside the footage, so you can follow the exact route the drone flew as the video plays. To make sure your videos include per-frame GPS, see our Uploading Additional Drone Images, Videos, and Panos to an Existing Capture Support article.

Panoramas

You can upload 360° panoramas to OpenSpace Air and we’ll pin them to the map. To open a pano, click its icon on the map. Pan around to look in any direction.

3D mesh

The mesh provides a 3D view of your site—a helpful visual for client updates and getting a sense of current conditions for vertical structures. 

Point cloud

The point cloud provides a detailed view of current conditions in 3D. 

Elevation model

The elevation model is a digital surface model (DSM) that includes above-ground features, like structures. You can use the slider to adjust the elevation range that appears in the viewer. Choose from four color palettes, depending on which works best for your site.

OpenSpace Air automatically calibrates the elevation output for each drone capture. Some drones are known to report absolute elevation values that can be off by up to 100m—this fix automatically calculates and applies a correction offset so elevation maps and models reflect accurate real-world values. 

As a fallback, you can also manually set the elevation for a known point directly on the drone orthomosaic. Click the Calibrate button, select a known point, and enter the known elevation at that point. The new offset will be applied across the entire elevation model.

If you have any additional questions please reach out to the OpenSpace Support team at support@openspace.ai.