DroneDeploy offers a complete solution to help you consistently detect problems before they become costly and to streamline coordination within your team, allowing you to minimize disputes and more quickly resolve the field notes you find.
Using Field Notes for Inspections
Create Field Notes for inspections on media and annotations. The steps below are for creating Field Notes on Photos, but you can apply the same process to other media types.
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Select the media type, then navigate to the specific image depicting the problem.
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Click a specific photo to enter the photo view. Then select the Field Note creation icon to create a Field Note.
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Click an area in the photo to create the Field Note.
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Fill out the Type, Status, Summary, and Severity fields. Then click Done.
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An orange photo marker indicates the Field Note.
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Conducting Inspections in 3D
Once your data is uploaded and processed, conduct your immersive 3D inspection from your office.
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View the 3D model and then click the Inspect button at the top of the model to switch to inspection mode.
When in inspection mode, you can click on points within the 3D model to open high-resolution photos of that location.
Zoom and pan into the original source photo to look for problems.
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To exit an individual photo, either click the X in the top right corner of the image or press the Esc key.
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When you spot problems that need attention, select the nearest photo to enter the photo view.
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Enter the image view, then select the Field Note icon.
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Click and drag to draw a box around the problem that needs attention. Label the Field Note and provide any additional information in the Summary section.
Field Note Types include:
Broken Part
Crack
Debris
Drainage Problem
Erosion
Hot Spot
Incomplete Work
Leak
Missing Part
Other
Plan Deviation
Rust
Safety Hazard
Stressed Vegetation
Vegetation Encroachment
Weather Damage
To exit inspection mode, click the X in the top right corner of the date bar.
Check out our Custom Field Note Types guide for more information on creating your own Field Note types.
Review Open Field Notes
Use the Field Note List to review project field notes, track progress toward resolution, and identify trends in Field Notes across your project.
You can filter Field Notes by type, status, and date created to more easily find and review specific Field Notes.
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Use the visibility checkmarks to hide and show Field Note markers on the map.
Field Notes appear as open on all maps until they are closed.
Field Note markers appear on all maps, not just the one on which they were created. This is because a Field Note should remain visible and accessible, even if the project is mapped again.
If you want to see only those Field Notes created on a particular map date, you can apply a filter in the Field Note List.
Clicking on any Field Note within the list opens more information about that Field Note. However, the information you see depends on what viewing mode you are in and when the Field Notes were created.
If you are in 3D mode viewing a Field Note created on that map date:
You will see the Field Note information along with the original photo in 3D context.
If you are in 3D mode viewing a Field Note created on a previous map date or if you are in 2D mode:
You will see the Field Note information, including a photo preview of the original image.
If you are on mobile:
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You will not be able to see Field Note detail information and will be prompted to go to the desktop. (You can also view the Field Note report on mobile).
Once you’ve confirmed that a Field Note has been resolved, you can change its status from Open to Closed. This causes the Field Note marker to appear gray on the map.
Automatically Generate a Field Note Report
Easily share the results of your inspection with your team by automatically generating an inspection report. The inspection report includes the map locations of all the Field Notes so that workers can easily find where each one is, as well as close-up imagery and all the Field Note details they need to address.
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To view the Field Note report, go to the Report section. You'll see a printable report of all the Field Notes created for that project.
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If you want to report only a subset of all Field Notes—for example, only open Field Notes or Field Notes of a particular type—you can use the filters in the sidebar to customize your report.
If you have an integration with BIM 360 or Procore, learn more about how to leverage drawing and issue syncing with these integrations.
Limitations/Considerations
Field Notes are not saved back into the DroneDeploy project for archiving.
On mobile devices, users are prompted to switch to desktop view to see Field Note detail information, though the Field Note report is viewable on mobile.
V2.2