This guide explains the features you can review and edit within your flight plan to ensure you capture high-quality imagery for your subject area. Other flight plan types such as Corridor, Panorama, Photo and Video have similar settings with a few differences depending on the plan.
Capture Plan dropdown and details
Capture Plan: Select your flight plan with the dropdown option.
Details menu (3 vertical dots): Rename, duplicate or delete your flight plan.
+ button: Add another flight plan to your project.
Flight metrics
Minutes: The number of minutes the flight plan is projected to take.
Acres: The number of acres the flight plan is projected to cover.
Images: The number of images the flight plan is projected to capture.
Battery: The number of batteries needed for the flight plan.
Flight Altitude and Terrain Awareness
Flight Altitude: Set the distance above the takeoff point at which the drone captures photos. Flying higher makes the images easier to stitch at the expense of resolution. If you are mapping a complex subject like vegetation, a desert or water, flying higher increases the chance of a successful map.
Terrain Awareness: The Terrain Awareness (TA) button is highlighted blue when turned on for the flight plan.
Enhanced 3D: When toggled ON Enhanced 3D combines Perimeter 3D mode with Crosshatch mode to capture angled shots from the perimeter of your mission plan (Perimeter 3D) and oblique imagery above your subject in a crosshatch formation to create higher-quality 3D models.
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Enhanced 3D maps are best kept under 1,000 images.
- Read more about Enhanced 3D
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Live Map
View a low-resolution map being generated in real-time on your mobile device as the drone flies.
Travel Altitude
Exclusive to DroneDeploy, the Travel Altitude feature improves flight safety and reliability by automatically adjusting altitude during transit to and from your mapping area. This includes Panorama, Video and Photo plans. Avoid buildings, cranes and steep terrain by flying at a higher user-defined travel altitude.
Advanced settings
- Travel Altitude: Exclusive to DroneDeploy, the Travel Altitude feature improves flight safety and reliability by automatically adjusting altitude during transit to and from your mapping area. This includes Panorama, Video and Photo plans. Avoid buildings, cranes and steep terrain by flying at a higher user-defined travel altitude.
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Overlap: Front Overlap and Side Overlap represent the percentage of overlap between the top,
bottom and sides of the images.
Higher overlap results in more imagery and a better map stitch.
The default 75/65 overlap setting works for most maps.
If you fly low or the subject is homogenous, like a field or treeline, increase the overlap between 5%-15%.
Flight Direction: Change the direction of your flight legs. This is helpful for flying solar fields parallel to the roaws of panels.
Mapping Flight Speed: Adjust the maximum allowed flight speed. The drone speed is limited to this value but may fly slower depending on light conditions and overlap settings.
Starting Waypoint: Select the first waypoint the drone flies. All previous waypoints before the starting waypoint are skipped.
Gimbal Angle: Control the drone camera's angle during the flight. At -90°, the camera points straight down (nadir).
Capture Oblique: Capture additional oblique images on the intro and Return to Home (RTH) legs to improve accuracy and 3D reconstruction.
Crosshatch 3D: Capture oblique imagery directly above your subject with a 65° angle. This doubles your plan lines and flies the drone in both directions.
Obstacle Avoidance: Enable this feature to use built-in obstacle avoidance sensors on supported hardware.
- Make Available Offline: (mobile app ONLY) when toggled ON the flight plan will save to your device allowing you to fly offline.
- Show Existing Map: Most recent uploaded map will show on the FLY tab when toggled ON.
- Record Live Map Data: Create a recording of in-flight video
- Live Map No-Turn: when toggled ON the drone headings will not change during flight
- Low Light: toggle ON when capturing in low light areas.
- Manual Exposure in DJI app: we will apply the manual exposure set in the DJI app during flight.
- Manual Focus in DJI app: we will apply the manual focus set in the DJI app during flight.
- Planning Camera: drop-down selector to set your planning camera. Will default to M3E.
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Dewarp: Dewarping corrects lens distortions, like a fisheye effect or vignetting, to produce a "normal," straight-line image. Compatible drones: Mavic 3 Enterprise Series (M3E) & Matrice 4 Enterprise Series (M4E)
Disabled by default for better quality map generation (Map, Corridor, and Vertical plans)Enabled by default for Stand Count and photo/pano plans to produce less distorted images during reporting.
Mobile app only settings
Live Map: View a low-resolution map being generated in real-time on your mobile device as the drone flies.
Make Available Offline: When you toggle this to ON, the flight plan saves to your device for offline use.
Show Existing Map: The most recent uploaded map shows on the Fly tab when you toggle this to ON.
Record Live Map Data: Create a recording of in-flight video data to your mobile device.
Airspace & LAANC:
Here is where you can check your airspace and request LAANC approval. Read morea about Airspace & LAANC with DroneDeploy below:
RTK Coverage:
Check your RTK coverage! Good RTK coverage is expected if your flight is within automatic RTK network coverage. Available for RTK-compatible drones. Learn more about RTK with DroneDeploy:
Data on Demand:
Looking for a pilot to fly your missions? Check out our Data on Demand service linked above!
- Connect with Support@dronedeploy.com if you'd like to learm more about this feature
Import Flight Path:
Upload a KML or JSON file for flight planning!
Flight Plan Geometry Locking:
Lock your flight plans from accidental edits!
FAQs
Q: How do I improve map quality if my map is poor? A: You can adjust flight settings by clicking the left-hand sidebar in the app or the Fly tab on the web. Flying higher is the most effective way to improve data quality.
Q: Does the weather affect map quality? A: Flying when the sky is overcast provides soft, even lighting, which reduces shadows and glare. This technique is effective for 3D models.
Q: Can I use live chat for support? A: Live chat is available for Individual plans and above. Enterprise plans have access to callback requests.
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