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Guides for capturing better data, understanding your deliverables, and getting the most out of DroneFlow.Ai. Search below, or browse by topic.
Start with a path
Each one is an order to read the library in, not new material — every article below lives in exactly one place and appears in whichever paths need it.
Your first map
New to DroneFlow, or new to drone mapping entirely
Go from an account to a finished, measurable map you can share.
- What is DroneFlow.Ai?
- Creating your account and starting your free trial
- Uploading your first project
- Understanding your deliverables
- Navigating the map and 3D viewer
- Measuring distances, areas, and elevations
- Share links and viewing as a client
7 articles · about 8 min
Capture that reconstructs well
Pilots and field operators
Fly a mission that produces a clean 2D map and a solid 3D model the first time.
- Planning a good mapping flight
- Nadir vs. oblique: which to fly
- How many photos do I need?
- Common capture mistakes that hurt results
- Ground control and RTK for accuracy
- My 3D model has holes, melted buildings, or smeared walls
- My aerial map looks blurry or soft
7 articles · about 7 min
Accuracy you can defend
Survey, civil, GIS and CAD professionals
Understand what the numbers mean, and be able to state the limits honestly.
- Coordinate systems and vertical datums
- Ground control and RTK for accuracy
- Checkpoints and accuracy verification
- The QA report: how we verify your data
- My elevations are off by about 90 feet
- My map is in the wrong place on the basemap
6 articles · about 8 min
Earthwork and progress
Construction managers and superintendents
Measure material, track a site across dates, and report it to a stakeholder.
- DSM vs. DEM: the two elevation models
- Volumes and cut/fill analysis
- Stockpile measurement and tracking over time
- Comparing flights and building a progress timeline
- Annotating your map
5 articles · about 8 min
Delivering to a client
Anyone handing results to somebody outside the company
Produce a branded delivery the client can open, measure and comment on.
- Understanding your deliverables
- Share links and viewing as a client
- White-label and branding your client delivery
- Team seats, roles, and access control
- Downloading, exporting, and data ownership
5 articles · about 6 min
Getting Started
5 articlesWhat is DroneFlow.Ai?
A plain-English overview of what DroneFlow turns drone imagery into, and who it's for.
Creating your account and starting your free trial
How sign-up works, what the trial includes, and why no credit card is required.
Uploading your first project
Raw photos need no zip, a processed export does — and what happens after you hit upload.
Understanding your deliverables
A quick tour of every output DroneFlow produces and when you'd reach for each one.
Navigating the map and 3D viewer
Where the tools live, how the map and 3D tabs differ, and how to switch base layers.
Capture & Flight
5 articlesPlanning a good mapping flight
Overlap, altitude and ground sampling distance — the three settings that decide your quality.
Nadir vs. oblique: which to fly
Straight-down photos make the best maps; angled photos make the best 3D. Here's how to choose.
Ground control and RTK for accuracy
How GCPs and RTK/PPK anchor your data to the real world, and when you actually need them.
How many photos do I need?
What drives photo count, how it maps to credits, and how to keep a capture efficient.
Common capture mistakes that hurt results
The handful of field mistakes that cause most weak or failed reconstructions.
Deliverables Explained
6 articlesOrthomosaic: what it is and how to use it
The georeferenced, distortion-corrected site image — the base layer for measuring on the map.
DSM vs. DEM: the two elevation models
Surface vs. bare-earth elevation — what each measures and which one your task needs.
Contours: intervals, datums, and CAD export
Elevation lines at the interval you choose — how they're generated and how to get them into CAD.
3D models and point clouds
The textured mesh you orbit in the browser, and the dense point cloud you download behind it.
Coordinate systems and vertical datums
Why elevations can look 'off by a constant' — ellipsoidal vs. orthometric, and choosing your datum.
The QA report: how we verify your data
The automated quality gate that checks every deliverable before you rely on it.
Working in the App
7 articlesMeasuring distances, areas, and elevations
The core measurement tools, and how to read what they give you.
Volumes and cut/fill analysis
Measure material volume, and compare the ground against a design surface for earthwork.
Stockpile measurement and tracking over time
Measure a pile once, then watch its volume and tonnage change across flights.
Checkpoints and accuracy verification
Prove your data's accuracy against surveyed points instead of just claiming a number.
Comparing flights and building a progress timeline
Put two flights side by side, or string up to eight into a timeline that measures cut and fill for every period.
Annotating your map
Pins, notes, and lines that stay on the project — and show who added them.
AI Map Doctor: automated quality inspection
An AI pass that flags visual defects in your map and 3D model, with an optional repair step.
Sharing & Team
3 articlesShare links and viewing as a client
Give a client a link to the same viewer you use — no account needed — where they can measure and mark it up.
White-label and branding your client delivery
Put your company's identity on everything your client opens — the pages and the reports.
Team seats, roles, and access control
Add teammates, control what each can do, and keep every account's data isolated.
Account & Billing
3 articlesPlans and photo credits
How DroneFlow bills processing — plan allotments plus pay-as-you-go photo credits.
Managing your trial and subscription
What happens when the trial ends, how to subscribe, and what a cancellation keeps.
Downloading, exporting, and data ownership
Every deliverable is yours to download in standard formats — nothing is locked in.
Troubleshooting
11 articlesMy upload stalls, fails, or won't finish
The progress bar stops partway, or the upload errors out. Almost always the connection, not the file.
Processing failed with a red error
What the common failure reasons mean, and which ones a reprocess can fix without re-uploading.
My project has been sitting in Queued
Queued means uploaded and waiting for a machine. Usually nothing is wrong.
My elevations are off by about 90 feet
Every height reads roughly the same amount too low. That is a vertical datum mismatch, not bad data.
I only got a 3D model — no map, DSM, DEM or contours
The export was missing its 2D task. Everything flat is built from rasters that were never uploaded.
My map is in the wrong place on the basemap
The site lands somewhere it isn't. Usually a missing or mis-detected coordinate system, fixable without re-uploading.
The map is black, blank, or won't load
Nearly always a stale cached copy of the page or its tiles. A hard reload usually settles it.
The 3D model viewer shows nothing
Three causes: a plan lock, a stale cache, or a browser without current 3D support.
My 3D model has holes, melted buildings, or smeared walls
A capture problem, decided in the air. Processing cannot rebuild geometry that was never seen.
My aerial map looks blurry or soft
Motion blur baked into the source photographs. Sharpness is decided in the air, not in software.
A download won't start, or looks smaller than expected
Raw 3D datasets are capped by design. An over-cap point cloud comes back thinned to fit, or — where it cannot be brought under the cap — not at all.
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