Latest Contributions by CodyBenkelman

Belinda I don't have any new information re: DJI drones, but I want to ask about your comments about the tutorial.  Do you mean the FMV tutorial at http://esriurl.com/FMVtutorial?  That should have a sample video file, and associated metadata in the proper format for using our Video Multiplexer geoprocessing tool.  You can also get information on the multiplexer in http://esriurl.com/FMVmanual (but note these resources are for ArcMap; the latest release of FMV for Pro is coming soon at Pro version 2.3, and the documentation is different, although the fundamentals of the MISB format and the multiplexer are unchanged). Let me know if you cannot find that sample data - but as I cautioned at top, I agree that your SRT file does not appear to have complete metadata.  However, if you did not pan the camera on the gimbal and you can estimate its view orientation (relative to the drone flight direction and the horizon), you may be able to generate a reasonable geotagged video using those estimated orientation values.  You'll have to estimate the field of view as well, and it will take some work to process the *.srt GPS data into a format usable by our Video Multiplexer . Last, you may want to use https://www.epochconverter.com/ to determine a start time (UNIX time, in microseconds) based on your video start time. Cody ... View more

You should log a case - I'm hoping they can resolve it quickly Cody B.  ... View more

Kelly This should be resolved by our Tech Support staff...  Can you log an incident with them?  [email protected] I'll notify them you are 'inbound' Cody ... View more

James I apologize for the delay - I missed this message over the Thanksgiving break.  Short answer, this Imagery & Remote Sensing group, and specifically this blog, are the best places to check back - you can 'follow' this blog, I believe, and you'll be notified of updates.  If DJI makes changes to their metadata recording and formatting that make FMV integration easier, I'll publish an update here.   Cody B ... View more

Paul Sorry for the delay in my response - I missed your original post.  You *should* be able to use GCPs in state plane coordinates; there must be some other cause for this problem.  Can you send us your processing report?   Cody B. ... View more

Jason Several issues...  First, sorry you couldn't message me - I thought my settings should allow it, but will hope to fix that. Second, re: control points, there are a range of options depending on your requirements - but if high accuracy not required, then you wouldn't need an RTK GPS unit.  Simplest/cheapest is to simply use the ArcGIS Online imagery basemap to find features, realizing that a) the accuracy is limited (and actually not stated) but I'd expect you should be within ~1-2 meters in most parts of the USA, and b) for some project areas you'll have trouble finding good photo identifiable points.   Note be sure your GCPs are on the ground; I've seen people use the tops of buildings and wonder why their Z values are 5 to 10 meters too low...  (mesh can disappear into the ground) If you need to lay out markers and survey them before imaging, Mervyn's post shows a black/white linoleum tile you could use (although I recommend Black and GRAY, since the white will "bloom" and grow in size in your images), then you'd need a GPS receiver, and your accuracy would depend on the GPS accuracy. Third, most important issue = the discrepancies in camera models...  [full disclosure, I've edited this post to modify previous text]  The processing in Drone2Map will self-calibrate the camera model based on your flight altitude (which should be expressed as orthometric height e.g. above sea level, not height above ground or launch point).  We have found that some drones report very poor Z values, so if you are seeking a high accuracy camera model, you will need to adjust your flight altitudes within Drone2Map.  You can do this after loading images by going to the Image Properties menu, selecting images, and then run Image Options/"Adjust image altitudes". As noted in a post further up, this is NOT required to achieve good XY accuracy in the orthomosaic, but only required if you need a good camera model from the self calibration.  We're working to make this more seamless and robust in Drone2Map 2.0 Cody ... View more

Katy Thanks for the feedback!  Our first task will be to add a feedback link to the app.  Until then, please send any comments to [email protected].   Cody B ... View more

Jason I would agree that a 54% difference from initial estimates to optimized values is significant, but don't take this value as an indication of poor accuracy in the resulting ortho.  This sounds like your camera may have a bit of a problem, and it will be important to keep an eye on this to determine if your camera is stable (e.g. lens & sensor should be relatively rigid, but if they're physically moving around, the camera parameters can change dramatically).  If it's not stable, you will likely have increasing problems. I'd like to see more information on the camera parameters - could you send the full processing report?  Ideally send more than one report - perhaps your most recent and your oldest, so we can see if the values are changing significantly.  It's also possible your camera is just fine, but its parameters are simply different from the nominal values expected for a P4 Pro. (you can send me a direct message if you don't want to post your reports publicly) As long as the camera was stable for the duration of the flight, the calibration should be good for all images, and your results should be fine.  If you have ground control points, do you know how to withhold some from the processing and apply them as Check points to measure your output accuracy?  If you need instructions on that, I can send information. Cody B.  ... View more

(Thanks to Katie Cullen) Katy Answer to your last question is Yes. See this implementation of our Web AppBuilder Landsat Explorer   The "Time Selector" tool allows you to quickly select images by date (either on a timeline or switch it to a date pulldown).  You can also choose one date to put into the "lower" layer and compare two dates.  You can also highlight areas of change between two dates.   See the 'mortarboard' icon in the lower left for a tutorial. As for your original question, I don't know if we have a tutorial for the Landsat services in ArcGIS Desktop -  We would encourage you to use ArcGIS Pro.   If still needed, please let me know - but try the web app. Cody B ... View more

Nick I just checked permissions, and this file should still be open to public download... You might try again, but I'll send you a link to the file on S3 Cody B.  ... View more

Hi everyone First, I apologize for the slow response on this.  The good news is we have found the problem, and we have a fix for you. We have found a bug that relates to newer cameras and an outdated copy of the camera database.  This has been fixed with Drone2Map version 1.3.2 which will be available on or before November 14.  We'll have a blog here (and your software will notify you) when the new version is available. If any of you are working on urgent projects and cannot wait until next week, we can give you a workaround that involves manually replacing system files.  Since that is a bit risky, we’d recommend you wait for the new version, but if anyone on this thread needs the workaround urgently, email us at [email protected] and we'll send you the steps to fix this problem. Thanks for your patience. Cody Benkelman ... View more

Paul I would recommend against editing a copy of the raster to save the copy to disk.  If you have (or can create) a polygon representing the county boundary, ArcGIS can use that to clip everything outside and consider it to be 'NoData' (transparent).  This is done by loading the images into a mosaic dataset (MD), then for each raster, loading the county boundary into the MD and defining the boundary polygon as the "footprint", then setting the MD property "Always clip rasters to footprints?" to Yes.  There's a slightly more elegant way to do this using "seamlines" rather than footprints to make it easier for a user to restore the map OUTSIDE the county polygon (e.g. if there is a legend or other info in the map collar they'd want to see). If you've already done the editing, a faster (but not recommended) method may be to examine your edited tiffs and determine the pixel value outside the county pixels - probably either 0 or 255? - then you can define that pixel value as "NoData" and ArcGIS will make it transparent.  If all are loaded into a mosaic dataset, the NoData pixels should not obscure underlying maps.    [NOTE: I edited this post to add this comment]  One reason this is not recommended is: if your scanned maps have any of these NoData pixel values within the valid interior of the map, those pixels will also be transparent...  The "clip to footprints" method is usually better but I'm just trying to be sensitive to time you may have already invested in making copies, editing them, then georeferencing them.  But if you'll be doing more of this in the future, I'd strongly encourage you to follow our recommended workflow.  You'll avoid duplication of data, degradation of quality with resampling, AND the transparent "noData" problem Cody B ... View more