Latest Contributions by CodyBenkelman

‎02-09-2024

Varvara for most drones, the Z values *SHOULD* be the orthometric height of the drone, the height above sea level. [BUT as noted above those values can be VERY wrong] If RTK/PPK they are almost always ellipsoidal height. I have published a map at http://esriurl.com/Map4GroundElevation that can give you both orthometric and ellipsoidal heights if you are interested. (Must log in with ArcGIS Online account to get the Terrain values) Almost no drones report height above ground (because they don't have a world DEM to know where the ground is). Internally they usually have data regarding height above launch point (so if the entire project is flat, that WOULD be height above ground) but that Z value is not written to the EXIF tags of the JPG images. Our learn.arcgis.com site has some good training courses for Drone2Map. Since you're new to this, I'd advise you to review our free training. Cody B.

‎02-09-2024

Varvara I agree with Mervyn. If it's not an RTK/PPK drone, the altitude values can be terrible. Until 5 months ago the worst I saw was an error of 100 meters, but I've seen a new "record" for bad values, more than 200 meters off. On the other hand, they can be very close to correct - and this can be true for ONE drone, from day to day. Without ground control points, I can almost guarantee your DSM and DTM heights will always be wrong. You said "The ground-controlled points are not applied" but you didn't include any details. Since your project coordinate system is State Plane, I am guessing you might have used GCPs but they didn't work properly? Pål_Herman_Sund also gave good advice regarding the vertical coordinate system - whether RTK/PPK or ground control points, check to see if they might be referenced to ellipsoidal height. If this doesn't solve your problem, please contact support@esri.com - they are very good and should be able to help Cody B

‎01-19-2024

Thank you for posting this Pål_Herman_Sund For MelodyVeldorale and others, there are no tools that you need to run - this is just a data package to support coordinate systems and transforms, and the same package works for both ArcGIS Pro and Drone2Map. Once you have it installed, you'll have all the coordinate systems available. As noted in the previous post, if you do not have this package installed, you can find and download from your MyEsri portal. Note for anyone with an RTK-enabled drone (or PPK data) be sure to set your Image Coordinate System to agree with the drone data before processing. RTK/PPK is almost always referenced to ellipsoidal height (usually WGS84 but you will have to verify with your drone), and the default for Drone2Map currently assumes input image data is referenced to the EGM96 Geoid (not ellipsoidal height). See this recent blog for more discussion of RTK https://esriurl.com/d2mRTK Cody B

‎01-04-2024

Moved:

This post was not related to Drone2Map. Moved to ExperienceBuilder.

‎11-30-2023

Just a quick follow up to let you know version 2023.2 was released November 7th. see https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-drone2map-blog/arcgis-drone2map-version-2023-2-has-been-released/ba-p/1350027

‎11-28-2023

Hi Brian - since your post was nearly 3 years ago I'm not sure you need a response - but this was either processed without ground control (drone altitude values are known to be subject to large errors - I've seen vertical heights off by more than 200 meters) or it was processed with the wrong coordinate system (incorrect input coordinates if the GPS was RTK or PPK, or incorrect coordinate system for the control points if GCPs were used). This blog should be helpful for those using RTK GPS: https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/drone2map/imagery/work-with-rtk-drone-imagery-in-arcgis-drone2map/ Let us know if you still need help Cody B

‎11-28-2023

Thanks for catching one of my errors. I discussed this with a colleague, and realized that my post above from earlier today offered poor advice. Assuming I'd referenced the correct tool (GPX To Features tool), you COULD follow what I offered but it's more complicated than necessary. Assuming you have Microsoft Excel, I had forgotten that Excel can automatically read and reformat the GPX file, so that is a much simpler first step to get the timestamp + lat/long/elevation (etc.) metadata into a table format. You will still need to add additional fields - email me if you need documentation on the content of the video metadata table. However it's not necessary to extract frames from the video as GIS-Cambria suggested. That is another alternative, but you'd then be limited to viewing the extracted frames, not the video. The "Oriented Imagery Classic" tools at https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=36ee0bbedca64a5a8b68d7c69ab51728 directly support video today. At risk of further confusion, note that Oriented Imagery is now being integrated as a native capability in ArcGIS Pro - read this blog to learn more - but today (Pro v3.2) video is not yet supported in the integrated version. Video support should be added in 2024 (but watch our blogs for confirmation of when this will be available).

‎11-28-2023

Apologies to anyone that was confused by the above post - I offered the wrong GP tool (as GIS-Cambria observed). I meant to post the GPX To Features tool. See my additional comments below

‎11-28-2023

I can help you with this. FMV in ArcGIS Pro is not suitable for 360 videos - the FMV tools assume the video field of view is on the ground, and with a 360 camera the footprint extends to the horizon in all directions. So cdanielvarons is on the right track to use Oriented Imagery but I agree with GIS-Cambria that "...it will take some work...". The starting point is to use this GP tool https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/tool-reference/conversion/features-to-gpx.htm to generate a point feature class, then you'll have to extract the required fields from the attribute table and edit to create a *.csv with the required metadata fields. You'll be missing some of the required fields (e.g. horizontalFOV = 360, verticalFOV = TBD, UnixTimeStamp in MICROseconds, more) but you can insert nominal values. If you need a description and example of the video metadata, send me email at cbenkelman@esri.com. Note the video and metadata are asynchronous so you don't need metadata for every second or every video frame - as long as your metadata and video start at the same time, our tools can work with the video.

‎11-16-2023

ArcGIS Drone2Map version 2023.2 has been released! For existing customers, the download is available on your MyEsri page. If you're new to Drone2Map, start with https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-drone2map This new version has added support for new cameras such as the Micasense Altum PT (with a thermal infrared sensor) and also the rolling shutter correction which is critical to ensuring accurate results for some cameras. And for users capturing thermal infrared imagery, the output orthos are now True orthos which provides higher visual quality and improved interpretation of hot/cold features of interest. There are also two significant new capabilities - First is a dramatically expanded capability and new workflow for performing inspections using drone imagery. This allows users to navigate on a 2D map or 3D mesh (or point cloud) to select an area of interest and immediately access the full resolution source images showing that area. The inspector can quickly add notes in a 3D feature class for an intuitive experience to review and manage the inspection results. (See screenshot at right, showing inspection labels on a 3D mesh of an airport control tower) Second is the addition of support for catalog datasets/layers which enable a powerful ability to manage drone projects - for projects covering extended areas, or multiple dates (or both), or simply collaborating with colleagues regarding projects spread around the country or the world. You can read more about this new release in the more detailed What's New blog at https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/drone2map/imagery/whats-new-in-arcgis-drone2map-november-2023/ And note - if you are a Drone2Map user, check with your Esri account administrator. They will be getting information via email this week (since we have their email but may not have yours). If you'd like to get informational emails directly from Esri you can sign up for our newsletter HERE, or by going to "Project/Resources" in the app:

‎11-16-2023

Hi Andrew - apologies for the long delay on this, and for the confusion. We need to make a change in the software as well as documentation to address this. Both measurements should be correct, but we need to clarify what is being measured. As you've observed, the VOLUME tool also reports the area of the polygon you've entered. In this case, it is reporting the the planimetric (2D) area of the polygon projected onto a flat map. The AREA tool actually calculates the surface area inside your polygon. So, if you think about measuring a gravel stockpile, the surface area tells you how many square feet of paint would be required to cover it. If you test a flat area, the numbers should be close, but otherwise the AREA tool is always going to report a larger value. We're working to clarify this in the documentation, and my hope is to update the software to define and report both area measurements, no matter which tool you use. I feel both have value, but we need to be explicit about what is being reported. Cody B.

‎10-31-2023

hi Brig. I'm going back through old ideas - I don't know if you still want this, but could you clarify why you would want the output imagery to be inside a geodatabase? For almost 12 years I've been advising users *not* to store imagery inside a GDB.

‎10-31-2023

Cleaning up an old IDEA. Drone2Map includes full coordinate system support from ArcGIS Pro (NOTE: must have the ArcGIS Coordinate System Data program installed. https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-drone2map-questions/rtk-ellipsoid-height-to-orthometric-geoid-height/m-p/1328360#M1382 )

‎10-31-2023

cleaning up a very old IDEA submission. This has been implemented.

‎10-31-2023

I'm cleaning up a very old "IDEA" that I do not believe is needed. The request was not entirely clear but I assume what this user was seeking was "Allow me to choose an output coordinate system with vertical units = feet" (and they would want the correct datum etc.) Changing coordinate systems from input data to output is already implemented.

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My Ideas

Latest Contributions by CodyBenkelman

Re: Wrong DSM and DTM elevation

Re: Wrong DSM and DTM elevation

Re: RTK ellipsoid height to orthometric/geoid height not working

Move and edit points within an Experience Builder map directly, possibly?

Re: Micasense Altum-PT support

Re: Drone data in a big hole

Re: Problem creating an OIC with Insta360 x3 videos

Re: Problem creating an OIC with Insta360 x3 videos

Re: Problem creating an OIC with Insta360 x3 videos

ArcGIS Drone2Map version 2023.2 has been released!

Re: Difference in area between the Area Measurement tool and the Volume Measurement tool?

Re: Directly export the orthomosaic from D2M to a Raster Dataset in an SDE Geodatabase - Status changed to: Needs Clarification

Re: GCPs in NGVD 1988 Vertical Datum, in U.S. Feet - Status changed to: Implemented

Re: Drone2Map GCP Shapefile import - Status changed to: Implemented

Re: Convert exif Data from Meters to Feet. - Status changed to: Implemented

Drone2Map v2025.2 has been released - Download now...

The Value of Thermal Infrared Imagery in Mapping/G...

Drone2Map v2025.1 is now available for download!

Re: Accessing ArcGIS programmatically

New Experience Builder (ExB) widget for Oriented I...

Esri Forestry Group (EFG)

UCG-WG2 Remote Sensing and GeoAI

User Community for Geospatial Authorities (UCG)

Elevation Data

Drones, UAVs, UAS, and RPAs