Create High Resolution Maps/3D Models With Agisoft Metashape

Explore what drones are, how they’re classified by all-up weight from nano to large, and the main types—fixed wing, multi-rotor, single rotor, and hybrid—with key components and basic controls.

Explore how drones revolutionize aerial data capture, enabling safer inspections and delivering maps and 3D models for construction, mining, agriculture, urban development, and disaster management.

Drones with high resolution cameras and GPS enable rapid, safe mapping and surveying, producing high resolution maps, 3d models, and digital elevation models.

Discover drone mapping outputs such as orthomosaics, dense 3D point clouds, elevation models (DTM and DEM) and contours, with software workflows and export formats for Civil 3D, ArcGIS, and QGis.

Identify essential hardware and software for drone mapping, including drones with GPS and long flight times, ground control points, flight planning, Agisoft Metashape, plus post-processing and a capable computing setup.

Compare traditional surveying with modern drone mapping, noting GPS and total stations versus drones that provide imagery and dense point clouds, enabling safer, faster surveys in dangerous locations with permissions.

Explore remote sensing in drone mapping and GIS, obtaining information without direct contact, and compare active sensing with LiDAR and radar to passive sensing from imagery and thermal sensors.

Photogrammetry uses overlapping drone imagery to generate accurate three-dimensional models and two-dimensional maps via structure from motion, enabling measurements such as area, volume, and distance.

Learn how coordinates locate points on Earth in longitude, latitude, and elevation, and how coordinate reference systems like WGS 84 and UTM enable precise drone mapping.

Place ground control points to georeference aerial imagery and improve accuracy. Collect GNSS readings, perform level transfer, and distribute five well-spaced GCPs for reliable results.

Explore relative and global accuracy in drone mapping, noting how image overlap and reconstruction quality affect local measurements, and how ground control points ensure global alignment with GIS data.

Explore ground sampling distance (GSD) in drone mapping, showing how a pixel represents ground distance like 4.65 cm and how height and focal length shape resolution.

Explore nadir and oblique imagery for drone mapping, mastering how top-down nadir views support orthomosaic accuracy while oblique views reveal building facades and three-dimensional details.

Identify client objectives to plan a drone mapping flight, define area of interest, flight plan, altitude, weather, and camera settings. Ask targeted questions on deliverables, timeline, data, safety and privacy.

Scout the site in Google Earth Pro to measure distances, draw polygons, mark points of interest, and plan a drone flight at 100 m above ground.

Generate a KML file of your project area for drone missions by drawing a simple boundary polygon in Google Earth Pro, naming it, and exporting as KML.

Plan drone mapping missions by scouting sites in Google Earth, understanding drone capabilities, and using Drone Deploy to estimate flight time and area per photo. Create two simple rectangular flight plans with overlap to cover about 20 hectares, export the plans, and share with your team to stitch the maps into a single output.

Create a field-ready map by exporting flight plans and GCPs as KML, importing them into a Google Maps project, and sharing a live link for team access.

Learn to place and record GCPs to georeference drone orthophotos, using chessboard, tile, vinyl, or paint markers, with L-shaped patterns to prevent displacement and ensure visibility.

Upload flight plans to Drone Deploy, import KML, set height and overlap, and prepare projects viewable on mobile for takeoff from the center.

Execute a safe drone flight to capture imagery for high-resolution maps and 3D models, then process the data in Metashape Pro.

Learn how Metashape Pro creates high-quality 3D models and orthomosaic maps from aerial and ground imagery, using an intuitive interface to import, align, clean up, and export data.

Import images into Metashape Pro by using the workflow tab to add photos or folders, then view imported images in the photos pane and coordinates in the references tab.

Convert image and marker coordinates from WGS 84 to UTM 44 North in Metashape Pro using the Convert Reference tool for cameras and markers, updating outputs to the new CRS.

Align drone photos with high-accuracy settings to generate a sparse point cloud for 3d reconstruction, using key point limits, adaptive camera model fitting, and previewing camera locations.

Import the GCP CSV into Metashape, set the CRS to WGS84 UTM zone 44N, map easting, northing, elevation, and label, then tag photos and optimize camera alignment.

Generate a dense point cloud in Metashape Pro using aligned images and GCPs, adjust quality, depth filtering, and point colors, then proceed to a 3d model or orthomosaic.

Generate a high resolution digital elevation model and orthomosaic. Use a dense point cloud as source, geographic projection, and wgs84 utm coordinates.

Classify ground points in Metashape Pro to differentiate bare earth from other features, enabling the digital terrain model and contours generated from ground points.

Generate the DTM from the classified point cloud by selecting only ground points in Metashape, duplicating the DEM to prevent overwriting, then view bare ground elevation.

Generate a mesh in Metashape Pro from dense cloud data, choosing arbitrary surface, adjusting face count, interpolation, and vertex color, then view the mesh in the 3D view and export.

Texture a mesh in Metashape Pro using a mapping mode with mosaic blending, set 4096 texture size and six textures, plus hole filling and ghosting filter.

Export generated data from Agisoft Metashape by exporting orthomosaic as TIFF/Geotiff and 3D models as OBJ or 3DS for online uploads, then prepare to import outputs into QGis.