mapplot.
PLATE 01·Field guide·The full library

The drone mapping field guide.

Interactive tools, long-form guides, and curated video tutorials covering everything from your first photogrammetry mission to survey-grade deliverables. Built by drone operators, written for the people who do the work.

§ IInteractive tools

Drag the inputs. Watch the math redraw. The same calculations mapplot uses inside the app, exposed here as standalone references.

02
Flight planner
Plan a serpentine photogrammetry mission. Drag altitude, speed, and overlap; watch the path, photo count, GSD, and battery estimate redraw in real time.
INTERACTIVE
03
GSD calculator
Ground Sampling Distance — the cm/pixel resolution of every drone deliverable. Drag altitude and camera params; see what tier each combination is good for.
INTERACTIVE
04
Photo overlap
Front and side overlap, the survey-grade default, and what happens when you go too low. Watch coverage gaps appear when overlap drops below 65%.
INTERACTIVE
05
GCP accuracy
Ground control point distribution and the accuracy curve. Drag the GCP count; watch horizontal and vertical RMSE drop with diminishing returns past ~10.
INTERACTIVE
06
Orthomosaics & DEMs
How a stack of overlapping photographs becomes a true-scale map. The SfM pipeline, bundle adjustment, DSM vs DTM, and the file formats you actually need.
CONCEPT
07
Point clouds
A live rotating 3D point cloud preview. The LAS file format, multi-return LiDAR vs photogrammetry, classification codes, and when to use which.
CONCEPT

§ IILong-form guides

Deep, opinionated documentation on the parts of the workflow that bite hardest.

08
NodeODM, end-to-end
Set up the open-source photogrammetry stack on your own hardware via Docker. Process drone imagery into orthos, point clouds, DSMs, and 3D models — privately, free, no cloud.
GUIDE
09
Coordinate systems & EPSG
Why the EPSG code on your GCP file is the most under-checked source of error in survey-grade drone work. NAD83 vs HARN vs 2011, and the nine ways a CRS goes wrong.
GUIDE

§ IIIWatch & learn

Short-form video tutorials from the best independent drone-education channels we’ve watched. Every link opens YouTube — we’re not the source, we’re the curator.

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