Get started with ArcGIS Drone2Map

Transform drone imagery into a 3D scene.

Duration
30mins

Drones are an increasingly common way to capture high-resolution imagery of local areas. As an imagery analyst
at a company in Germany, you have been asked to use drone imagery to produce the 3D rendition of an office
building currently under construction. You'll process the data with ArcGIS Drone2Map, and publish it as a 3D
scene in ArcGIS Online to share it with the building's stakeholders.

This lesson was last tested on January 5, 2022, with ArcGIS Drone2Map 2.3. If you're using a different version of
ArcGIS Drone2Map, you may encounter different functionality and results.

Requirements

ArcGIS Drone2Map (get a free trial)

Publisher or Administrator role in an ArcGIS organization (get a free trial) or ArcGIS Enterprise (see
configuration details)

Explore the imagery

The drone's mission is complete, and you've received a series of images of the Wörthsee office building
development. The images that the drone captured are stored online in a zipped file folder. You'll download the
folder and look at some of the images.

1. Download the Drone_images zip file.

2. Locate the downloaded file on your computer.

Note:
Depending on your web browser, you may be prompted to choose where the file will be downloaded.
Most browsers download to your computer's Downloads folder by default.

3. Right-click the file and extract it to a location where you can easily find it, such as your Documents folder.
4. Open the folder.
 The folder contains 36 images. You'll take a look at a few of the images before proceeding.

5. Double-click the first image, DSC00153, to open it with your computer's default image viewer.

The image shows the office building that is being developed. The building's construction appears to have
been completed, which means you can show the building's stakeholders a fairly close representation of the
finished structure.

6. Close the image. Open some of the other images to see what they show.
 The images show the same building from different angles. These images are of the oblique type.

Note:
Drones can typically take two types of images: straight down (nadir) or at an angle (oblique). You can
use both types of images for GIS mapping, but they produce different types of datasets. You can use
nadir images to create 2D orthoimages, which are aerial photographs that show an area with
consistent scale and minimal distortion. You can stitch together orthoimages into larger orthomosaics,
from which imagery basemaps are created.

You can use oblique images, like those you downloaded, to create a 3D point cloud, which uses
thousands of points to depict surfaces in a 3D space. You can then use a point cloud to create a 3D
mesh, which connects the points with triangles to form a realistic-looking 3D diagram of the area. The
end result is a navigable 3D scene.

7. Close any open images.

In this section, you downloaded and explored oblique

images produced by a drone.

Create a project
Now you'll create a project in ArcGIS Drone2Map and add the drone images to a map.

1. Open ArcGIS Drone2Map.

Note:
If you don't have Drone2Map, you can sign up for a free trial.

2. Sign in using your licensed ArcGIS account.

Note:
If you don't have ArcGIS Pro or an ArcGIS account, you can sign up for an ArcGIS free trial.
 The application opens to the Create new projectwindow. You can choose from five project templates for
your
project: 2D Rapid, 2D Full, 3D Mapping, Inspection, and Batch Processing. Each template creates
different
types of outputs, and you can click each one to learn
more.

The 3D Mappingtemplate, which generates point clouds and textured meshes, is the
one you'll use in this
lesson to create a navigable 3D scene of the
building.

3. For Select Project Template, click 3D Mapping.

Note:
The text and images next to the list of templates change to explain more about the selected template.
You can learn about all of the templates in more detail by clicking them in the list.

4. At the bottom of the window, click Next.

Note:
You may need to extend the size of the window downward or maximize it to see the Next button.

Next, you'll specify some of the project's parameters and choose the images to use in the project.

5. For Give Your Project a Name, type Building Development Project.

You can also choose the location on your computer where the project data will be stored. You can change
the default location by clicking the Browse button. Next, you'll add images to the project. You can add
images individually or by uploading a folder.

6. Click Add Folder.

 The Browse for Image Folder window appears.

7. Browse to the Drone_Images folder that contains your images, and click it to select it. Click OK to add the
folder's images to the list of images.

Each image has Lat [Y], Long [X], and Alt [Z] attributes, which correspond to their latitude, longitude, and
height. These geographic attributes were stored by the drone when it captured each image, allowing the
images to be located on a map.

8. Click Create.

After a few moments, the project is created and the images are added to the map, with each image
represented by a blue point.

The points are connected by an

orange line. These lines represent the flight path that the drone
took to
capture the images. The flight path and images indicate
that the drone traveled in an orbit around a
 building.

Depending on your organization's settings, your basemap may be

different. You'll change the basemap to
match the example image
above.

9. If necessary, on the ribbon above the map, on the Home tab, in the Layers group, click Basemap and
choose Imagery Hybrid.

The drone images themselves do not display on

the map. The imagery that you see is from the Imagery
Hybrid basemap, which is at a much lower
resolution than your drone images.

To make sure the images were

properly located on the map, you'll zoom out and view the
surrounding area.

10. Use the mouse wheel button to zoom out until you see Etterschlag and Waldbrunn labeled on the map.
 If you zoom out even farther, you'll find Wörthsee labeled on the map. Etterschlag and Waldbrunn are
communities within the municipality of Wörthsee. The images appear to have been located correctly.

11. In the Contents pane, under Project Data, right-click Images and choose Zoom To Layer.

The map zooms back to the circle of blue points.

In this section, you created a project in Drone2Map and added drone images to a
map.

Generate 3D products
Now that your project is ready, you'll process the images to create a 3D textured mesh and a 3D point cloud. First,
you'll specify the processing parameters you want.

Note:
Because the drone images overlap partially, Drone2Map can do some computations on the back end to
derive 3D information. This process uses the structure from motion technique.

1. On the ribbon, on the Home tab, in the Processing group, click Options.

The Options window appears. You'll review the three parameter tabs that are relevant to your project: 3D
Products, Initial, and Dense.

Note:
Depending on the parameters that you specify and your computer's resources, processing time can
take between about 5 minutes and 1 hour. When working with your own data, you will generally want
to use the highest-quality processing to generate your final data product. However, to complete this
lesson faster, you'll choose parameter values that reduce processing time.

2. In the Options window, click the Initial tab.

 First, you'll choose the Keypoints Image Scale setting. Keypoints are points that are generated during
image processing and represent a unique location in an image. Generally, thousands of keypoints are
generated for each image. Keypoints that represent the same area in different images, known as tiepoints,
are matched to determine where images overlap. The Keypoints Image Scale parameter determines how
many keypoints are generated.

3. For Keypoints Image Scale, choose Rapid.

The next parameter is Matching Image Pairs, which determines which kinds of image pairs are matched
with the keypoints. Aerial Grid or Corridor is best used for projects with a flight path that follows a grid or
corridor (that is, a straight line). Free Flight or Terrestrial is best used for flight paths that circle around a
specific building or geographic feature, which is the case for your project.

4. Under Matching Image Pairs, make sure Free Flight or Terrestrial is selected.

Finally, for Matching Strategy, if Use Geometry Verified Matching is checked, a supplementary process
will check the geometry of the images to ensure that the matches are accurate. This process takes more
time to run, so you won't use it in this lesson.

5. For Matching Strategy, make sure Use Geometry Verified Matching is unchecked.

6. Click the Dense tab.

This series of parameters determines

how points are created in the point cloud.
 The Image Scale parameter
determines the scale of the composite images that are created from
the
original drone imagery. Smaller image scales process points
faster but are less accurate; you'll accept the
default
scale.

The Point Density parameter

determines the number of points per unit of area in the point
cloud. Lower
point density computes significantly faster, so you'll
change this parameter.

7. Change Point Density from Optimal to Low (Fast).

The Minimum Number of Matchesparameter determines the number of images that each keypoint must
appear in to be added as a 3D point to the point cloud. A lower
minimum will increase the number of 3D
points but will create more
noise and artifacts in the resulting point cloud. The default value
of 3 is the
recommended value, so you'll leave it
unchanged.

The Point Cloud Densificationparameter determines, in pixels, the size of the grid that is used
to match
keypoints. It has two options: 7x7 Pixels, which is
better for straight-down imagery, and 9x9 Pixels, which
is
better for oblique imagery. Your images are oblique.

8. Make sure that Point Cloud Densification is set to 9x9 Pixels.

9. Click the 3D Products tab.

First, you'll choose the file type for the point cloud output. LAS is the standard file type for point clouds in
ArcGIS. It is the one you'll pick.

10. For Create Point Clouds, confirm that LAS is checked and the other options are unchecked.

Next, you'll choose the output file types for the 3D textured mesh. You can open the scene layer package
(SLPK) file type in ArcGIS and share it to ArcGIS Online, making it the appropriate choice for your goals. The
next format, OBJ, is a widely accepted file format for 3D graphics and can be opened in a variety of
 applications. It's also a key component of the scene layer package, so it must remain checked for you to
create the scene layer package.

11. Under Create Textured Meshes choose the following values:

For Multi LOD Mesh, confirm that only SLPK is checked.
For Single LOD Mesh, check OBJ.

You'll accept the default values for the remaining settings, which determine the resolution and color
balancing. You can learn more about these parameters in the ArcGIS Drone2Map Help.

12. Click OK.

The parameters are applied. The imagery is now ready for processing.

13. On the ribbon, in the Processing group, click Start.

The process runs. It may take about 5 minutes to complete. The status bar at the bottom of the application
tracks the progress of the processing while it runs and informs you when the process is complete.

In this section, you processed the drone images to create 3D products.

Explore the 3D products

You'll now take a moment to explore the 3D products that you generated.

1. Review the LAS Point Cloud that appears on the 2D map, which is your default view.
 This gives you a first understanding of the 3D products that were generated. However, it is more interesting
to look at them in a 3D view.

2. Click the 3D Map tab in the map viewer.

On the 3D Map, you can see the textured Mesh.

3. Zoom in with the mouse wheel button to better see the building of interest.
4. On the map, in the Explore tool, click Show Full Control to expand the tool.

5. Explore the mesh. Use the inner ring of the Explore tool to tilt and rotate. Drag with the mouse to pan.

The 3D mesh contains an accurate representation of the building as shown in the original drone imagery.
When zoomed in closer, the textures become more noticeable, but using the processing parameters for
 higher accuracy may smooth these textures out. The mesh will give the building's stakeholders a much
better indication of how the building looks in a 3D setting, as opposed to a series of images.

Next, you'll explore the LAS Point Cloud in the 3D view.

6. In the Contents pane, under 3D Products, turn off Mesh and turn on LAS Point Cloud.

On the 3D Map tab, the 3D mesh is replaced with the point cloud.

7. Move around the point cloud with the mouse or the Explore tool to explore it.

8. Zoom in until you can see the individual points of the point cloud.
 9. Click a few points to view information about them in the pop-up window, including their elevation and
coordinates.

10. Close the pop-up.

The point cloud format won't be

directly useful for a demo to the building's stakeholders. However,
it can
be the point of departure of countless analyses in GIS
applications such as ArcGIS Pro.

Next, you'll locate all 3D products

on your computer.

11. Open your computer's file browser and browse to the Building Development Project folder.

Note:
This folder was created when you created the project. By default, it was placed in your Documents
folder, under Drone2Map and Projects, or you may have chosen another location for it.

12. In the Building Development Project folder, open the Products folder and then the 3D folder.
 The 3D folder contains all the 3D products that you created in the Building Development Project. Mesh
contains the SLPK and OBJ products, and PointCloud contains the LAS point cloud files.

13. Close your computer’s file browser and go back to Drone2Map

14. In the quick access toolbar, click Save to save the project.

In this section, you explored the 3D products you had generated and visualized them in 2D and 3D.

Share a 3D scene layer online

You'll now publish the scene layer package from Drone2Map to ArcGIS Online. This will allow you to share the
data easily with the building's stakeholders.

1. On the ribbon, on the Share tab, in the Share As group, click Scene Layer.

In the Share Scene Layer pane, you can choose which data product to share, and change the metadata and
sharing properties.

2. In the Share Scene Layer pane, enter the following parameters:

For Layers, check Mesh
For Title, type Building Development Project and add your name or initials to the end of the default
name to make sure the name is unique within your organization.
For Folder, you can choose which folder in your ArcGIS Online account you'll save the scene layer to
(the default is My Content).
For Description, type The newly constructed Worthsee office building.
For Tags, add Bavaria, Germany, office building to the list of tags, and press Enter.
 For Groups, choose to share the scene layer with everyone, the members of your organization, or the
members of a specific group.

3. Click Share.

The scene layer package and a corresponding scene layer are published to your ArcGIS Online account.
After a few moments, a message appears, confirming the publication is complete.

4. Click Clear Finished.

5. Press Ctrl+S to save the project.

You'll now view the published 3D scene in ArcGIS Online.

6. Go to ArcGIS Online and sign in. On the top bar, click Contents.
7. Browse to the Building Development Project Mesh scene layer, and click it to open the information page
for the scene.
8. Click Open in Scene Viewer.

The 3D scene appears with the layer in it. You'll explore the 3D scene layer.

9. Use the navigation tools to switch between Pan and Rotate. Alternatively click, right-click, drag, and use the
mouse wheel button to pan, zoom, tilt, and rotate.

The web scene allows you to zoom in and see the details of the building in 3D. You can now share it with
the building's stakeholders.
 As next steps, you can add more
layers and information to your scene, create built-in slides to
highlight
interesting aspects of your scene, and more. See
the
Get Started with Scene Viewer lesson to explore these
capabilities.

In this lesson, you generated 3D data

products from drone imagery. You then published a scene layer to
ArcGIS
Online to share with interested parties. You also have a LAS
point cloud dataset, which you can open in
ArcGIS Pro
or other applications for further analysis.

You can find more lessons like this

on the
Introduction to Imagery & Remote
Sensing page.

Acknowledgements
The images in this project were contributed by Pix4D and taken with Ascending Technologies drones.

Send Us Feedback
Please send us your feedback regarding this lesson. Tell us what you liked as well as what you didn't. If
something in the lesson didn't work, let us know what it was and where in the lesson you encountered it (the
section name and step number). Use this form to send us feedback.

Share and repurpose Learn ArcGIS content

Sharing and reusing Learn ArcGIS lessons are encouraged. Learn ArcGIS material is governed by a Creative
Commons license (CC BY-SA-NC). See the Terms of Use page for details about adapting this lesson for your use.
Ready to learn more?

Estimate storage capacity with drone imagery

Create elevation data products for a water storage basin with ArcGIS Drone2Map and calculate its
volume.
START LESSON

Get started with imagery

Explore 40 years of Landsat imagery from around the world.
START LESSON

Fly through South America in a 3D animation

Animate a 3D tour of a famous geographer's epic journey.

START LESSON
 Extract 3D buildings from lidar data

Classify a lidar dataset, extract 2D building footprints, and generate 3D multipatch buildings.
START LESSON

Visualize construction planning in 3D

Use a real-world mesh and BIM models to visualize a construction plan and publish it as a 3D web
scene.
START LESSON

Related Esri training

Getting Started with ArcGIS Drone2Map

The use of drones to capture high-resolution imagery of local areas has grown in popularity in the past few
years. Learn how to use ArcGIS Drone2Map to import drone imagery for your geospatial needs. This course
focuses on best practices to capture and validate your drone imagery.

LEARN MORE

Inspect Assets Using ArcGIS Drone2Map

This course will show you how to use the ArcGIS Drone2Map Inspection template. This template organizes the
drone flight path, photos, and notes from the inspection.

LEARN MORE

Creating 3D Data Using ArcGIS

Data that stores 3D geometry opens up powerful possibilities for advanced 3D analysis. This course teaches
how to use ArcGIS 3D Analyst tools to create 3D data to model surface and subsurface terrain and
phenomena.

LEARN MORE