Anyone use the Mavic or any other DJI quad for 3d mapping?
Looks pretty amazing but cost of software is absolutely insane.
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Just caught up with Saturdayās āBritain at Low Tideā, Ch4.
Some impressive 3D drone work in that! ā¦ toward the end, of you watch on All4.
Iāll get a look tonight mate. Cheers
Been looking some more into this, thereās a few solutions like groundstation and fpv camera that autonomously capture required images. You then need software or a cloud subscription to render into map or 3d model.
Aerial3d360 looks pretty cool and is aimed more towards 3d models. Capture using fpv camera app, upload and you can download a 3d model.
Lot of people modelling buildings, monuments etc and printing on 3d printer.
Iām looking more for something I can create a 3d map of derelict areas or historical places where the landscape is due to significantly change.
Itās not that important to me to pay for it though.
The 3D renders appear @ 33:30 and 43:30. 
Just watched the episode. Indeed pretty impressive.
Amazing what you can do with a consumer quad.
They did similar on finding Hitler with and without laser scan to find depressions in the earth for buried objects.
Definitely going to give it ago when I can find a cost effective or preferably free method.
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I think free trials are going to be the way to go. Pix4D costs Ā£6500 for a lifetime license but offer a 14day free trial.
Iāll wait until Iāve got some free time and get as many maps done as I can in those 14days.
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No concession for OAPs with a limited lifetime ahead of them! ā¦ or me! 
Thatās a lot of money! Youād think they could make more by selling more at a more affordable price. Though I guess that depends on the development cost, and why (and for whom) it was developed in the first place.
They do a monthly and yearly subscription.
240 euro a month and 2400 yearly.
Just noticed drone deploy have a free tier. 30 days premium trial then you can move to free tier.
I was hoping someone might have known the best options but looks like Iām going to find out myself.
Iāll post up everything I find.
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Nope, became another interest I lost interest in 
Its still something id like to try, might get around to it one day.
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Autodesk do a 3d scan software called revit which is free for students and teachers, have used it to make and then 3d print models of heads and small objects, noticed it now has a drone section to the program! Have planned to investigate while Iām off on summer break. Plan is to use the helix mode on my spark to āscanā a monument or statue
Thought to myself, brilliant, I can get thatā¦ just tried to download and only windows, not Mac!!! 
Does anyone use their drone for building surveys and any experience of producing point cloud models as I am interested in the software used and methods?
Moved your post over to a pre-existing thread on the topic.
No personal experience but I have colleagues who do this using Bentley ContextCapture software. Feeding drone photos into this or any equivalent package produces a photogrammetric surface mesh model, not technically the same as a point cloud which is what you get from a laser scanner. Iāve seen some fantastically detailed models produced using this and similar techniques, down to the level of being able to see and measure individual bricks in masonry structures. The key to success is plenty of photos, taken in consistent lighting, each with very large overlaps: the best models Iāve seen were each generated from several thousand photographs.
Thatās interesting and not a product that I had come across. We use my Microstation which is another Bentley product and so I assume the two are compatible and have just looked at the Bentley website for the cost but havenāt found them yet. Thanks for the suggestion.
Only just seen this thread so a bit late but I use 3d Zephyr. The full version costs about Ā£100 but there is a free version which has a limit of fifty photos so definition is a bit iffy but it works.
Thanks for the advice and I will give it a try. Can you produced point cloud models?
Yes you can
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