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Drone Mapping

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Niel
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Turn your drone photos or video into a 3D site model, right inside your Aurora project. Upload your images, and Aurora builds you a high-resolution LIDAR surface, a scaled map image, and a 3D mesh you can measure directly — all pulled from your own flight, not standard imagery. You can use your drone data as-is, or request an expert-built roof model on top of it.

Drone mapping can be accessed in both Project Overview or Sales Mode.

In this article, we'll cover:

Before you fly: quick checklist

Four things to confirm before takeoff. Skipping these is the most common reason processing fails later.

  • Your drone has a GPS lock before you take off (look for a green indicator or "Ready to Fly" message). Photos taken before lock don't carry location data, and Aurora can't place them.
  • You're flying at the same location as your Aurora project pin. If your drone's GPS is more than 1 km from the project location, processing will fail.
  • Your drone is set to save JPG, not RAW or DNG.
  • You've planned for 10–100 images with 70–80% overlap between shots.

How to fly for a model you can trust

Model quality starts with the flight, not with Aurora's processing. Fly it well with optimal image overlap, and everything downstream — the 3D mesh, the LIDAR, the map image, the design you build on top of it — comes out sharper.

Flying video instead of stills? See How to upload Drone Video in Drone Mapping.

Fly a circle around the property

One orbit around the building, camera angled in to frame the house, captures both the roof and the walls in a single pass. It's also easier to fly consistently than a grid, so it's what we recommend.

  • Circle at roughly 30 meters (100 ft).
    • For a more complete 3D mesh with the sides of the buildings, we recommend 2 circle flight paths. One from 150-200 ft and another from 50-100 ft, just be careful to watch out for obstructions when flying lower.

  • Angle your camera toward the building, not straight down. That's what captures walls and roof edges together, not just the roof from above.
    • We recommend an angle of about 15°-30° for the higher circle, and about 30°-45° for the lower circle
  • Make sure the entire building (from top to bottom, including all corners and edges), and some ground and sky are always in the picture frame.
  • Steep pitch or a tall section? Add another, lower circle to fill in the height detail one pass might miss.

Image count and overlap

  • Plan for 40–90 images (10 is the minimum). More images generally produce better results.
  • Keep 60–80% overlap between shots. Less overlap gives Aurora less to reconstruct from, and gaps in the model usually trace back to gaps in image overlap.

Watch for obstructions

Trees and nearby structures block the camera's view of what's behind them. If a wall or roof section is hidden, expect a gap there. That's a camera limitation, not something Aurora can build around.

Uploading your images, and choosing your path

  1. Open your project and find the Drone mapping section.
  2. Click Import files.
  3. Upload your raw drone images.
  • Max 25 MB per image
  • JPG only
  • Stay in the upload modal until every file finishes uploading
  1. Once your images finish uploading, choose how you want to move forward: Already have a design on this project? Drone mapping works for post-sale true-ups too — see the merge option under Drone Expert Model below.
  • Continue with Standalone drone mapping. Aurora processes your images into a LIDAR surface, 3D mesh, and map image, nothing else. Pick this if you want to see your own data first, or you're not sure yet whether you need a fully modeled roof.
  • Request Drone Expert Model. You'll get everything included in standalone drone mapping, plus an expert-built roof model built directly from your drone data. Your Drone Expert Model is automatically requested as soon as processing completes. Pick this if you know you want an expert-built model and don't want to request one separately later.
    • Starting fresh? You'll get a new roof model built from your drone mapping.
    • Truing up a sold design? If the project already has an existing design, you will have the option to import your system design into your new site model instead of starting over. 
      Note: Merge is only available when Drone Expert Model is requested at this step. If you continue standalone first and request an Expert Model afterward, you'll get a new roof model, but you won't be able to merge it into an existing design.
  1. Click Process.

Either way, Aurora builds a custom LIDAR source, a 3D mesh, and a scaled top-down map image from your images. Processing usually takes 15–20 minutes, and can run up to 40 minutes for larger uploads. It runs in the background, so feel free to leave the project and come back once it's done.

If you go standalone first, you are not locked out of a drone-based Expert Model. You can still request an Expert Model once you've seen your mesh and our team will model it based on your drone map. Keep in mind that this gets you a new roof model that cannot be merged with an existing design automatically. Merge is only available if you request a Drone Expert Model at upload.

Reviewing your model

Once processing finishes, click Review model to check that your drone data, and your roof model if you requested one, came through the way you expected.

Accept or Reject Model

If your model looks right, click Accept. Your drone LIDAR, 3D mesh, and map image import into your project. The map image and LIDAR are pre-selected for use in your designs. You can turn on the 3D mesh from View settings. 

If you requested a Drone Expert Model for a sold system, accepting also gives you the option to import an existing design, automatically placing it on your new site model. A dropdown lists the designs already on the project. Choose the existing system you want to true up, and it merges into the new, drone-grounded site model.

If the model doesn't look right, click Reject Model and re-upload. You can only have one processed drone upload per project, so a new upload replaces the last one.

Using your model

Once Accepted, from there you can:

Drone mapping gives you accurate underlying geometry, but it doesn't lock you into one modeling path or restrict any standard Design Mode tool.

In Design Mode, find your drone map image under Map dropdown > Drone Image, and your surface model under LIDAR > Source > Drone LIDAR, in any design tied to a project with processed drone imagery. 

For more on working with imagery generally, see How to Upload Custom Imagery (Including Drone Imagery).

About your 3D mesh

Your 3D mesh renders directly in the project as a toggleable layer under View settings, separate from your LIDAR surface and map image. Turn it on to see a textured 3D view of the property, built from your own flight rather than standard imagery.

A few things to know about your 3D Mesh:

  • Measure directly on the mesh. Use the 3D ruler tool to click a start and end point on the mesh surface and get distance and height, including across slopes and valleys. See the Ruler Tool article for details.
  • Spot obstructions. The mesh makes it easy to see vents, chimneys, skylights, and other roof features while you're reviewing, before you start designing.
  • Sparse areas show up as gaps. If your flight didn't fully capture a wall, roof section, or angle, that area shows up as a hole in the mesh rather than a filled-in guess. A gap just means the flight didn't get coverage there. Treat the mesh as a strong visual reference, not a survey-grade measurement.

Using pre-processed (third-party) drone data

Already processed your drone data in another tool? Upload it directly:

  • A custom drone map orthophoto (GeoTIFF) as a custom image. It scales automatically from the GPS data in the file (max 200 MB).
  • A custom LIDAR (digital surface model, or DSM). In LIDAR Inspector, click Upload DSM (max 250 MB).

Note: Aurora does not support uploading a custom 3D Mesh at this time. 

Known limitations

In some cases, your model may not turn out the way you expect. These come from the physics of photogrammetry, not from Aurora's processing:

  • Bare deciduous trees (winter). Leafless branches don't reflect enough signal for accurate reconstruction. Hand-modeling trees in Design Mode is the standard workaround.
  • Small thin structures: Small poles, ladders or powerlines face the same challenges as bare trees described above.
  • Heavy snow cover. Snow hides roof edges and ground features the model needs.
  • Very dark or highly reflective roofs. These can produce gaps in the surface model.

FAQs

What is drone mapping?

Drone mapping turns raw drone images into a custom LIDAR source, a 3D mesh, and a scaled top-down map image, capturing elevation and geometry across roofs, terrain, and surrounding structures. You use that output to support accurate design and modeling.

What drones work with drone mapping?

Any drone that captures GPS-tagged JPEG images or Video works, regardless of brand or model. We commonly see the DJI Mini series (Mini 4 Pro, Mini 5) and DJI Air/Mavic series in the field, but there's no fixed list of supported models. If you're not sure yours will work, the flight and image requirements above are what matter, not the specific drone.

Who can upload and process drone images?

Anyone with Design Mode or Sales Mode access and project editing permissions.

Note: Drone Mapping is only available on Build, Grow, and Scale plans. Basic, Premium, and Foundation plans don't currently have access — contact your account team to learn about upgrading.

Does drone data replace standard imagery?

No. Drone data supplements standard imagery included in Aurora, and you can toggle it on or off as needed. If satellite imagery is not sufficient for a project location, drone data can be used as an alternate imagery source.

Do I have to pay for drone mapping?

Drone mapping itself is free. The Drone Expert Model expert-built roof model, should you request it, is priced at the standard Expert Model credit rate. There is no added charge for it being drone-based.

Can I upload my own pre-processed drone imagery from third-party software?

Yes. See Using pre-processed (third-party) drone data above.

Why did my image processing fail?

The most common reasons:

  1. Not enough images (10 is the minimum).
  2. Not enough overlap between shots.
  3. Images missing GPS data.
  4. Your project pin is too far from where you actually flew.

Can I import a Drone Expert Model into an existing system design if I request it after processing?

No. System import is only available if you request Drone Expert Model at upload. Requesting it afterward gets you a new roof model, not an import.

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