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ARGUS User Manual

Mapping overview

ARGUS Mapping runs photogrammetry over drone-captured imagery using OpenDroneMap (ODM) on the cloud. A MappingJob takes a stack of source images, walks them through the ODM pipeline, and drops outputs (ortho, DSM/DTM, point cloud, mesh, 3D tileset) back into the operation. Open the feature from the left-nav Mapping link or from the operation’s Mapping tile.

Output types

Configured via MappingSettings.outputs (MappingOutputType[]):

  • orthomosaic — 2D georeferenced top-down mosaic. GeoTIFF (+ COG).
  • 3d_model — textured 3D mesh. OBJ + glTF.
  • point_cloud — LAS / LAZ.
  • dem — digital elevation model (bare-earth terrain).
  • dsm — digital surface model (top-of-canopy / top-of-structure).
  • ndvi — vegetation index (requires multispectral or NIR band).
  • thermal_map — thermal mosaic from IR-capable payloads.

Plus an implicit archive artifact — the full ODM all.zip output bundle.

Every artifact carries its own format, sizeBytes, bounds, and for rasters resolutionCm, for point clouds pointCount, for meshes vertexCount / faceCount, plus an optional thumbnailUrl and tilesetUrl (Cesium 3D Tiles).

Quality presets

MappingSettings.quality (MappingQuality) selects compute budget:

  • preview — fast low-res validation.
  • low — quick processing, reduced detail.
  • medium — balanced (default).
  • high — high detail, longer processing.
  • ultra — maximum detail.

Other tunables: crs (default EPSG:4326), gsdCm target, useGcps, generateTexture, pointDensity, and a free-form customParams map forwarded to the ODM worker.

Lifecycle

  1. Capture. Fly the mapping pattern with mappingCaptureMode of nadir (2D ortho), oblique (3D mesh), or both. A mission with autoProcessOnCompletion: true auto-spawns a job when it reaches dji_completed; otherwise create the job manually.
  2. Create job. From the Mapping feature (or the operation’s mapping tile), click New mapping job, pick outputs + quality, attach source images.
  3. Upload. Drag-drop or bulk-select JPGs/PNGs/TIFFs/DNGs. Status progresses pending → uploading (per-file byte-level progress) → queued.
  4. Processing. The ODM worker walks the pipeline: initialising → matching → sfm → dense → meshing → texturing → tiling. MappingJob.steps[] streams per-stage progress and progress is the overall 0-100.
  5. Review. On completed, artifacts populate. Open the detail drawer; inline thumbnails + bounds; click an artifact to preview, or hit Download to fetch the presigned S3 URL.
  6. Use. Push a 3D tileset into the active operation’s 3D viewer (ops-mapping-tile), toggle ortho / DSM layers on the ops-map, or attach the job to the mission so it surfaces in the after-action report.

Status model

MappingJobStatus values: pending, uploading, queued, processing, completed, failed, cancelled. Failed jobs keep their log excerpt on MappingJob.error and can be re-run with tweaked settings via Clone job on the detail drawer.

Where jobs live

  • Org-wide — /en/mapping/ lists every MappingJob for your active org, filterable by status, operation, or name.
  • Per-operation — the ops-console Mapping tile scopes to operationId === missionId and is the everyday surface during an active op.