As you mentioned Pix4Dcapture can be installed only on Android and iOS devices for now. Using desktop devices with Pix4Dcapture is not in the pipeline at the moment.
It is not possible to directly design and fly a polygonal mission with the Android app at the moment. However, a workaround would be to fly several smaller rectangular missions, to adjust them according some reference points on the map background, and to process all the images together in Pix4Dmapper. This is facilitated since the grid missions are displayed and so can be adjusted on the same map background.
Resuming a mission is currently an option only in the Android version of Pix4Dcapture. In Android when a mission is interrupted because of low battery or bad flying conditions, the incomplete portion is saved so that it can be flown later (e.g. after changing the battery).
Mission resume is not supported yet by iOS version of the app, but it is in our pipeline and our developers are working on it. However, we are not able to give a precise time frame for the introduction of mission resume in iOS version at the moment.
Since the latest Android version 3.2.1 it is possible to save offline background (roadmap or satellite) per project for several zoom levels. They are loaded only if there is no Internet connection. Additionally, in the coming version the option of having alternate map providers will be available. Thus, you will have the option to select an alternate basemap from preset defaults.
Regarding the background map on iOS, it is possible to cache them before going to the field when you have Internet connection in the office. They will remain on the device for 2-3 days depending on how the temporary memory of the device is used. You can take advantage of these temporary background maps to plan flights without Internet connection.
Good afternoon - I see that this post was last visited on 9/29/2016. Has there been any advancement in the planning capabilities on a desktop, to then be uploaded via cloud to the ios or android for use in the field.
This would be a beneficial feature for one particular application in which we are required to collect data a certain distance from a point in a lateral direction, and a different distance from a point in a longitudinal direction. I’m currently using Google Earth to measure those distances and find waypoints to use in Pix4DCapture. It would be cool to actually be able to generate that flight plan in the office and upload it, thus being able to have several different flight sites ready to go at once.
Polygon missions are very very important, rectangular or square properties rarely exist compared to all others. This limitation results in lost flight time, processing time and excessive configuration to eliminate the cameras. Drone Deploy allows this to be done in their application so I am really curious why Pix4D has not been able to? Non-polygon missions have been the app killer for me for this reason and I hope it changes because I favor the Pix4D app but go to Drone Deploy for mission planning for this reason. I would much rather have one app for photogrammetry than two installed on my phone.
@Devin it is possible to import .kml/.kmz file into the Android version of the app. This way you can e.g. export an area from Google Earth and import it to our app later. You can also draw and import polygons that represent e.g. boundaries of your mission (not used as flight lines).
@mikel
The polygon flight on Android is currently under development but was a bit delayed because of other priorities. Rest assured that we are considering integrating this option.
Is there any solution for saving flight plans on our IOS tablet ?
We would like to prepare a couple of flight plans before going on the field but it’s currently impossible…
Only flown missions can be review on “mission manager”, but we actually don’t need it, we would better have prepared missions beforehand.
At the moment it is not possible to plan the mission in the office and save it for later using the iOS version of the app. Note that this feature is already available on the Android version.
We are already considering to implement the option to save missions on iOS, as a rough estimation it could be available sometime until the end of summer.
Hello, I would also really appreciate the ability to plan flights off site. I sometimes have large distances to travel to the site and would greatly benefit from pre planning the flight and then just double checking it on site prior to flying.
I would also like to see a spiral flight path for linear asset modelling. I would like to highlight a corridor to be photographed and then the app creates an overlapping spiral flight path running up the corridor, we are starting to look into extended and beyond visual line of sight applications and this would enable us to capture excellent data. mostly we are performing tower inspections along a path and the towers dont come out too well with just a criss cross flight path, I tend to need several orbits of each tower and it is currently not possible to do this in anything other than ardupilot mission planner.
Has a feature been implemented to allow the creation of flight plans on the desktop that can then be sent to an Android device? We are currently using an Android phone to plan flights, but it is a bit fiddly. We have good GIS data of the areas that we would like to survey and would prefer to develop the flight plan on the desktop.
We are aware of the KML upload feature, which would help, but when we upload a KML to a project it does not show up. Is there a known bug with this function? If no what is the correct coordinate reference system to use, we assumed it is 4326 as this is the one used by Google Earth (World Geodetic System 1984 Used by the GPS satellite). We’ve also tried 3857 as we know a lot of web maps use the web Mercator, but to no avail.
We are considering the possibility to plan the flight on desktop and import it to Pix4Dcapture. I just reported your need to increase the priority of this feature for future development of the app.
Note that the correct workflow to import .kml/.kmz is described in this article.
Let me know if you need help.
Hi there, has there been any update re setting up a flight plan/polygon on a desktop application (GIS/Google Earth) and importing to Pix4Dcapture for IOS? This is something that would be hugely beneficial for us.
Count me in for desktop planning and being able to upload to iOS device. I have projects that are irregular shaped requiring multiple flights, and it would save lots of time to be able to plan before heading out into the field. Its too clunky to do it on the tablet and its not easy to line up flights next to each other and get the right amount of overlap. Even multiple battery missions on iOS would be beneficial, but desktop planning is the way to go.
We definitely need a way to be able to plan on desktop, ideally being able to import KML files too. It seems strange that only Android can import KML but only iOS can fly polygon missions. Dronedeploy is a much easier planning app to use, you need to catch up with them.
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