How to fly the same mission again - fly consistent missions over time

PIX4Dcapture PIX4Dcapture Questions/Troubleshooting
1

Hi

First of all i would like to say that I am very impressed with the Pix4d platform. The app, desktop and cloud software is brilliant and the support and YouTube tutorials are some of the best and easiest to follow of any tutorial videos I have watched! Very well explained. The free trial and free version of the desktop software are great and keep me interested and up to date with advances in the software you make.

Anyway, onto my question!

Is it possible to create a flight plan in pix4d capture app and then re fly the same mission at a later date. I would like to monitor the movement of beach material and to do this accurately I would like to re fly the same grid and have images taken at the same place.

Is this possible in the app or is this something pix4d are looking to develop?

This would be a very useful feature for construction sites, as the surveyor could pre define / set up mission types, e.g. a ‘stockpile flight’ or a more generic ‘site flight’ with different settings (nadir vs oblique, flight height etc). Then they could quickly capture the information. For me, at the moment the time taken to set up the flight settings/plan is about the same as the flight itself.

Thanks

Matt

2

Hi Matt, 

First of all, thank you for your interest in Pix4D products and for your positive feedback, we really appreciate it.

Regarding your question, an easy way to re fly the same mission at a later date but keeping the same mission plan/images position, is using the “Duplicate project” function available in Pix4Dcapture for Android. You will add your mission(s) to a new project and then you will be able to duplicate it and re fly the missions included in your project as many times you want, without having to go through the settings/plan settings procedure.

If you need more information about how to create and manage your projects, you can have a look at this support article: https://support.pix4d.com/hc/en-us/articles/208820126

After you’ve created a new project and set up your flight plan(s), you can follow this steps:

  • In the Home Screen, tap Project List and identify the project you want to duplicate

  • Long press on the project and tap “Duplicate” at top right

The duplicated project will include the flight plan(s) and also the offline basemap tiles and KML/KMZ if you previously added them to your original project.

Now that your original project has been duplicated:

  • Enter in the duplicated project and select the mission you would like to re-fly

  • Tap “Open” and start your mission

Unfortunately, this feature is available for Android only at the moment, but we’re planning to include it also on iOS in future releases of the app.

Hope this helps

Best regards

3

Hi. Thanks for the information. What is the timeline for adding this feature to the iOS app?

Thanks

Matt

4

Hi Matt,

It is difficult to give precise timeline for this new feature on iOS but as a rough estimation we would say not before end of February.

Regards,

5

any update, was trying to figure out how to do this today and couldnt see an easy way to do it in the field. 

 

6

Thank you for your interest!
It is currently under development on iOS like the multi-battery flight.

7

Hi Julie, I am running an iOS device and have a flight to do in a couple of days, which will need repeating in approximately 6 months.  Am I safe to do this flight using Pix4DCapture and have the ability to duplicate it in 6 months time, or am I best to use an alternative app for the capture of this project?

8

@Matthew, it is possible to Save and Duplicate missions with the latest iOS version (from 2.2.0).

This feature allows users to plan/fly a mission and Save it in the mission manager. If you e.g. need to repeat the same mission later you simply open the specific mission in the mission manager and use the duplicate option to create an identical one.  

More about new features can be found in technical release notes: 200798215

9

A nice feature would be to plan once and fly as many times as needed, and keep a simple flight log within the same screen that shows when (Date & Time) the previous flights were done.

In the construction business this is a must and very useful tool, directly related to the Pix4D BIM solution.

10

Hi Oscar,

Thank you for your valuable feedback!

Best,

11

Very interesting branch for mee. I use iOS (iPad mini 4) and finde such feature: when I duplicate a grid project with size longer 1000 m (for example 100 * 1500 m), in duplicated project software cropped grid mission to 100 * 1000 m.

12

Hi Sergey,

Thank you for your feedback. Indeed the duplication of a mission grid was limited to a certain surface. In the next release of iOS version of Pix4Dcapture, this limitation will be removed so that you will be able to duplicate easily your missions even for large areas.

Best,

13

Sounds great! Thank you)

14

Hi,

I am doing my PhD research looking at how vegetation changes along grazing gradients during the growing season using UAV. I have to repeat the flights 3x and the duplicate project feature really helps greatly. My biggest challenge is that my missions have to overlay the gradients which I need to ground truth, is it possible to add gps coordinates in the app for planning the missions?

15

Hi Sara,

The best option I see to achieve your goal is simply using Ground Control Points(GCPs) rather than aiming to map the exact area using the image acquisition software. The GPS of the drone is not accurate will have some error, even though you fly the exact boundary every time, you won’t be able to overlay your results perfectly.

You can map the same area using the import .kml/.kmz file feature available in the android version of the Pix4Dcapture app. For more information, I would recommend you to go through our support article on (Android) Import .kml/.kmz file.

Regards,

16

Thank you for your helpful response. Is it possible to then plan missions on my android phone and then share them for import onto the iPad?

17

Hi Sara,

It is not possible to transfer a mission between the phone. The missions are saved on the internal memory of the device.

Regards,

18

Hi,

It looks like this limitation was never resolved for iOS since 2018, as I’m currently facing this issue. I fly missions over transects that are more than 1000m, and it isn’t helpful that when I duplicate it trims the planned mission to only 1000m. It is already hard enough that one plans the missions without kml/ kmz files :-/.

19

I don’t find this an issue
When you open a project, highlight the mission you want to replicate and hit the + button.
A duplicate mission is created that is exactly the same as the highlighted mission.

I have had more than 15 missions in 1 project without problems.
You can also refly the same mission.

Jeff