Vent: Blew $400 on a drone mapping package that couldn't handle our site

I bought this all-in-one drone photogrammetry software bundle back in June after seeing a demo at a trade show. Thought it would save us time on site surveys for a mixed-use project we're doing outside Atlanta. First real job using it, the thing kept crashing on the point cloud generation and the output was full of gaps. Spent two full days trying to tweak settings and ended up having to hire a survey crew for $2,200 to finish the job. Has anyone else had luck with cheaper mapping tools or is it just not worth cutting corners?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_viola10h agoTop Commenter

I read a surveyor's blog a few months back where they tested that same bundle against a couple of the pricier options. They found the cheap software was basically useless on anything more complicated than a flat open field. The gaps you got in the point cloud are exactly what they warned about with uneven terrain or any kind of mixed vegetation. It seems like the processing algorithms just can't handle real-world complexity like a job site always throws at you. That $2,200 crew is a tough hit, but at least you got the data you needed in the end. Sounds like you learned a hard lesson about the difference between a demo and a real project.

the_emery8h ago

My buddy runs a landscape crew and he tried that exact same approach with some cheap drone mapping software for a big commercial job he was doing. Three hours of flying over this hillside property and the point cloud looked like someone took a shotgun to the data. He ended up having to bring in a guy with a total station to redo the whole thing, cost him like a grand and a half extra. Makes you wonder how these companies even get away with selling that stuff as ready for real work.