Fly a Panorama flight with Site Scan Flight for ArcGIS

Summary

Flying and creating 360-degree panorama photos is done with Site Scan Flight for ArcGIS Panorama Mode. This flight mode captures a complete view of the operating site and surrounding areas, including the area under the drone. This is an excellent tool to use for tracking project progression and marketing.

Procedure

Flight planning screen

1. Open the Site Scan Flight for ArcGIS app and select an existing project, or tap Create New Project.

2. Select Panorama from the Flight Modes screen.

3. From the map view, select the name and location for the flight.

4. Tap Next, and under Flight Settings, select:
   • the Altitude to capture the photos
   • the Return Altitude to which the drone climbs to before returning to the starting point
   • Overlap - adjusts the overlap between individual photos to allow a seamless panoramic view
   • Low Light Mode

Note:
The greater the Overlap percentage, the more photos the flight requires. However the closer the flight is to a structure or building, the larger the overlap should be. The default and recommended overlap for most flights is 30%, with the minimum overlap being 10% and the maximum 70%. Tap and drag the green circle to move it to the desired location on the photo.

Note:
This screen also allows unlocking DJI No-Fly zones, if flying a DJI drone, and checking any FAA Advisories around the flight area. It also displays the expected number of photographs the flight takes.

5. Once the options are set, tap the Pre-flight checklist button to start the pre-flight checklist.

• Once the drone starts the flight, the progress bar on the bottom of the screen indicates the progress of the flight, while the numbers at the bottom shows the number of photos taken versus the total number of photos required for the flight.
• During flight, pause the mission by pressing the Pause button on the bottom right of the screen.
• When the panorama photo is complete, the aircraft returns home. 
• Upon landing, the app retrieves the flight data from the aircraft. This may take a few seconds to complete.
• After the flight data has been retrieved, the app displays the number of photos taken and geotagged.

Flights screen

1. After the flight data is retrieved, tap the X on the upper left of the screen to go back to the Flight Modes menu.
2. Click the notification on the upper left to open the Flights screen.
3. Click the Get Images button to start the image download.

4. After the download is complete, the Get Images button changes to an Upload to Cloud button. Connect to the internet to upload the images.

After upload of images to the storage cloud is complete. When the progress bar at the bottom is fully loaded, the upload is complete.

Process Flight

This procedure processes the images taken by the drone into a composite panoramic image. When a flight is uploaded to the Scan Manager for ArcGIS web app, processing starts automatically. Flights can also be manually processed, as follows:

1. Log in to Site Scan Manager for ArcGIS, and select the project on the left sidebar that contains the flight to process, Alternatively, click the Projects button to select it.

2. Click the flight name at the top left to display a drop-down menu showing all the different flights available within that project. Use the arrows pointing left and right on the sides of the image view to scroll between them.

3. After verifying the flight, click the Process button on the bottom left corner.

At this point the processing phase starts, and a pop-up notification shows the estimated processing time on the bottom right corner.

4. Once processing is complete, view your panorama photo. Click the flight just processed to be redirected to the photo.

On the image side of the screen, view and move the panorama photo:

• Click the photo and drag the mouse to move around the photo. Double-click a place in the image to zoom in.
• On the left-hand side of the screen is the photo navigator that shows all the photos that were taken during your flight. Download, enhance, or zoom in to any of the photos.

5. To download the panorama photo as a jpg file, click the Export button at the bottom of the thumbnail section.

6. From the Data Exports dialog, download the panorama photo as a whole or download all the photos included in the panorama as a zip file.