How Omniris lets you share captures with colleagues and clients, deliver finished work, and connect it to the other systems you use, with every hand-over recorded and protected files handled the same careful way on every path.
Drone work is only useful once it reaches the people who need it: a colleague who checks it, a client who paid for it, a designer who works from it, a crew who acts on it. Omniris gives you several ways to hand work over. Each one is built for a different kind of recipient, and each one leaves a record of what was shared, with whom and when.
A one-time sharing code gives another account read-only access, full access, a frozen copy or the files themselves.
An organization has one shared vault. Managers, pilots and viewers each get the access their role allows.
A public link opens in any web browser, with no account. Choose view only or view and download, add a password and an expiry date.
A Site Navigator link shows chosen dates and map layers of one site, with measuring tools, and nothing else in your vault.
Pilots deliver results straight into the client's vault. Clients review them, accept them, or send them back.
Download single files, whole folders, a ready-made sharing package or a standard map catalog, in the browser or with the desktop app.
A findings API with webhooks, links to Procore and Autodesk Forma, and Publish to ArcGIS for your own ArcGIS portal.
Some files in Omniris are protected: encrypted in storage with OpenTDF, an open standard for files that carry their own access rules. Throughout this paper, and in one table near the end, we say exactly what happens to protected files on each path: whether they are opened for the recipient, kept encrypted, or not sent at all.
Your vault is your private storage in Omniris: folders of photos, videos, maps, 3D models and documents. Nobody else can see into it until you share something.
To share a folder with another Omniris user, open the Sharing page, pick the folder (or your whole vault) and choose a level of access. You can also right-click any folder and choose Share. Omniris makes a sharing code: sixteen letters and digits, such as K7QD-2MXR-9TWA-4HLE. Send it to the person by any means you like. They enter it on their own Sharing page under Shared With Me.
| Access level | What the recipient gets | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Read Only | Opens and views the folder from their own account, and can download from it. Cannot add, change or delete anything. | Reviewers, inspectors, a client checking progress |
| Full Access | Everything Read Only allows, plus upload, rename, move and delete inside the folder. | A partner who works in the same folder |
| Snapshot | A frozen, read-only copy of the folder, placed in their own vault, as it was when they redeemed the code. Later changes to your folder do not reach it. | A fixed record: what was handed over, on that day |
| Transfer | The files themselves. They move out of your vault into theirs, and the code is then closed. | Handing a project over for good |
A shared folder appears in the recipient's sidebar and on their Shared With Me list, which shows who shared it and the access level. They can hide it from the sidebar, or remove their own access at any time. Your own list shows each code, whether it has been redeemed, and by whom.
A snapshot is a read-only copy of a folder tree that points at the same stored files as the original, so nothing is duplicated. The recipient sees it in their own vault, with their own custody history for each copy, starting with a note of where it came from. Its files can be viewed and downloaded but not changed, not even by the person who holds them. Snapshots are also how a pilot delivers work to a client (see From pilot to client).
A transfer moves files, rather than sharing them. When the recipient redeems the code, Omniris checks that their storage has room, then moves the files one by one, with a progress view they can follow. Each file keeps its custody history, which records the transfer. Failed files can be retried. When the transfer finishes, the code is closed automatically.
Files under a legal hold or a retention policy (rules that stop evidence being changed or removed) never change vault. If a folder holds any, you are warned with the list before the code is made, and those files stay with you while everything else moves. A delivered snapshot cannot be transferred.
When you share a folder that holds protected files with Read Only or Full Access, the recipient is given the right to open them, and the files are updated so that right is built into each one. This runs in the background; the recipient can follow it under Granting Permission. A snapshot recipient is given the same right. In a transfer, protected files are moved and stay protected, now under the new owner.
An organization is a company account with one shared vault. Managers invite people by email (the invitation is valid for 30 days) and choose each person's role:
| Role | In the organization's vault |
|---|---|
| Manager | Read and write everywhere. Creates jobs, assigns pilots, manages members, can publish any folder on a public link. |
| Pilot | Read-only across the vault, and can upload into the folders of jobs assigned to them or to the organization. |
| Viewer | Read-only, and only in the folders a manager has granted. Everything else in the vault is invisible to them. |
Managers change a viewer's folders at any time; clearing the list removes all of that viewer's access. Removing a member ends their access and keeps the record of their membership. If an organization is deactivated, its vault becomes read-only for everyone.
Most people you work with will not have an Omniris account. For them there are public links: web addresses that open in any browser, on a computer or a phone, with nothing to install and no sign-in. There are three kinds.
| Link | Made from | The recipient sees |
|---|---|---|
| Public Link | Any folder you own: right-click, Public Link | The folder and everything in it, as a gallery they can browse |
| Public Share 3D | A 3D model's results folder: right-click, Public Share 3D (offered only when the folder holds a model) | The 3D model, straight away, in the 3D viewer. No files or folders are shown. |
| Site Navigator link | The Share button in Site Navigator, or "Site Navigator view" in the Public Link dialog | A map of one site with the dates and map layers you chose, and the tools to measure them |
Only the owner of a folder can publish it. In an organization's vault, that means the organization's managers; pilots and viewers cannot put organization folders on a public link.
The link opens a page with the label you gave it and your name (never your email address). If there is a password, they enter it first. Then:
| View Only | View + Download | |
|---|---|---|
| Photos | A viewing copy, up to 4,096 pixels on the long side, with the details embedded in the image file (including GPS) removed. The page still shows the capture details listed above. | The original file |
| Videos | Played through Omniris; the original file is never handed out | Played, and downloadable |
| Download buttons | None; download requests are refused | Every file. A map can also be converted to JPG or PNG on the page; the converted file stays ready for 24 hours. |
Every download through a public link is written into that file's custody history before the file is sent. If the record cannot be written, the download does not happen.
Every photo, video, map or 3D model a visitor opens on the page is written into that file's custody history as a view, the same way views are recorded everywhere in Omniris: on a best-effort basis, merged per visitor, per file, per 10 minutes, and shown on certificates as counts. The record says whether the link was view only or view and download, so it shows which column of the table above the visitor was served from.
Every link address ends in 24 random characters, so it cannot be guessed. Treat a link like a key, though: anyone who has it can open it, which is why a password and an expiry date are worth setting.
Site Navigator is the Omniris map view of one site over time (see the site management white paper). A Site Navigator link shares that view instead of a folder. You choose:
The recipient gets the map with exactly those dates and layers, and nothing else in your vault. They can switch between dates and use many of the same tools you do: measure stockpile volumes and get a volume report, draw elevation profiles, compare two dates, read vegetation index values by zone, read temperatures on thermal maps, and look through the findings you shared. Nothing they do is saved into your account. On a View + Download link, a Files view also lets them download the shared maps (as GeoTIFF, or converted to JPG or PNG) and, if you shared them, the source images.
Maximum detail limits how far the recipient can zoom in; measurements still use the full-resolution data. You can edit a Site Navigator link later: its dates, layers, source images, detail, access, password and findings, but not its site or its expiry. Recipients pick up the change the next time the page loads. When you revoke one, maps already open in someone's browser stop within 10 minutes.
Each map layer a recipient puts on the map is written into that layer's custody history as a view, recorded the same best-effort way as every other view.
Sharing gives someone access to work that stays in Omniris. Delivering means preparing it to leave: a tidy package, a download, or a standard catalog that other software can open.
A processed map job produces many files, not all of which a client needs. A sharing package is a clean folder holding only the ones you pick. Right-click the job's results folder and choose Create Sharing Package, then tick:
The package is made beside the results, with each layer given a plain name, such as RGB or DSM. Each copy carries its custody history, and the copy is recorded on both the original and the new file. Your full results stay as they were. Share the package by code or public link, or transfer it, like any other folder. A package made inside a protected folder is protected too.
A 3D model is normally thousands of small files. A .3dmodel file holds them all in one, so a model can be handed over, moved or kept as a single item. Omniris opens it in the 3D viewer directly, reading only the parts the view needs, so it does not have to be unpacked or downloaded first, including on a public link. It is a standard ZIP archive underneath: rename it to .zip and any computer can open it.
The Omniris desktop app (for Windows, macOS and Linux) downloads to a folder on your computer instead of to a ZIP:
On a finished map job, the STAC bundle button downloads the job's results as one ZIP that is also a STAC catalog (SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog, the open standard for describing map data). Unzipped, it opens as it is in QGIS 3.40 or later and other STAC tools: each map, point cloud and 3D model is listed with its footprint on the Earth (where the file makes it knowable), the time range the photos were taken in and, where Omniris has recorded one, a checksum that proves the file is unchanged. No account or connection back to Omniris is needed to use it.
| Export | Formats | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Maps as images | JPG or PNG from any GeoTIFF | — |
| Terrain for CAD | DXF contours, DXF surface, LandXML surface, on a State Plane or UTM grid | Maps you can measure |
| AI detections | GeoJSON, CSV, KML | AI detection white paper |
| Findings | GeoJSON, CSV, KML | Findings you can act on |
When a client hires a pilot through Omniris, the results travel inside Omniris from the pilot's vault to the client's. The files never leave Omniris on the way.
The pilot uploads the flight and the processed results into a folder and links that folder to the job. That folder is what will be delivered.
With an optional note to the client. On a job given to an organization rather than one pilot, an organization manager submits.
A read-only snapshot of the folder appears in the client's own vault, or in the organization's vault for an organization's job. Each file has its own custody history, starting with where it came from. Any findings the pilot recorded on it are copied into the client's findings, and the job's tags are applied.
The client sees a notification in Omniris, and a message is posted in the job's conversation with the pilot.
Everything can be opened and viewed. Downloading is held back until the client accepts the results.
Accept completes the job and unlocks downloads, and the client can rate the pilot from 1 to 5. Reject needs a note saying what is wrong, and returns the job to the pilot.
Re-delivery. When a pilot submits again after a rejection, the new delivery replaces the previous one, and the client's work moves with it: findings they recorded, and corrections they made to AI detections, follow to the matching new files. If the client has placed a legal hold or retention policy on the earlier delivery, or the job is under a legal hold, the earlier delivery is kept and the new one arrives beside it.
Protected deliveries. If the delivered folder holds protected files, the client is given the right to open them when the results are submitted. The files stay encrypted in storage.
Invoicing. On the Omniris cloud and the data center edition, accepting results generates and sends the invoice for the job automatically. On-premises installs do not invoice.
Pilots also run jobs for clients of their own, who may not use Omniris at all. For these, Submit to Client on the job makes a public link to the job's delivery folder and opens a ready-written email in the pilot's own email program, addressed to the client, so it comes from the pilot's address and signature. The pilot chooses:
Submit to Client can be used at any point in the job, and again later. Each new send makes a new link and switches the previous one off, so only one link to the client's work is live at a time; the dialog warns about this before it happens. The pilot closes the job with Mark complete.
Integrations send your work, or news about it, into the other systems your teams already use.
An API (application programming interface) lets another program talk to Omniris directly. The Omniris API is built around findings: the issues recorded on your sites, each with a location, a status, evidence and a custody history. A work-order system, a GIS or a script can read your findings and, if you allow it, update them.
The API never returns storage locations, and a token cannot open protected evidence pictures (a token is not a person, so it has no right to decrypt).
A webhook is a message Omniris sends to your system the moment something happens, so it does not have to keep asking. Webhooks are set up under Findings, Settings, Webhooks, by the same people who manage tokens.
Connect a Procore or Autodesk account from the Integrations tab of your Account page, and link each site to a project. Then Send to Procore or Send to Forma on any file or folder sends it to the project's documents, and findings stay in step with Procore Observations or Forma Issues in both directions. Procore can also show an Omniris site inside Procore itself, once you have allowed it. The full story is in From design to measured progress.
Publish to ArcGIS sends GeoTIFF maps from Omniris into your own ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise. Right-click a folder, or open the menu of a single GeoTIFF, and choose it; then give your portal's address and sign in with your ArcGIS user name and password, or an ArcGIS API key.
A drone maker's flight app can connect with a partner key and read a pilot's active jobs: the job details and the flight areas, as KML or GeoJSON, so a flight plan can start from the job itself. This connection is read-only.
A protected file is stored encrypted, and only people given the right can open it. Each way of handing work over treats protected files in one of three ways: the recipient is given the right to open them, the files are kept encrypted, or they are not sent at all. Here is every path in one place.
| Path | What happens to protected files |
|---|---|
| Sharing code: Read Only or Full Access | The recipient is given the right to open them, and each file is updated to include that right. The files stay encrypted in storage. |
| Sharing code: Snapshot | The recipient is given the right to open them. The copies point at the same encrypted files. |
| Sharing code: Transfer | Moved, still encrypted, now under the new owner. |
| Marketplace delivery | The client is given the right to open them when results are submitted. The files stay encrypted. |
| Public Link and Public Share 3D | Opened by Omniris for the link's visitors. They see the files, and on a View + Download link can download readable copies. A protected map is shown on the page as a preview image of up to 4,096 pixels on either kind of link; on a View + Download link, Download gives the file itself. A protected 3D model opens on a public link and on a Public Share 3D link, decrypted piece by piece as the viewer asks for each part, with no decrypted copy kept. The stored files stay encrypted. |
| Site Navigator link | Never included. Protected map layers cannot be chosen. |
| Sharing package | A package made in a protected folder is protected too. |
| Single download, and every download in the desktop app | Opened on the way, only for people allowed to open them, so they receive a usable file. |
| Folder or selection ZIP in the browser | Left out of the ZIP and listed by name before the download starts; download them one at a time, or with the desktop app, to receive them opened. |
| STAC bundle | Included in their encrypted form, and marked as encrypted in the catalog. |
| Findings API | A token cannot open protected evidence pictures. Evidence files uploaded through the API into a protected folder are encrypted automatically. |
| Findings webhooks | No files are ever sent. |
| Send to Procore, Send to Forma | Not sent; listed as "protected — not sent". A person allowed to open them can release them one file or one folder at a time, after a confirmation. Each release is written into the file's custody history. |
| Publish to ArcGIS | Not sent; listed back to you by name. |
A public link is for people outside Omniris, who have no right of their own to open protected files. So Omniris opens protected files in a shared folder for anyone holding the link. If a folder must stay readable only by named people, share it with a sharing code instead, or set a password and a short expiry on the link.
The companion papers on security, encryption and data control and Evidence you can prove describe protection, custody and legal holds in full.
Every hand-over path has edges. These are the ones worth knowing.
Deliver to marketplace clients straight into their vault, or to your own clients by a link and an email from your own address, with a record of every download.
Give the owner a Site Navigator link to the site's progress maps, send deliverables to Procore or Forma, and keep findings in step with the site team's issues.
Publish orthomosaics to your own ArcGIS portal, or take a STAC bundle into QGIS, without re-processing anything.
Feed findings to your work-order system through the API and webhooks, and send crews a link instead of a file they cannot open.
Share chosen dates of vegetation maps with a grower, with no source images and no account needed, at the level of detail you choose.
Hand over a frozen snapshot that the recipient cannot alter, with its own custody history for every copy, and every download on the record.