How land surveying and civil engineering firms use drones for topography, corridors, drainage and earthwork, and how Omniris takes a flight from surveyed ground control to checkpoint-tested surfaces and State Plane CAD files. Through all of it, the licensed surveyor decides what the data is fit for.
For surveyors and civil engineers, a drone is a fast way to measure the shape of the ground. One flight can capture what a field crew would otherwise collect shot by shot with a GNSS rover or total station. The deliverables are familiar: an orthophoto, a point cloud, a bare-earth terrain model, contours and a surface for the design software. So are the questions that come with them. Is the data tied to the project's control? Which datum and which foot is it in? How accurate is it, measured against points that were left out of the solution? And who signs for it?
In most of the United States, the answer to the last question is fixed by law. Producing topographic data from aerial imagery or LiDAR is the practice of land surveying in many states, and a licensed professional surveyor is responsible for it [8][9]. That responsibility stays with the surveyor. Omniris gives the surveyor and the engineer a complete, recorded path from photos and control to tested surfaces:
Import surveyed points from the files that Trimble, Leica, Emlid, Septentrio, Stonex, Hi-Target, SurveyPro, Pix4D, Metashape and OpenDroneMap produce, in State Plane, UTM, latitude and longitude, any EPSG code or a project-local grid.
Points held out of the solution are measured on the delivered map: east, north and up errors at every point, and horizontal, vertical and 3D RMSE. They can be measured again later without re-stitching.
Every flight records its horizontal frame and height reference. NAVD88 control is converted through GEOID18 (GEOID12B in Alaska). Where no reliable conversion exists, Omniris refuses and says why.
Contours as DXF, the surface as DXF 3D faces or a LandXML surface, in the site's State Plane zone and its legal unit. Each file names its coordinate system and height reference inside itself.
Contours, slope, aspect, ponding and drainage paths from the terrain model. Volumes and cut and fill against a design surface, each with its uncertainty.
Photos, control, marks, results and exports sit in one evidence vault. Each has a tamper-evident custody history showing who placed, moved or switched what, and when.
What the results are, and where the surveyor's own judgement and certification come in, is set out in What the results are, and what they aren't.
Drone topography serves the same people as any topographic survey: the engineers and designers who design on it [7] and, for an ALTA/NSPS survey, the insured owner, lender and title insurer the survey is certified to [6]. State transportation departments use drones for corridor mapping and for earthwork quantities during construction [12][27]. Two rules shape who may sell the result:
Drone operations themselves fall under the FAA's small-UAS rule, Part 107. Its rules include the 400 ft (122 m) altitude limit above ground level, except within 400 ft of a structure [25].
| Mission | What is flown | Deliverables buyers expect | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topographic survey for site design | A grid of overlapping nadir photos, or drone LiDAR under vegetation, tied to surveyed ground control or to RTK | Orthophoto, point cloud, bare-earth terrain model, contours, and CAD drawing files for civil design software [7][8][27] | Before design [7] |
| ALTA/NSPS topography (Table A item 5) | Same as above, inside a boundary survey | "Vertical relief with the source of information (e.g., ground survey, aerial map), contour interval, datum, with originating benchmark, when appropriate" [6] | With the title survey |
| Planimetric mapping | The same imagery | Planimetric mapping: the features of the site drawn as 2D CAD linework [8][27] | With the topography |
| Corridor mapping | Flights along roads and other transportation corridors [12][27] | For design-grade roadway mapping, Texas DOT asks for 3 in (7.6 cm) orthoimagery, 2D planimetrics, a 3D terrain model and a TIN, with an RMSE accuracy report [27] | For design [27] |
| Drainage design | A field or aerial drainage survey of the site and its contributing watershed, from aircraft or drones, with a field survey added where the ground is hidden (under water or trees) [11] | Terrain models (DEM, DSM, DTM, TIN) and georeferenced aerial photos, which can supply the topographic part of the drainage survey [11] | For hydraulic analysis and design [11] |
| Earthwork volumes and as-builts | Repeat flights of the same site under the same control | 3D terrain models that document construction and support earthwork quantities [12]. North Carolina's board publishes a separate policy for volume computation surveys [8] | During construction [12] |
| Existing conditions in 3D | Oblique and nadir photos of structures and sites | Reality meshes and 3D models [8] | Per project |
Drone LiDAR is used for ALTA topography, including for mapping under forest canopies or dense vegetation [7]. One survey firm writes that drone-based LiDAR can cover extensive terrain, "typically two acres or more", and that LiDAR and ground topography may be combined [7]. A supplemental field survey covers ground that aerial collection cannot see, such as under trees or water [11].
| Standard | What it requires |
|---|---|
| ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards for Digital Geospatial Data, Edition 2 (2023; Version 2, 2024) | Accuracy is stated as RMSE only. The 95% confidence figure is no longer used. At least 30 checkpoints are required, capped at 120 for large projects. Ground control and checkpoints must be at least twice as accurate as the product, and checkpoint survey error is counted in the product's accuracy. Vertical accuracy is tested in non-vegetated areas (NVA, pass or fail) and reported as found in vegetated areas (VVA). Horizontal classes are stated as RMSEH, vertical as RMSEV, with a 3D measure, RMSE3D. An addendum covers best practice for mapping with UAS [1][2][3][4]. |
| FGDC National Standard for Spatial Data Accuracy (NSSDA), FGDC-STD-007.3-1998 | Tests a dataset against at least 20 checkpoints from an independent source of higher accuracy, and reports accuracy at 95% confidence: 1.7308 × RMSEr horizontally and 1.9600 × RMSEz vertically [5]. ASPRS Edition 2 dropped the 95% figure but still shows how to compute it where 95% reporting is required [1]. |
| ALTA/NSPS Minimum Standard Detail Requirements (2026) | Table A item 5 topography: relief, its source, the contour interval, the datum and the benchmark. The survey is certified over the surveyor's seal [6]. |
| State board rules | Who may produce and sell mapping products, and how they are specified. For example, North Carolina has a rule on specifications for topographic and planimetric mapping by ground, airborne and spaceborne surveys, and policies on oblique imaging and volume surveys [8]. |
| USGS Lidar Base Specification (2025 rev. A) and 3DEP quality levels | The common yardstick for LiDAR terrain data. QL1 and QL2 call for 3.9 in (10 cm) RMSEz, and QL0 for 2.0 in (5 cm). QL0 and QL1 require at least about 0.74 pulses per ft² (8 per m²) [23][24]. |
| 14 CFR Part 107 | Who may fly commercially and how high: 400 ft (122 m) above ground level, with a structure exception [25]. |
There is no fixed count of ground control points (GCPs). Texas DOT's design-grade drone mapping specification says each project is unique and needs its own control layout that meets the required accuracy, with the spacing set by the consultant's ASPRS Certified Photogrammetrist. Control panels go in flat, open areas, are set before the flight and must be visible in the imagery, and the layout goes to the project manager before data is collected. Accuracy is then verified at checkpoints, in a report that follows the ASPRS standard [27]. Checkpoints should be spread evenly across the project area as far as possible [2], and they test the data against an independent source of higher accuracy [5]. The ASPRS standard asks for control twice as accurate as the product [2].
An RTK drone corrects its satellite position in flight from a base station or a correction network. One manufacturer specifies RTK-fix positioning of 0.4 in (1 cm) + 1 ppm horizontally and 0.6 in (1.5 cm) + 1 ppm vertically (vendor-reported) [13]. PPK achieves the same after the flight instead. Raw satellite logs recorded on the drone and on a base, without a live correction link, are processed together, and the photos are geotagged with the result [16]. Either way, the base's own position decides where everything lands. One way to fix it is to send a RINEX log of its observations to the National Geodetic Survey's OPUS service, which returns a position tied to the National Spatial Reference System [15]. Drone LiDAR systems quote their own accuracy figures. One specifies 2.0 in (5 cm) horizontal and 1.6 in (4 cm) vertical at 492 ft (150 m) with RTK fixed (vendor-reported) [14].
The current US national datums are NAD83 for positions, which the State Plane Coordinate System of 1983 is built on, and NAVD88 for heights [17][26]. A drone's satellite positions are in a global frame (WGS84 / ITRF), with heights above the ellipsoid. Getting from one to the other is a geodetic transformation, not a constant offset:
A drone takes over much of the shot-by-shot field topography, but not all of it. The Federal Highway Administration says drones map large areas relatively quickly compared with traditional survey and mapping, replacing boots on the ground and speeding up data collection [12]. What remains is just as clear: control and checkpoints are still surveyed on the ground [27], a field survey still covers ground hidden under trees or water [11], and the surveyor still certifies the result over a signature and seal [6]. The practical pain points are well known:
| Use case | What Omniris delivers |
|---|---|
| Topographic survey for site design | Plan the flight, stitch with imported ground control, test with checkpoints, deliver the orthomosaic, DSM, DTM and point cloud, then export contours and a LandXML or DXF surface in State Plane, for the surveyor to review and certify. |
| ALTA/NSPS Table A item 5 | The relief data for the item: contours at the interval you choose, the source flight, and the datum stated in every file. The boundary work, the plat and the certification are the surveyor's. |
| Corridor mapping | A corridor flight pattern, terrain following, long corridors without precise positions split into sections for processing, and a State Plane export that warns when the site crosses a zone boundary. |
| Drainage and grading studies | Slope, aspect, ponding (depth, area and volume of each low spot) and drainage paths from the terrain model, as the terrain input to the engineer's hydrology and hydraulics work. |
| Earthwork volumes and as-builts | Volumes with their uncertainty, cut and fill against a design surface (an imported design, or a LandXML, DXF or GeoTIFF surface), date-against-date comparison, and grade checks on survey-grade flights. |
| Accuracy testing | Checkpoints measured on the delivered map, with per-point errors and horizontal, vertical and 3D RMSE, the measure the ASPRS standard is built on. |
| LiDAR topography | LAS/LAZ processing to a classified point cloud, a terrain model and contours, with a browser viewer and a classification editor. |
| RTK flights | RTK photos are recognised. The site records the correction frame, used by CAD export, terrain analysis and design comparison, and the base type, used to decide whether a flight counts as controlled when it is compared with a design. |
| Existing conditions in 3D | 3D models from the same flight. See the Digital Twins paper. |
| A record of the work | Tamper-evident custody history for photos, control, marks, results and exports, plus signed certificates and legal holds. |
Draw the area, pick the aircraft and camera, and enter the ground resolution or the height. The grid pattern starts at 75% forward and 70% side overlap with the camera straight down. On hilly ground the planner can follow the terrain, from a worldwide terrain model or your own earlier survey. Export for DJI Pilot 2, DJI Fly, Litchi or QGroundControl.
Import the surveyed points from the data collector's file. Tell Omniris whether each file contains control points or checkpoints, and which height reference the elevations use.
When you turn it on, coded (ArUco) targets are found automatically and offered for confirmation. A point marked once is searched for in the nearby photos. An optional sub-pixel step can snap a click to the centre of a high-contrast target. Every mark keeps a history of who placed, moved or removed it.
The photos are checked, priced and processed into an orthomosaic, a surface model (DSM), a terrain model (DTM) and a point cloud. A draft re-stitch at 20% of the price lets you check the fit before the full run.
Checkpoints are measured on the delivered map. Their errors and RMSE lead the job card, the results and the stitch report.
Run terrain analysis for contours, slope, ponding and drainage, and export contours and the surface to CAD in State Plane. Share the folder, publish to ArcGIS, or send it to Procore or Autodesk Forma.
The licensed surveyor reviews the tested result and the stitch report, completes what the drone cannot see, and certifies the survey product. Omniris keeps the record of how it was made.
A saved volume boundary is measured again on every new flight of the site that covers it, giving a volume-over-time chart. Volumes are computed cell by cell over the surface model. You choose the base: a triangulated base through the boundary, a best-fit plane, the lowest or highest point, a custom elevation, or a design surface. Cut, fill and net each come with a plus-or-minus figure, and missing data is reported, not guessed. Against a design, the survey can be compared with an imported design model (IFC, DWG, DXF or DGN with its stated coordinate system), converted into the design's coordinates and heights cell by cell. It can also be compared with a LandXML, DXF or GeoTIFF surface, converted the same way: on a survey controlled in NAD83(2011), a State Plane LandXML in US survey feet with NAVD88 heights is placed on the survey's UTM map and its heights go through GEOID18. The datum rules in Coordinate systems and datums apply to volumes against a design as they do to grade checks. What the file doesn't declare (a DXF usually declares only its drawing unit) is asked in the volume tool, with the CAD export's coordinate-system picker and the design import's height-reference choices, and recorded with the measurement as stated by you. On survey-grade flights, Omniris can measure how much of a slab, pad or pavement footprint is at design height within a tolerance (±0.1 ft (3 cm) by default). The Design and Progress paper covers this in full.
The mission planner's corridor pattern flies at least two parallel lines along the long axis of the area you draw, at 85% forward and 70% side overlap by default. Give it a width and it adds as many lines as that width needs. Long, narrow corridor flights are split into shorter sections for processing and merged, unless the photos report their positions to better than 1.6 ft (0.5 m), as RTK photos do. When a corridor crosses a State Plane zone boundary, the CAD export says so and names the zones, so the drawing is not silently projected into one zone across the line. The Mission Planning paper and the Stitching paper give the details.
Omniris reads surveyed coordinates from thirteen file layouts, and suggests the layout and coordinate system from the file's contents:
| Source | Layouts read |
|---|---|
| Survey data collectors and receivers | Trimble Access, Leica Captivate, Emlid Reach, Septentrio, Stonex, Hi-Target, SurveyPro |
| Photogrammetry software | Pix4D (4-column and 6-column, with stated accuracies), Agisoft Metashape, OpenDroneMap gcp_list (complete, or coordinates or marks only) |
| Anything else | A generic CSV of label, X, Y, Z, with optional horizontal and vertical accuracy, with or without a header |
Coordinates can be in latitude and longitude, UTM, a US State Plane zone (NAD83), any EPSG code or PROJ definition, or a project-local frame defined from reference points or an origin, rotation and scale. The original coordinate system is kept with the site, and each point keeps its stated horizontal and vertical accuracy. Each point also records its height reference: NAVD88, ellipsoidal, EGM96 or not stated. A mix that the stitch cannot reconcile produces a warning on the job, not a silent offset.
With ground control, the reconstruction is fitted to the surveyed points and the drone's own GPS is no longer used in the solve. A stitch controlled by fewer than three points is flagged on the stitch dialog and the job card, with the suggestion to mark more or use the points as checkpoints. After the stitch, the fit is shown point by point: the error at each control point (coloured by size), the average marking error in pixels, and every photo each point was marked in. Re-mark a poor photo and re-stitch.
The result also carries an accuracy class, set by the stated horizontal accuracy of the least accurate control point used:
| Class shown | When |
|---|---|
| Survey-grade control (centimetre-level / RTK) | Every point used is stated to 4 in (0.1 m) or better |
| Survey control (decimetre-level) | The least accurate point is stated to between 4 in and 3.3 ft (0.1 and 1 m) |
| Basemap-grade control (metre-level), not survey-grade | Any point is worse than 3.3 ft (1 m), or was taken from imagery or an earlier flight. The results say not to certify them as survey-grade. |
| Aligned to a prior flight | The flight was aligned to an earlier one and inherits its accuracy |
These classes describe the control, not the map. They are not ASPRS accuracy classes.
A checkpoint is a surveyed point left out of the fit and used only to measure it. This is the test that the NSSDA and ASPRS standards describe [2][5]. In Omniris, checkpoints are imported and marked exactly like control points. A file can be imported as checkpoints, labels that look like checkpoints are offered as checkpoints, and any point can be switched between the two. Every switch is recorded.
What a checkpoint summary contains. Illustrative example values.
Omniris reports RMSE, which is the measure the ASPRS Edition 2 standard is built on [4], and it reports per-point errors and bias. It does not assign an ASPRS accuracy class. It does not add the checkpoints' own survey error into the result, as Edition 2 requires [2]. It does not compute the NSSDA 95% figures, and it does not enforce a minimum number of checkpoints. ASPRS asks for at least 30 [3]. Vertical checks are made against the reconstruction and the delivered surface, not split into vegetated and non-vegetated areas. Those steps, and the decision that a product meets a specification, are the surveyor's.
Every finished stitch files a report, as a web page and a PDF. It covers the flight (photos submitted and used, capture window, camera, resolution, area in acres) and the quality grades. It lists the control errors point by point and, when there are checkpoints, their measured accuracy first. It states the limits in plain sentences. Without ground control, it says that absolute accuracy cannot be stated from the flight alone. When a geometry check finds a problem with a solve, it warns that elevations, contours and volumes from that flight may be off. The Stitching paper describes the report in full.
Most mistakes in drone survey data are datum mistakes, so Omniris records the frame and height reference of every flight and carries them through every export. It refuses rather than guesses.
Each stitch is stamped with its horizontal frame when it is submitted. It is one of four frames, or "unknown" with the reason: an RTK flight (its frame comes from the site's RTK settings, below), a project-local grid, NAD27, or another datum Omniris does not support.
| Frame | When a flight is in it |
|---|---|
| WGS84/ITRF (ITRF2014) | Plain satellite positioning, or ground control surveyed in WGS84 / ITRF |
| NAD83(2011) | Ground control surveyed in NAD83 (for example State Plane), or RTK corrections stated as NAD83(2011) |
| NAD83(PA11) | Control in Hawaii or American Samoa, or RTK corrections stated as PA11 |
| ETRF2000 | Control in Poland, or RTK corrections stated as ETRF2000 |
Control surveyed in an older NAD83 realisation (HARN, NSRS2007, CORS96 and others) is recorded as such. A flight controlled in a project-local grid is exported only in its own coordinate system, untouched.
A photo is counted as RTK when the drone reports an RTK fix (DJI) or horizontal precision of 4 in (0.10 m) or better on both axes (Skydio X10), and a flight is treated as RTK when at least 90% of its photos are. RTK photos do not record which frame the corrections were in, so each site states it once: WGS84/ITRF, NAD83(2011), NAD83(PA11) or ETRF2000. The site also states whether the base sat on a known point or a network, or was set up on an unsurveyed point (autonomous). An autonomous base counts as uncontrolled. A single flight can override the site setting. California sites also state which NAD83(2011) epoch the corrections use, 2010.00 or 2017.50. There is no default for any of these: until they are set, RTK flights on the site are not graded against a design. Every change is recorded in the custody history and triggers re-measurement of the affected flights.
A stitch fits all its control heights in one reference, so Omniris puts them on one before the stitch:
If a conversion grid is missing, or an orthometric height is paired with the wrong frame, the height is not converted with a made-up value. It is refused when it is entered, or flagged on the job if the problem only shows up later. The geoid grids ship with Omniris, so conversion does not depend on an outside service.
The CAD export builds the conversion step by step rather than trusting a generic one. For a flight in WGS84/ITRF exported to State Plane or NAD83 UTM, it applies the published time-dependent transformation from ITRF2014 to NAD83(2011) (or to NAD83(PA11)) at the date the photos were taken. A generic conversion would treat the two frames as identical and drop the difference of roughly 4.9 ft (1.5 m) between them in the continental United States. A flight already in NAD83(2011) is never shifted a second time. The export dialog shows the transformation used, its stated accuracy and the epoch before you run it.
For comparing a flight with a NAD83(2011) design, Omniris is stricter. A flight positioned in WGS84/ITRF, or controlled in an older NAD83 realisation, is never graded or measured for volume against a NAD83(2011) design. Even after the published transformation, ground in the US interior has moved about 1.2 in (3 cm) relative to NAD83(2011) since 2010, about the size of the default ±0.1 ft tolerance, so only NAD83(2011) control (such as a state RTK network or NAD83(2011) ground control) grades such designs. A California design and survey at different epochs are refused too. In each case Omniris says why instead of returning a number.
Omniris looks up the site's State Plane zone from NOAA's NCAT service, checking the centre of the survey and its four corners. When the corners fall in different zones, it says the site crosses a zone boundary and names the zones. The export defaults to that zone in the zone's legal unit, meaning the unit the state's law specifies. That is international feet in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon and South Carolina, metres in states and territories that legislated no foot, and U.S. survey feet elsewhere. You can choose any zone and any unit EPSG defines for it. U.S. survey feet and international feet are separate choices throughout Omniris, including when a design's coordinate system is stated. A design can also be placed in a project ground system using the scale factor printed on the plans.
Every stitch delivers its maps as Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs (orthomosaic, DSM, DTM) on the UTM grid for the area, with the point cloud as LAZ. Open the DTM or DSM and choose Export to CAD for the deliverables design software expects:
| Export | What you get |
|---|---|
| DXF contours | Contours as 3D polylines on separate major and minor layers, at the interval you choose (1 unit by default) with every fifth line major. They are traced from the surface after it has been converted into the target coordinate system, never shifted after the fact. |
| DXF surface | The surface as a triangulated mesh of 3D faces on a regular grid, at the spacing you choose |
| LandXML surface | A LandXML 1.2 TIN surface for civil design software such as Civil 3D |
A surface built from NAVD88 control is exported as NAD83(2011) ellipsoidal heights and labelled that way; the CAD export does not convert it back into NAVD88 heights. Applying the geoid to get NAVD88 elevations is a step to take in your CAD or survey software. Comparisons against a design, by contrast, do convert into the design's NAVD88 heights through GEOID18 (see Coordinate systems and datums).
Other ways out: download any original file (GeoTIFF, LAZ) for GIS, survey or CAD software, or the whole results folder as a STAC catalog that opens in QGIS. Publish map files to your ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise organisation, or send files to a Procore project or an Autodesk Forma folder. Measurement profiles download as CSV. Contours, ponds and drainage lines from terrain analysis are GeoJSON.
Open a stitch's elevation model and choose terrain analysis to make, on demand, any of the following. The bare-earth terrain model is used by default, and the surface model can be chosen instead.
| Product | What it is | Starting values |
|---|---|---|
| Contours | Lines of equal height, with major lines heavier | Every 1 ft, every fifth major; interval in feet or metres |
| Slope | Steepness of the ground, as a map | Percent grade, or degrees |
| Aspect | The direction the ground faces | — |
| Ponding | Low spots where water would collect after the depressions are filled. Click one for its depth, area and volume in cubic yards and gallons. | At least 1 in (2.5 cm) deep and 100 ft² (9.3 m²) |
| Drainage | The paths water would take across the surface, from a standard single-direction (D8) flow model | Catchments of 1 acre (0.4 ha) or more |
Slope and aspect are saved as map images and the rest as GeoJSON. All are filed beside the stitch with a custody record, become layers on the Omniris map, and state the height reference they were measured from, or say plainly that it is not known. A profile tool draws a cross-section of the surface along any line and downloads it as CSV. A comparison between two dates maps where the ground rose and fell, with the material added and removed and its uncertainty. It is graded for how well the two flights were aligned, because an offset between two flights looks like change.
These products are the terrain side of a drainage study. Watersheds to a design point, runoff and peak flows, and the sizing of pipes, culverts and ponds are computed in the engineer's hydrology and hydraulics software, fed by the exported terrain.
Upload LAS or LAZ files from any scanner or provider into a folder and choose Process LiDAR. Before anything is charged, the dialog reads each file's point count and coordinate system. Files in different coordinate systems are refused up front. A file that does not say which system it uses is not guessed: you give its EPSG code. The job then:
Heights are converted to metres but never moved to another reference. If the file says its heights are NAVD88, the results say NAVD88. If it says nothing, you can state the reference, and your answer is recorded as yours.
The point cloud opens in a browser viewer that streams only what is on screen, coloured by elevation, class, intensity, return number or natural colour, with a ruler. Where the automatic classification is wrong (a flat roof taken for ground, low brush left in the ground class), the classification editor lets you select points with a rectangle, lasso, polygon, box, brush or line, or in a side-on section view, and give them a class. Applying the edits writes a new version beside the original, which is never changed. Each version has its own custody history and can be regenerated into new terrain products. A point cloud from a photo survey can be classified the same way.
Two things matter for surveyors. The LiDAR terrain and contours are delivered as files; the CAD export and terrain analysis dialogs described above, and the volume and comparison tools, work on elevation models from photo surveys. And LiDAR results are delivered in a metre version of the file's own coordinate system: a State Plane file in feet comes back in the same zone and datum in metres, and a latitude-longitude or Web Mercator file in the UTM zone on the same datum. Omniris does not move them to another zone, datum or foot. The LiDAR and Point Cloud paper covers processing, the editor and pricing in full.
A survey file is often asked about years later, in a boundary dispute, a construction claim or a board complaint. Omniris keeps the photos, the control, the processing and the deliverables in one evidence vault, with one record of what happened to each:
The Evidence Integrity paper describes the custody record, certificates, holds and encryption in full. A custody record shows how a file was made and handled. It does not make the data a certified survey.
Firms that fly their own sites use the mission planner and pre-flight tools directly. Firms that need a pilot can post the job.
The marketplace, payments and payouts exist in the Omniris cloud and data center editions. They are not part of on-premises installations, where firms fly their own sites. The Mission Planning paper and the Field App paper cover planning and field work in full.
The survey tools in this paper (ground control and checkpoints, stitching, terrain analysis, CAD export, LiDAR processing and the classification editor) are part of Omniris wherever it runs:
| Edition | Processing runs on |
|---|---|
| Omniris cloud on Microsoft Azure | A processing machine sized to the job, started for it and released after it |
| Omniris cloud on Google Cloud | A processing machine sized to the job, started for it and released after it |
| Omniris data center edition | Omniris's own data center hardware |
| On-premises | Your own processing servers. Photos, control and results stay on your site. |
The geoid grids (GEOID18, GEOID12B, EGM96) and the State Plane zone table are part of every installation. The automatic zone lookup asks NOAA's NCAT service. Where that service cannot be reached, the export says so, and you can still pick the zone by hand. The marketplace and payments are available only in the cloud and data center editions.
Survey data is relied on for design, quantities and title work, so Omniris states what its results are:
Industry facts in this paper come from the sources below. Figures that come only from a manufacturer or vendor are marked "vendor-reported" in the text.