Mapping & Survey
Mission Planner
Draw a survey area and get real boustrophedon flight lines, image count and time.
Planning aid only — not certified flight-planning software or airspace clearance. Always verify results against your own aircraft's manual and check current regulations before flying. Full disclaimer.
Click the map to draw your survey area, then fill in your camera and flight settings.
0 points placed
Draw at least 3 points and fill in every camera field to plan the mission.
Flight lines are generated with the same local flat-earth geometry as the Area Calculator — accurate for survey-sized sites, including non-convex (irregularly shaped) areas. This is a coverage-planning aid, not a substitute for your flight controller's own mission-planning software.
From a drawn area to flight lines
- Draw the survey area by clicking its corners on the map, in order around the boundary. Irregular and concave shapes, such as an L-shaped site or a field with a notch, are handled correctly.
- Choose your camera from the presets or enter its sensor, resolution and focal length.
- Set height, speed and overlap. The planner works out the image footprint, the spacing between lines and between photos, and then draws back-and-forth flight lines across your shape.
The result shows the number of lines, the total distance flown along them, the number of photos and the time on the lines.
What the planner gets right that a simple estimate doesn't
The Coverage Calculator assumes a square site of the same area. The Mission Planner uses your actual shape, which matters because:
- long, narrow sites need more, shorter lines and more turns;
- concave sites can split a single pass into two separate segments with a gap between them, rather than flying over land you don't need;
- the photo count follows the real line lengths.
Where a pass crosses a notch in the boundary, the planner shows two shorter segments instead of one long line. This is expected.
Line direction
The planner lays flight lines east–west across the area. On a site that is long in the north–south direction, that means many short lines and many turns. Your flight app may let you rotate the grid; turning the lines along the long side of the site usually cuts the number of turns and the total flight time. The planner's figures are then a conservative upper estimate.
Exporting the plan
- KML contains the survey boundary and every flight line. It opens in Google Earth and GIS software, which is useful for checking the plan against the terrain, buildings and airspace maps, or for sharing it with a client.
- CSV is a plain list of waypoints: sequence number, latitude, longitude and height in metres. Many ground-control apps can import waypoint lists like this, but each has its own column and format requirements. Check them before relying on an import.
The exports are not in DJI's own mission format (WPML/KMZ). For DJI drones, recreate the area in DJI's mapping app, or use your mapping software's own import tools.
Before you fly the plan
- Heights are above take-off, and assume flat ground. On a slope, use terrain-follow in your flight app, or the photos on higher ground will have less overlap and finer detail than planned. See GSD explained.
- Batteries. The time shown excludes take-off, the flight to and from the area, turns and a reserve. Plan with the Flight Time Calculator, and split the area if it needs more than one battery.
- Airspace. The planner doesn't check restrictions. Look at the exported KML alongside your national drone map and current NOTAMs; see Airspace & no-fly zones.
- Weather. A long mission needs steady wind and even light for its whole length. Check a time window in Flight Window.