Learn how to create annotations on your DroneDeploy maps to analyze them and share the results.

Overview of the Toolbox

If you look at the sidebar on the left, you can see Annotations and Tools options:

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Compatible Browsers

Please note that annotations, just like all of DroneDeploy, work best on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers.

We have labeled them in the image above, and will be discussing each one below:

• Location marker and Elevation at a Point
• Distance tool and Elevation profile
• Area measurement and Surface area
• Volume Calculation
• Show/Hide Annotations
• Filtering and Sorting Annotations
• Changing Annotation Color
• Sharing Annotations
• Deleting Annotations

Before we dig into the different annotation types, it's worth going over the general annotation controls.

Annotation Controls

Here is an example annotation (from the Volume annotation example).

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Changing Units

To change your preferred units for annotations, please navigate to Account Settings in your dashboard and navigate to Units about halfway down the page.

Location Marker

If you want to take note of a specific point, this is the tool for you. Once selected, you'll be asked to select a point on the map:

Moving it to a location of interest and clicking that location will generate a marker:

Here, we have selected to annotate the building. When clicking, you will now see the latitude and longitude for that location, a text box in which to add notes, and the annotation controls. Once the comment is saved, you will see your name and date of the comment.

Elevation at a Point

You can also find the elevation of a single point in your map by simply placing a location marker on the point of interest.

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Elevation information

The elevation information is available on all Pro, Business, and Enterprise accounts.

Distance Tool

The Distance or line tool will allow you to measure the length of a straight line or a series of lines.

Here we measure the length of the field to be 4560.8 feet.

Elevation Profile

View the elevation profile or cross-section for a single segment of a line drawn with the annotations tool. This is helpful to:

-Measure the height of certain features
-Measure the slope of the line segment (height change/distance)
-See if an area is flat/bumpy/sloped

To use this tool:

1. Create a line using the distance tool.
2. Click on the line so you see the cross arrows.
3. View the elevation profile in the map panel at the left.

Area Measurement

Selecting an area of interest, you can start highlighting the area you care about. Let's highlight the weeds in the field to the north:

Every point you click on, will be adding to the boundary of the area in question. To close the area, click on the first point, or double-click on your last point.

Once complete, we can change the color and add text to remind us of what the area is. Here, the weed-filled area is 5.8 acres, as shown at the top of the note.

Surface Area

When you make an area measurement, we calculate both the flat 2D area and the 3D surface area.

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Surface Area Tool

This 3D measurement calculation is available to all trial and paid customers. Learn more about our paid subscription plans or start your Pro trial today.

Volume Calculation

Use our volumetric toolbox to analyze the volume of features on your map that have relevant 3D dimensionality. To learn more about volume calculation, please visit our Volume Measurement with Drones documentation.

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Volume Toolbox

The volumetric analysis tool is available to all Pro, Business, and Enterprise customers. Learn more about our paid subscription plans or start your Pro trial today.

Show/Hide Annotations

You can view a list of all of the annotations on your map by clicking the Annotation section in your side panel.

You can then select or hide specific annotations by clicking the visibility (eye) icons to hide and show all or individual annotations:

Filtering and Sorting Annotations

You can use the Search bar to look for specific annotations by title and use the Filter menu to filter annotations by type.

You can also use the Sort options to organize annotations according to date created or date modified.

Changing Annotation Color

If you'd like to change the color of your current annotation, click on the small colored circle in the sidebar to choose a different color:

Sharing Annotations

This section deals with what happens when annotated maps are shared. To learn more about sharing, see our Data Sharing documentation.

Sharing privately

When sharing privately, other users can view, add and reply to existing annotations. This allows you to get external advice on a field, as well as highlight any issues you may find on other users maps. Other users can then create conversations around your data.

Please note that the visibility status of each annotation is currently saved to the map, meaning that if the user A turns off the annotation for stockpile 1 and then the user B goes and views the map, Stockpile 1 will still appear turned off.

Sharing publicly

When sharing publicly others will be able to view your annotations, but these will be at a read-only level:

Deleting Annotations

To delete an entire annotation (and all conversations therein), click on the trashcan icon on the sidebar: