Creating & managing projects

DroneField uses a project-centric workflow: every survey is a project. A project is a folder on your file system containing:

• A reference to the source images (they stay where you imported them from)
• The processed layers (orthomosaic, DSM, vegetation indices) and the field boundaries, in Layers/
• The Exports folder (DJI Agras, ISOXML, GeoTIFF, PDF, etc.)

Creating a new project

There are several ways:

1. Click Create new project at the top of the left sidebar.
2. Press ⌘N (Windows / Linux: Ctrl+N).
3. From the top menu: File → New Project…

A dialog opens. Fill in the fields:

Project location (organisation)

Field	Meaning
Year	The year of the survey, e.g. 2026
Region	Geographic area, e.g. Norfolk
Client	The ordering partner, e.g. John Smith

These fields autocomplete from earlier values (dropdown), so you won’t retype them.

Project details

Field	Meaning
Project name	Descriptive name, e.g. Field-A12
Field ID	Optional — identifier in your partner’s system, e.g. A12
Description	Optional free text (e.g. “Rapeseed, NDVI target”)

Processing parameters

Field	Meaning
Target GSD	Desired output orthomosaic resolution in cm/px

You can adjust the GSD later in the Process dialog.

The generated project path

At the bottom of the panel, the auto-generated path is shown:

~/Documents/DroneField/2026/Norfolk/John Smith/Field-A12/

(~/Documents/DroneField is the default projects root; you can choose another one, e.g. ~/DroneField — see Changing the projects root folder.)

You cannot edit this directly — it’s built from the fields above. If you change them later (see Editing project details), the folder moves with them.

Save

Click Create project. The new project:

• Appears in the left list
• Is automatically selected
• Enters the empty-state (“No imported images yet”)

Project list

The left sidebar groups projects by client:

▾ John Smith
   Field-A12
   Field-A13
   Field-B05
▸ Sarah Johnson

Client groups are listed alphabetically; projects without a client are collected in a No client group at the end. Each group can be collapsed or expanded with its disclosure triangle — handy when you work for many clients — and DroneField remembers which groups you collapsed. While you search, every group opens so no match stays hidden. The active project is highlighted. Click any to open it.

When you go back to the list from a project, your filters are kept (search text, year, region, client) and the list scrolls back to the project you last opened — so you can step through a filtered set of projects without retyping anything.

Editing project details

A project’s year, region, client and name can be changed after creation: click the pencil icon on the project info panel on the right, edit the fields in the Edit project details dialog and click Save. Useful when a field was filed under the wrong client or a typo slipped into the name.

• The project folder is moved automatically to the matching Year/Region/Client/Name location (see the generated project path); empty leftover folders are cleaned up.
• Source images are not affected.
• Editing is disabled while the project is processing.

Renaming

Right-click a project → Rename. The name becomes editable directly in the list: press Return to save or Esc to cancel. If a project with that name already exists, DroneField adds a suffix and shows the final name.

The folder is renamed on the file system — no leftover symlinks.

Deleting

Right-click a project → Delete. A confirmation dialog:

“Are you sure you want to delete “Field-A12”? This action cannot be undone.”

Click Delete:

• The project’s folder and all contents are deleted from disk
• It disappears from the list

No undo

There is no “Trash” feature — after deletion the project is gone immediately. If you’re unsure, archive it first: move its folder elsewhere in Finder / Explorer.

Project folder structure

Inside a typical project folder:

Field-A12/
├─ project.json          ← project metadata (name, drone, date, GSD)
├─ Layers/               ← processed layers (orthomosaic, DSM, MS
│                           bands, indices) and polygons.kml
│                           (field boundaries)
├─ Originals/            ← temporary working copies during processing
├─ Exports/              ← exported deliverables (DJI, XAG, ISOXML,
│                           Shape, PDF report …)
└─ Thumbnails/           ← for quick loading

The original drone images are not copied into the project — they are read from the folder you imported them from. Older projects that still have an Export/ folder are migrated to Exports/ automatically when opened.

Don’t edit project.json manually — if you must open it, be careful (a corrupt file makes the project unopenable).

Changing the projects root folder

The default projects root is ~/Documents/DroneField. To use another folder (suggested: ~/DroneField), go to Settings → Device → Project folder and click Change…. See Settings.

Multiple machines, shared projects

DroneField does not yet sync projects between machines. Placing the projects root inside iCloud Drive or Dropbox works in principle — but very large projects (20+ GB) sync slowly.

If this matters, let us know — we’re tracking the demand.