Creating & managing projects

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

• The source images (or references to them)
• Calibration and intermediate files
• The final outputs (orthomosaic, DSM, vegetation indices, report)
• The Export folder (DJI Agras, ISOXML, GeoTIFF, PDF, etc.)
• The Boundary (field boundary) files

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:

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

You cannot edit this directly — it’s built from the fields above.

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 shows projects hierarchically:

2026
├─ Norfolk
│  └─ John Smith
│     ├─ Field-A12
│     ├─ Field-A13
│     └─ Field-B05
└─ Sussex
   └─ Sarah Johnson
      └─ Greenfield
2025
├─ ...

The disclosure triangles expand / collapse the groups. The active project is highlighted. Click any to open it.

Renaming

Right-click a project → Rename. Edit the name in the dialog and click Save.

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 the project ‘Field-A12’? This action cannot be undone.”

Click OK:

• 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)
├─ Photos/               ← original drone images (if copied in)
├─ Layers/               ← intermediate files (DSM, MS bands)
├─ Cache/                ← cache (tie points, image groups)
├─ Boundary/             ← field-boundary KML / SHP files
├─ Export/               ← exported deliverables
│   ├─ orthomosaic.tif
│   ├─ dsm.tif
│   ├─ ndvi.geotiff
│   ├─ Tarnok856_report.pdf
│   └─ ...
└─ Thumbnails/           ← for quick loading

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

Set the default projects folder under Settings → Project folder. 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.