The full list
Everything it plans with
The front page tells the story of a job. This page is the reference: every aircraft and sensor, every job type and the standard behind it, every file it writes, and what it does not do yet.
Aircraft and sensors
With route files
The full plan, and DJI route files for the controller. A route file is a draft until a pilot has checked it, and not every pairing has yet been compared with a real export from the aircraft, so check each one on the controller.
| Aircraft | Sensor | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Matrice 400 | Zenmuse L3 | LiDAR |
| Matrice 400, 350 RTK or 300 RTK | Zenmuse L2 | LiDAR |
| Matrice 350 RTK or 300 RTK | Zenmuse L1 | LiDAR |
| Matrice 400, 350 RTK or 300 RTK | Zenmuse P1 (24, 35 or 50 mm) | Camera |
| Matrice 4E | Built-in wide camera | Camera |
| Mavic 3 Enterprise | Built-in wide camera | Camera |
As an estimate
Area, settings, flight time, battery sets, the field sheet and the flight paths all work. Route export is off, and Swathwise names the software to plan the route in. Each is flown by its own maker's published figures.
| Aircraft and sensor | Kind | Plan the route in |
|---|---|---|
| Freefly Astro Max + LR1 payload (Sony ILX-LR1) | Camera | Auterion Mission Control |
| Inspired Flight IF800 Tomcat + Sony ILX-LR1 | Camera | Inspired Ground Control |
| WingtraOne GEN II + RGB61, WingtraRAY + SURVEY61 or MAP61 | Camera, fixed-wing | WingtraPilot |
| Quantum-Systems Trinity Pro + Sony ILX-LR1 | Camera, fixed-wing | QBase 3D |
| Sentera 65R on the Matrice 300 RTK, 350 RTK or 400 | Camera | DJI Pilot 2, as a Custom Camera |
| Phoenix RECON-XT on the Matrice 350 RTK or Freefly Astro Max | LiDAR | Phoenix FlightPlanner or Auterion |
| Inertial Labs RESEPI GEN-II M2X on the Matrice 350 RTK or IF800 | LiDAR | RESEPI Mission Planner or Inspired Ground Control |
| GeoCue TrueView 1 on the Matrice 350 RTK | LiDAR | To GeoCue's LIDAR flight-planning guide |
| YellowScan Mapper+ on the Matrice 300 RTK or IF1200A | LiDAR | The aircraft's ground-control software |
| Teledyne EchoONE on the Matrice 350 RTK or IF800 | LiDAR | The aircraft's ground-control software |
| WingtraRAY + Wingtra LIDAR | LiDAR, fixed-wing | WingtraPilot |
Job types
No standard says how high to fly. Standards say what the data must be, so a job type is a requirement with its citation, and Swathwise turns it into flight settings for the sensor you picked. Where there is no formal standard, it says so.
LiDAR
| Job | Judged against |
|---|---|
| Fiber, underground (design-grade corridor) | TxDOT UAS design-grade specification, NCHRP 748 |
| Fiber, overhead (poles and conductors) | No formal standard: PLS-CADD survey practice and DJI power-line guidance |
| Drainage, hydrology and flood | FEMA Elevation Guidance, USGS QL2 |
| Bare earth under vegetation | Historic England HEAG179, Fernandez-Diaz 2014 |
| General topographic mapping | USGS Lidar Base Specification QL1, ASPRS Edition 2 |
| Survey-grade topo | USGS QL0, ASPRS 5 cm class |
| Tower siting and wireless propagation | FAA 1A, ITU-R P.1812 |
Photogrammetry
| Job | Judged against |
|---|---|
| Orthomosaic and planimetric mapping | ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards, Edition 2 |
| Design-grade topo and planimetrics | TxDOT UAS design-grade specification |
| Stockpiles, earthwork and progress | North Dakota DOT UAS Guidelines, Tennessee DOT Survey Standards Manual |
| 3D model of buildings and structures | No formal standard: DJI, Pix4D and ASPRS oblique guidance |
| Vegetated and forested sites | No formal standard: Pix4D and Agisoft guidance |
| Cultural heritage recording | Historic England HEAG066 |
What it writes
| File | For |
|---|---|
| Flight routes (KMZ) | DJI Pilot 2 and FlightHub 2. One file per route, with the terrain built in |
| Flight plan (HTML) | Printing, or handing to a client or crew. Opens in any browser |
| Field sheet | Building a route on the remote, from paper |
| Estimate (CSV) | Quotes and scoping emails |
| Flight paths (KML, GeoJSON) | Google Earth, ArcGIS Pro and QGIS. For looking at, not for flying |
| Areas (GeoJSON) | The polygons with their settings and results |
| Parcel boundaries (KML, GeoJSON) | Every lot the flight touches, with the assessor's fields |
| Ground control points (CSV, KML, GeoJSON) | Trimble Access, Google Earth and GIS |
| Directions (PDF, GPX, KML) | Printing, a GPS unit or Google Earth |
| Places (KML, KMZ, GPX, GeoJSON) | Your pins, paths and shapes, with folders and colours |
Maps and data
No account or key for any of it. Four things are United States only: the terrain built into routes, directions, the maps it draws on, and the built-in boundaries.
| What | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Satellite with roads | USGS National Map, USDA NAIP aerial imagery and Census road names. Can be saved for offline |
| Topographic map | USGS. Can be saved for offline |
| State, county and Tribal land lines | US Census Bureau. Built in |
| Terrain in routes, and ground elevation | USGS 3DEP. Open-Meteo gives the site elevation outside the United States |
| Roads for Pick a road | US Census Bureau TIGER |
| Parcels for Pick parcels | County and state parcel services |
| Parcel lines on the map | Regrid, in the Windows and Mac programs |
| Place search | Photon on OpenStreetMap data, with the US Census geocoder behind it |
| Directions | Swathwise's own directions server, on OpenStreetMap data. United States only |
Where it runs
| Where | Needs | Your work | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit | A folder per project in Documents | Updates itself when you say so, and can open KML and KMZ files directly |
| Mac | macOS 12 or later, Apple silicon or Intel | A folder per project in Documents | Signed and checked by Apple |
| iPhone and iPad | iOS 15 or later | Kept in the app. Exports go to Files and the share sheet | Uses your location for directions |
| Browser | Nothing to install | Kept in that browser. Download a copy to move it | Chrome and Edge can install it as an app that opens offline |
What it does not do yet
Better to know now than in the field.
- Terrain in routes, and directions, outside the United States.
- Corridors for cameras. Corridors are LiDAR only so far; draw it as an area instead.
- Route files for other makers' aircraft. Those pairings are estimate only.
- Oblique camera missions. A 3D job is estimated as two straight-down grids, not as Smart Oblique.
- Airspace or no-fly overlays. Clearing the airspace is the pilot's.
- Terrain across the estimate. The route files carry the ground, but the estimate uses one spot elevation at the launch point.
- Knowing where a vehicle can stop. Launch points and bases are placed evenly along a route; move them to where you can really stand.
- Choosing the road a crew or a fiber line would take. Pick a road finds the shortest way; pick in steps where they differ.
- A 3D view. Places and the map are flat.