The Composite Builder lets you upload and merge multiple smaller surveys into a comprehensive map. This feature allows you to maintain an up-to-date view of your site without surveying the entire area at once. Combining smaller surveys over time allows you to visualize changes, take accurate measurements, and generate reports more frequently—streamlining data collection while improving efficiency.
In addition to merging surveys, the Composite Builder provides tools for cropping and duplicating composites. Cropping allows you to refine your dataset by removing unnecessary areas, ensuring a cleaner and more precise final survey. Duplicating a composite enables you to create multiple versions of a composite, which is useful for comparing different configurations or testing adjustments without altering the original data.
One common question is whether additional images can be incorporated into a dataset after processing—such as photos that were accidentally left out or newly captured data from a later survey. With the Composite Survey feature, you can upload these images as a new dataset and seamlessly merge them with your existing survey. This ensures your site data remains current and comprehensive, even if new information becomes available after the initial processing.
To use the composite survey tool, users must have Process level permissions.
| Flight 1 | Flight 2 |
| Composite survey |
Ways to merge surveys into a composite
From the SURVEY picker—Create composite
Click on the survey dropdown menu and click on Create composite. This will allow you to create a composite and add several surveys to the composite.
Fill in the Composite details and click CREATE.
Please note that Automatically crop added surveys is turned on by default. Propeller automatically generates a best-effort crop boundary when processing uncropped photogrammetry surveys. However, in cases where multiple flights are stitched together to form a composite survey, this automated boundary may not align perfectly. This can result in visible seams, misaligned edges, or inconsistent data coverage between overlapping areas.
To achieve a cleaner, more precise survey boundary, manually adjusting the crop may be more effective, ensuring better continuity and accuracy across the entire dataset.
This will open the Survey Explorer, where you can select the surveys you want to include in the new composite you just created. Once you have selected all the data you want to include, click the MERGE button.
Alternatively, select the surveys you want to combine from the Survey Explorer. Click the three dots menu and choose Create new composite.
Fill in the Composite details and click CREATE.
To modify the stack order, click the Configure button from within the Surveys section of the Surveys section.
This opens a new window allowing you to combine orthophotos and/or terrain, turn off layers, and drag and drop the surveys to order the layers.
Viewing a composite survey
Composite surveys are visible in the Visualizer, the Measurement report, and PDF Maps.
In the Platform
Once created, you can load the composite into the Visualizer by choosing it in the dropdown menu.
In the mobile app
Composite surveys are visible in the mobile app. Simply log in and select the composite survey from the Survey dropdown menu.
Crew
Create a Crew link to view and share composite surveys with other team members.
Click the Crew Icon on the left sidebar and click CREATE CREW LINK. Check out our article on how to share Crew links.
Measurement Reports
To view composite surveys as a Measurement Report, click the OUTPUTS tab and choose Measurement Report from the REPORTS category.
PDF Maps
To download a PDF Map of your site, click on the OUTPUTS tab and choose PDF Map from the MAPS category.
What can I do with a Composite Survey?
Measure
Any tool available in the Platform can be used with Composite Surveys, such as:
- A composite can be measured just like any other dataset.
- Designs can be added to the composite dataset and measured against.
- You can measure across partial boundaries, but please note accuracy depends on the accuracy of the underlying partial surveys and the location of the stitched boundary.
Please note that zoom levels in your new composite survey may differ. Each partial survey has a maximum zoom level determined by the ground sample distance (GSD). If all of the surveys in a site were captured using a similar drone/camera flown at around the same altitude, it would result in relatively similar terrain resolutions and, hence, similar maximum zoom levels. However, due to different site conditions and other factors, it’s possible to have surveys in the same site to have different maximum zoom levels.
Export files
Just like with other survey data, you can export numerous file types from your platform, including:
- Orthophoto via Email sends a GeoTIFF or JPEG to your email.
- DEM via Email sends a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the area in GeoTIFF format to your email. This will also include any Terrain edits.
- Outline will download a DXF or KML directly to your computer.
- Surface will create a DXF or TTM, including any terrain edits, and download it directly to your computer.
- Contours via Email sends a contours in a DXF file with elevation lines to your email. This also includes terrain edits.
I still can't do it!
We wrote these articles to equip you with everything you need to get the job done on your own, but we understand that sometimes this isn't sufficient.
If you're stuck, you can connect with our support team by clicking the support button on the top right corner of your user portal.
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