GeoTIFF
Orthophoto
Georeferenced mosaic for GIS and CAD workflows.
Aerial mapping & topography
Local aerial mapping for teams who need Survey crews can deliver orthophotos and DSM/DTM from drone imagery
Process drone imagery on your own hardware—point clouds, DSM/DTM, orthophotos, and mesh—with the precision of CLI or the speed of a visual desktop workflow. No cloud upload required.
Proprietary beta on branch mapfree-closed — Windows installer, portable zip,
and Linux AppImage on each release.
Deliverables you can hand off
Terapetra targets survey-grade desktop outputs under 05_exports/—processed locally,
not in a hosted cloud pipeline.
GeoTIFF
DSM / DTM
Surface models for volume, drainage, and terrain analysis.
LAS / LAZ
Point cloud
Classified or raw clouds via PDAL in 05_exports/.
PLY / OBJ
Textured mesh
Open3D Poisson mesh with vertex colors from dense RGB.
Sample orthophoto or mesh previews can be added under public/images/outputs/ when available.
Use cases
Common drone mapping jobs that fit a local-first desktop workflow.
Construction progress
Generate orthophotos and surface models for site updates and measurement checks.
Stockpile volumes
Use DSM/DTM outputs for quick cut/fill and material volume estimates.
Corridor mapping
Map roads, rivers, or power lines with organized exports for GIS handoff.
Forestry & canopy
Produce canopy surfaces and point clouds for analysis and reporting workflows.
beta
0.12.0-beta.1
Pre-1.0 · Windows + Linux builds
5 stages
Images → Export
COLMAP · Open3D · GDAL · PDAL
GUI + CLI
Same pipeline
Desktop app or mapfree run
Local-first
Your machine
No cloud upload required
What's in 0.12.0-beta.1
Highlights from the current beta on mapfree-closed.
- COLMAP sparse and dense reconstruction with Open3D mesh export
- VRAM-aware Smart Capacity Gate before dense stages
- Windows installer, portable zip, and Linux AppImage per release
- GCP checkpoint persistence and dashboard pipeline strip fixes
Pipeline · Importing images…
- Images
- Sparse
- Dense
- Mesh
- Geospatial
- Export
End-to-end on your machine
COLMAP sparse and dense, Open3D mesh, then GDAL and PDAL for LAS, DSM/DTM, and orthophotos—one desktop workflow from import to deliverables.
GUI when you need it, CLI when you don't
Use a visual desktop app or automate the same pipeline from the terminal—without switching products.
- Desktop app for projects, progress, map/3D viewers, and GCP editing.
-
mapfree runfor batch jobs with low, medium, high quality presets. - EXIF GPS drives spatial matching when your photos include coordinates.
- YAML configuration for reproducible, survey-grade runs.
Move fast. Break nothing.
Short feedback loops keep you in flow—from first import to export folders you can audit.
- Re-run stages without rebuilding the entire project from scratch.
- Per-stage logs and structured output folders from sparse through exports.
- VRAM-aware capacity gates before dense reconstruction starts.
- Windows installer, portable zip, and Linux AppImage on every release.
Why Terapetra
Local processing
Run photogrammetry on your workstation. Imagery and outputs stay on disks you control.
GPU when it helps
CUDA accelerates COLMAP-heavy stages with CPU fallback and VRAM-aware capacity gates.
Organized outputs
Structured folders from 01_sparse/ through 05_exports/, with per-stage logs.
Reproducible runs
Low, medium, and high presets plus YAML configuration for repeatable surveys.
Workspace & menus
UI captures from Terapetra 0.12.0-beta.1 (English). More views live in the app user
guide.
What you get
End-to-end pipeline
COLMAP sparse and dense, Open3D mesh, then PDAL/GDAL for LAS, DSM/DTM, and orthophotos.
GPS-aware workflow
EXIF GPS drives spatial matching and georeferenced exports when photos include coordinates.
GPU acceleration
NVIDIA CUDA recommended; CPU fallback available.
Quality presets
low, medium, high presets balance speed vs detail for reproducible runs.
Organized outputs
Structured folders: 01_sparse/ 02_dense/ 03_mesh/ 04_geospatial/ 05_exports/ with logs per project.
FAQ
Do I need ground control points (GCPs)?
Many nadir drone projects with EXIF GPS complete without manual GCPs. You can add control points in the GCP editor when survey-grade accuracy is required.
Is Terapetra open source?
Application code on branch mapfree-closed is proprietary. Third-party engines are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.
What GPU do I need?
NVIDIA CUDA is recommended for COLMAP dense stages. Terapetra falls back to CPU and estimates VRAM before dense reconstruction.
Windows installer vs portable zip?
The installer sets up dependencies under %LOCALAPPDATA%\MapFree. The portable zip is unpack-and-run without an installer.
Can I automate without the GUI?
Yes. Use mapfree run with quality presets and YAML configuration—the same pipeline as the desktop app.
Where do outputs go?
Projects use folders 01_sparse/ through 05_exports/ with per-stage logs.
Ready to map on your desktop?
Grab the latest build from GitHub—checksums and release notes on every tag. Developer setup
uses conda env mapfree_engine.
Requirements
- Windows 10/11 64-bit (primary); Linux AppImage also provided.
- Python 3.10+ for source installs via mapfree_engine conda environment.
- 8 GB RAM minimum (16 GB+ recommended); SSD storage for datasets.
- NVIDIA GPU with CUDA recommended but not required.
- External tools on PATH (source): COLMAP, GDAL, PDAL
Application code on branch mapfree-closed is proprietary.
Application code is proprietary. Third-party engines: THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.