A South African-based survey and mapping services provider has launched a data presentation platform which it claims lays out GIS data in a way that would make sense to clients who have no background or experiences geographical information systems. 

Based in the farming town of Prince Albert in the western Cape Province, 3D Drone Mapping is a fixed-wing LiDAR operator providing geospatial solutions to clients in various industries that have nothing at all to do with geospatial systems themselves.

The company says almost all of their clients only want the geospatial data in a form that would make them understand and make informed decisions.

The new software solution - SurveyDeliver – is described as “the last step of every survey.”

It can be used by geospatial professionals, who can upload the files they already export: GeoTIFF orthomosaics and elevation models, LAS/LAZ point clouds, shapefiles, DXF and more. Using SurveyDeliver, 3DroneMapping would in turn convert these files for the web automatically and place them correctly, local grids included.

The client would receive the information through a web link with their provider’s logo on it: a map they can measure on, a 3D view of the point cloud, and every deliverable to download. No GIS software, no tiling, no web server, nothing for your client to install.

This solution works with most data processing software used in the industry – Pix4D, Agisoft Metashape, DJI Terra and WebODM.

For more information on this, here is Charlie Wijnberg from 3DroneMapping

We fly fixed-wing drone LiDAR for a living, mostly in South Africa. The flying has become remarkably good, and processing gets faster every year.

Yet for a long time our jobs still ended the same way: a download link, a 4GB LAZ file, an orthomosaic too big for any photo viewer, and a client phoning to ask which program opens it.

Most of our clients are not GIS people. They are farmers, engineers, mine managers, developers and municipal officials. They want to see their site, measure something and pass it on to the next person.

A folder of GeoTIFFs lets them do none of that. The last step of the job, the one the client actually sees, was the one that looked least professional.

The workarounds every operator knows

• A JPEG or PDF of the orthomosaic: easy to open, but the scale, the coordinates and the detail you flew for are gone.
• A Google Earth KMZ: fine for a small site, slow for a large one, and no place for the point cloud or the terrain model.
• The files themselves: right for clients with GIS or CAD, gigabytes of nothing for everyone else.
• Your own web map: a day of tiling imagery, converting the point cloud and standing up hosting, for every job.

We have done all four. None of them is a delivery a client remembers for the right reasons.

What we built

SurveyDeliver started as our own delivery page. We upload the files we already export from our processing software: GeoTIFF orthomosaics and elevation models, LAS/LAZ point clouds, shapefiles, DXF, GeoPackage and KML. The client gets one link with our logo on it: a map they can measure on, a 3D view of the point cloud, and every file to download. Nothing is installed on either side. In October we opened it to other operators.

What the client opens: the viewers, the downloads and the survey details, under the operator’s own logo. Picture: SurveyDeliver.

Checking the files before they leave

The part I would point other operators to first came out of our own mistakes. A site exported in the wrong UTM hemisphere lands thousands of kilometres from where it should be, and you find out when the client phones.

Now each file is read on the surveyor’s own computer before anything is uploaded: the coordinate system is found, the footprint is drawn on a map and anything wrong is said in plain words. A file with no coordinate system gets a list to choose from on the spot.

Local grids matter here. South Africa’s south-oriented Lo systems, UTM zones and US State Plane all land where they should, and the client reads coordinates in the project’s own grid.

What the client can do with it

On the map: distances, areas, spot heights, ground profiles and stockpile volumes; a swipe to compare any two layers; a printable sheet with a title block; exports to KML, CSV and DXF in the project’s grid. In 3D: the aerial image draped over the shape of the ground, the point cloud coloured by height, class or intensity, and cross-sections.

And every original file, for whoever needs it next.

The client’s map: the aerial image with contours and the drainage lines, each layer switched on and off in the Layers menu. Picture: SurveyDeliver.

A cross-section drawn across a vineyard in 3D, the point cloud coloured by class, with the chart below. Picture: SurveyDeliver.

Maps of the ground, without an extra step

From the terrain model the service works out slope, where rain water runs, where it ponds and the wettest ground, each with a key in plain words. These have turned out to be what clients ask about most: a farmer looking at where water sits after rain, an engineer checking drainage before a design. The operator chooses which ones each client sees.

Where rain water runs and where it ponds, worked out from the terrain model, with the key. Picture: SurveyDeliver.

Numbers from real jobs

A 2.4GB orthomosaic was ready for the web in eleven minutes, a 242-million point cloud in three minutes 20 seconds and a 2.6GB surface model in fifteen minutes. Uploads of several gigabytes carry on where they stopped if the line drops, and can be sent straight from the processing computer overnight.

It works from DJI Terra, Pix4D, Agisoft Metashape and WebODM, and from any GIS or CAD package that writes those formats.

What it is not

It does not process imagery or LiDAR. You bring finished deliverables from the software you already trust, and the data stays yours. It is simply the last step of the job, done properly.

See it for yourself

A real delivery, a LiDAR survey with a 5cm orthomosaic, is open to anyone at surveydeliver.io/sample.

There is a 14-day trial with no card needed at surveydeliver.io. Plans start at US$29 a month, and accounts started by 30 November 2026 get 30 percent off their first three months on monthly billing.