But what should be done when millions of points collected with a drone are not enough? This is where DJI’s newest update for its 3D model editing software Modify comes into play. It does not have anything to do with new drones and cameras; this release will improve the workflow in the stage that most often limits professionals. It might seem that aerial reconstruction takes place in seconds with a good piece of equipment; however, editing the 3D model requires time and effort and might become the source of problems.
DJI has introduced its first intelligent 3D model editing solution in 2024, which meant that there were no options except using third party apps to edit their products. However, the company’s primary message has not changed the process of creating data in a seamless workflow should happen without leaving DJI. While there was nothing wrong with that previously, the updates made the editing step considerably easier.
The key change here has to do with the possibility to toggle between different views in 3D mesh models specifically, orthographic view. While some drone users may not understand why it is important to see the model in both perspectives, it becomes evident when analyzing a structure or terrain orthographic view lacks perspective distortion and is more convenient for accurate spatial interpretation.
Moreover, this version introduces performance improvements as well. Now users can reduce the size of 3D models with the possibility to cut triangle counts and texture sizes according to selected ratios. This detail seems minor but the issue of huge file size makes digital twins and inspections problematic. When smaller and lighter models are created, sharing and collaboration processes speed up significantly.
Apart from performance improvement, DJI allows users to customize models. This update provides the possibilities to draw a cube in the 3D space, export orthophotos from custom planes, merge different blocks in formats such as PLY, OBJ, or FBX. Regarding point clouds, this version allows users to add LAZ files, merge multiple clouds, select inverse, and use different units. Additionally, DJI Terra uses more than 8,500 built in coordinate systems, which becomes even better with modifications implemented in this release.
One cannot neglect the changes made to the user experience. Improvements concerning mesh flattening, texture editing, deletion efficiency, and coordinate system visualization have been mentioned. Moreover, a bug preventing rendering cracks due to lack of coordinate system data in 3D models generated with DJI Terra has been fixed. For companies working with road corridors, utility lines, facades, or infrastructures affected by disasters, these are important changes reducing extra work.
This release is significant for many reasons. Today the main bottleneck in aerial reconstruction with drones and other aerial vehicles has nothing to do with flight performance and camera quality it is all about the possibility to clean up the 3D model and convert it into the desired format. This release makes this problem smaller as DJI Modify offers a wide range of editing tools including automatic repair features for flattening, texture repair, deleting floating pieces, and hole filling.