Sharing Maps and 3D Models using WebODM

[@JohnMerryman]

Barry, Great explanation on all the steps needed to share these models! I use WebODM and Maps Made Easy for model creation. I'll follow your training today or tomorrow and create the setup to share them.

[@aviosmedia]

Good luck. Take your time and it should be easy enough. I'm not aware of a way to bring maps made easy into WebODM, but you should check out the video about WebODM lightning if your machine isn't powerful enough - it might be a good alternative for you to MME, and perhaps cheaper too? I didn't go to the point of adding an actual URL as I didn't have one that wasn't in use, but that would be the finishing touch to make it really professional. There are tutorials around for that if you need that step.

[@rodalcorn6337]

What a brilliant video! I followed every step and now have an instance of WebODM that is accessible from the Internet so that we can share results with others. Thank you.

[@aviosmedia]

Excellent! That's what I was hoping for. See other comments here for information on a more professional touch using a URL.

[@FlyingHen07]

Just discovered this channel and I love it. Keep up the good work sir!

[@aviosmedia]

Thank you! That means a lot. Share with with a few friends :)

[@richardtodhunter1]

Thanks for the clear explanation. Do you know is there a way to only show the client their project and not the left menu of Dashboard, Administration, etc. Couldn't the client navigate to other (not their) projects with these menu options?

[@aviosmedia]

Hi Richard. Great question! Yes. You can add other users into the system under administration. Then, when you click edit next to the project there is a section called permissions - you can add users to a project. When they log in using that user id and password they will only see the projects to which they have been granted permission.

[@alexosipov3744]

Thank you very much! But do you know - with "download all assets" there is no importing of original Camera images. And then you have no image links in first menu tab at Cameras( Do you know any solution of how to export and import them with every projecr?

[@aviosmedia]

I chatted with the developers about this. At this time they do not have a means to do this, as it was designed against to prevent bloat of the project files, and the Download All is meant specifically for the assets generated from processing, not the input assets (which they assume the end-user is keeping track of). They suggested you file an issue their our GitHub and they can keep track of the demand for such and collect more information on why and how people want this to work. github.com/OpenDroneMap/WebODM/issues In the meantime, if I have some time I might try to find a workaround. If I do I'll post the results here.

[@aviosmedia]

One more thing to add. If you need this you can always process the images either in AWS or using AWS to access WebODM lightning. If you do that then the images will show up in the publicly viewable version of WebODM.

[@hanshaerdtle4682]

Hi there, great explanation and tutorial. I've been following the steps and created the zip file (all assets). When I import however even into my local WebODM I get: "An orthophoto could not be generated. To generate one, make sure GPS information is embedded in the EXIF tags of your images, or use a Ground Control Points (GCP) file." The initially created model with imported pictures (some 450 plus) works well. What am I doing wrong?

[@aviosmedia]

I've had trouble importing in the past when the two versions of WebODM are not the same version. Make sure they are both updated to the latest version, then export/import again. Hopefully that works for you.

[@rodalcorn6337]

Are you using Safari? If so, disable auto-decompress of archives downloaded with Safari. Then upload the .zip file from Downloads. It worked for me!

[@aviosmedia]

​@rodalcorn6337 seems like Safari causes problems. I use Firefox 99% of the time so I wouldn't have encountered that. Good catch.

[@whirlybirdsops]

Another great video! It's working! to share with a cilent- do you copy the address of the file to share, paste into email and send login user name and password for the webodm that was set up to share? thank you for doing this!!

[@aviosmedia]

Glad you liked it. Yes, you can do that. As it is set up you are sending them to an IP address and if you reboot the system that IP address might change. A more professional approach would be to set up a static IP address and assign it to an actual URL instead of an IP address. But that was beyond the scope of this video and there are plenty of other tutorials that can show you how to do that. Best of luck! Also, see the other video on setting up user ids and passwords for the clients that give them access without giving them the ability to break things.

[@topoindia4172]

Facing an issue with Step 5, to install docker compose because in the updated instruction manual it has changed, please guide.

[@aviosmedia]

Unfortunately, as with most technology tutorials, they become out of date. I am no longer using this method to share with clients, so I would have to spend time looking into that. They do update the instructions so, in theory, just following the instructions provided will get you what you need. But...what is it that you are trying to do because often there are faster, better, easier, and cheaper ways to get to the result you need. Maybe we can get you to the same result without having to go down that path.

[@topoindia4172]

@@aviosmedia thanks for your reply we have found a way out to address the issue. The portal that is opening is showing not secure any idea how we can fix that ?

[@aviosmedia]

@@topoindia4172 To do that you are going to need a URL with a security certificate. You will probably also need a static IP address to point the URL to. Those are outside the scope of this tutorial, but a quick google search should give you what you need and the hosting provider that you buy the URL from can assist with the certificate.

[@topoindia4172]

@@aviosmedia Hey thank you I have managed to install the SSL certificate and everything is up and running. just a question why is it taking extremely long to import the dataset ?

[@aviosmedia]

I couldn't say - but did you get there in the end? Might be processor speed depending on what you set up.

[@EliteDroneSolutions-c6k]

Hi Barry, I have followed your instruction to the T and for some reason when I copy the IP address and add the :8000 nothing happens....no pages load to the WebODM login... any suggestion as to why?

[@aviosmedia]

It can be difficult to diagnose without seeing things but a few things to look at. Did you start the application? Did you stop the instance and restart it at some point? If so you will receive a different IP address unless you assigned a static IP (not covered in this video) If none of those are it, feel free to reach out at [e-mail] and we can discuss other options

[@EliteDroneSolutions-c6k]

@@aviosmedia What do you mean by the I start the application? You mean WEBODM? I did not start webODM as I thought I didn't need to since the instance was going to be running it. I have followed each steps from your video and when I launch the :8000 IP address nothing happens. The only different is that I chose the free Eligible instance with 1GB instead of the paying one. I did not stop the instance at any point or restart it... It shows running with also an inbound port of 8000 like you mentioned in the steps. I just doesn't load the page with the IP followed by a :8000.

[@aviosmedia]

@@EliteDroneSolutions-c6k " I chose the free Eligible instance with 1GB instead of the paying one." There's your answer - the free tier doesn't have enough memory to run the system. If it did I would have used that in the video.

[@gleeloyd]

Thanks for the video. I run into issues at Step 6. I get messages saying "Package python-pip is not available...However the following packages replace it: python3-pip" What would be my best course of action at this point?

[@aviosmedia]

You can accept that. I had the same.

[@gleeloyd]

@@aviosmedia OK thanks for the reply. Next few steps proceeded as expected. However, Step 9 did not. I get a DockerException: Error while fetching server API version: HTTPConnection.request() got an unexpected keyword argument 'chunked'

[@gleeloyd]

@@aviosmedia Step 9 results in a docker exception. Not able to get WebODM started because of this.

[@aviosmedia]

@@gleeloyd Sorry to hear that. There are many people that have followed this and had no issues. The ones where people did have an issue, they didn't select the right sized server. This will not work on a free server. I would go over everything again very carefully. If it still does not work then the only thing I can suggest is either post the details on the webodm community (community.opendronemap.org/c/webodm/6) who are very helpful or, if you prefer, we can set up some time for a paid consulting session.

[@gleeloyd]

@@aviosmedia I've joined the community. Several others have reported this issue with ubuntu 24.04. Something about incompatibility between docker and the python libraries requests and urllib3. So far none of the suggestions have worked for me. Yes, I would be willing to discuss consulting.

[@efpdronefootage]

Hello mate. I tried to use the AWS method once and it charged me all sorts over £100. Is what you did here free and do you need to set it up for each project you want to show a client or do you set it up once then its easy to send a link to clients? I'd go set it up via your tutorial because I never got as far as to use all the prompts? I wonder if I did it to get WebODM free. I see so you set up the client facing portal which is then active and you can then put each project in one by one yes? Big help if you can reply. Are you in England or Austrailia or New Zealand? I'm in England?

[@aviosmedia]

Hi. I'm actually in the USA (although in Vietnam today!). If you pick the wrong tier or options then you can end up getting charged a lot, so pick the smallest one you need. WebODM is free but you can't run it in the free tier on AWS because it doesn't have enough memory. But it shouldn't cost you much to run, unless you want to get a powerful system to process the maps. My recommendation - get a small server that is just for displaying to clients. Then sign up for a WebODM lightning account, and offload the processing to them - it will cost you less in the long run because you only pay for fast processing when you need it. Info on how to do that last part here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJDcfad8btGHjNU If you are still stuck we can schedule a consulting session, or I can set it all up for you, but I have to charge for that. But...I think these videos should give you what you need.

[@efpdronefootage]

@@aviosmedia I done it mate, just created a test with a bluetooth speaker. Do you have any reccomendations for the client read only settings as it may be something you went over fast. Is there say 4 or 5 main settings or just use all teh ones you did and only delete the top one? I have my AWS set up, I have my Client facing portal set up and all working you have done so well to fascinate me with the possibiliities. I want to make the user experience as easy as possible for teh client. How do they get to view the project like thsi after the storage time runs out or if they just download them all but don't have the programs to open all the file sthat are in the package when downlaoding all assets? Would you ever just use the share link button within the client portal to get them a URL or are people fine with the IP and log in? Thank you so much for this video Barry I knew you was very good when I first found your channel last year.

[@aviosmedia]

If you trust the client then you can leave them with all access and save yourself some headaches. If you don't trust them then start by removing everything that doesn't say "view" and seeing if that allows them to do what they need to. If you will be doing this a lot then I'd suggest setting up a group with those privileges and then assign new users to the group. If you are processing in the cloud (lightning) then as long as you download it into your AWS instance, which should happen automatically if you initiated it from there, then it will always be available even after it has expired in the cloud. You can use the share link, or let people log in with the IP. But...a more professional option is to assign an actual URL to it, and have them log in using that. That goes beyond the scope of this tutorial. I do offer consulting so if you would be interested in some 1 on 1 time going over your needs and setting things up to make life easier for the client, feel free to reach out to me in the email in the description and we can set up some time. I have other options that might end up cheaper/faster/easier that we could go over at the same time and then pick which one suits your clients best.

[@efpdronefootage]

@@aviosmedia Thank you again. I will 100% be booking in with you in the new year to get guided by you from the start. I have prepped and learne dthings for a year but now I want to begin to excecute and you are a perfect mentor. I am using Litchi atm, in teh new year I have money to get anything I need. I thought I could do actual grids in Litchi but struggling. I even find tips in your vids such as how to plan a flight in DroneLink that help me understand things more. I am using Litchi but I find issues when looking at other platforms such as they don't cover my drone or they are IOS only whereas I am fully Android. Shall we save it for a consultancy to tell me what program and device I should settle for? I only want to use the smaller drones such as M4P and the Mini3 to allow me to stay over buildings and do inspections etc.

[@efpdronefootage]

@@aviosmedia Barry, I am trying to make web pages to share my models and maps on from WebODM and I have the AWS server running fine. I can log in, set users etc, but the sharing tab in there allows me to share but the HTML link doe snot work the in my website.Reading up and my URL in the is http, my webiste is https, during this tutorial, I selected both http and https in the screen where we saw it, have you any idea why my maps won't embed into my webiste?

[@robbieharrison4349]

Have you found a way to make the texture model load automatically? My clients dont like a ton of options

[@aviosmedia]

I have not. But I am in touch with the developers and will ask them if this is possible. Let's see if it goes anywhere.

[@sdymond]

Thank for a great solution

[@aviosmedia]

Happy to help :)

[@Pelon7549]

Does anyone know how much would this cost? Amazon isn't very clear on that. Thank you.

[@aviosmedia]

Pricing is a little complicated. But the details can be found here: aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/ If you use the example I provided for display only you would need an L2 Medium server with 4GB of RAM. At the moment that goes for $0.0336 per hour. You also need 100GB of general storage which currently goes for $0.08 per GB per month. So... Approx 744 hours in a month (if you leave it running 24x7) = 744x$0.0336 = $24.99 per month for the server. 100GB x $0.08 per GB per month = $8 per month. Total cost is approximately $33 per month. You can save money by shutting down the server when people are not using it (e.g. out of business hours), but disk is always charged for. There are other ways to share depending on what you want to do and I'll be covering some of those in future videos...I just need to find the time to get to it :) Hope that helps!

[@Pelon7549]

@@aviosmedia Omg, thank you so much for replying so quick, that's a very reasonable price. I set it up and then deleted it because I was worried about the price, but now I'm gonna set it up again. Thanks again for everything, you are the best!!

[@aviosmedia]

@@Pelon7549 There may be other fees - for example if you wanted a static IP address (that you could apply a URL to). But if you are only sharing 2D models, send me an email at [e-mail] and I might be able to provide a faster/cheaper/easier solution. It's something on the list for a future video, but I haven't made that yet.

[@CitizenChaz]

@@aviosmedia Did you get around to sorting anything for the 2D only options? Would be really handy to have that option as I'm not into providing 3D yet so the AWS route is a bit of overkill (not to mention too expensive for only doing the odd job here and there). Cheers!

[@aviosmedia]

What is your use case? Just sharing a 2d ortho with clients? Do you need other assets such as video, 360 Panos, regular photos etc?

[@eqbviewllc7111]

good solution !

[@aviosmedia]

Agreed. It's the easiest way I have found to share - and the WebODM UI is pretty easy to use IMHO.

[@TheShanehiltonward]

Run WebODm on your own machine. Linux setup is free and not very complicated. Setting up WebODM on a Linux workstation would have saved a ton of time.

[@aviosmedia]

That is true. However: a. Not that many people know Linux b. This was on a Linux machine - just in the cloud. c. Running it on your own machine would not make it accessible to your clients, which was the point of this video. That is unless you want to open your personal machine up to the internet, and most people don't know how to do that and many IPs block it unless it's a paid service for that.