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OpenDroneMap/ODM · source

Snapshot 0 · 2026-11-04T12:47:23Z · Python · AGPL-3.0

GitHub description at capture

A command line toolkit to generate maps, point clouds, 3D models and DEMs from drone, balloon or kite images. 📷

README at capture

![ODM Logo](https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/ODM/blob/master/odm.png?raw=true)

An open source command line toolkit for processing aerial drone imagery. ODM turns simple 2D images into:

- Classified Point Clouds
- 3D Textured Models
- Georeferenced Orthorectified Imagery
- Georeferenced Digital Elevation Models

![images-diag](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1174901/96644651-5b205600-12f7-11eb-827b-8f4a3a6f3b21.png)

The application is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and it works from the command line, making it ideal for power users, scripts and for integration with other software.

If you would rather not type commands in a shell and are looking for a friendly user interface, check out [OpenDroneMap Desktop](https://opendronemap.org/download).

## Quickstart

The easiest way to run ODM is via docker. To install docker, see [docs.docker.com](https://docs.docker.com). Once you have docker installed and [working](https://docs.docker.com/get-started/#test-docker-installation), you can get ODM by running from a Command Prompt / Terminal:

```bash
docker pull opendronemap/odm
```

Run ODM by placing some images (JPEGs, TIFFs or DNGs) in a folder named “images” (for example `C:\Users\youruser\datasets\project\images` or `/home/youruser/datasets/project/images`) and simply run from a Command Prompt / Terminal:

```bash
# Windows
docker run -ti --rm -v c:/Users/youruser/datasets:/datasets opendronemap/odm --project-path /datasets project
```

```bash
# Mac/Linux
docker run -ti --rm -v /home/youruser/datasets:/datasets opendronemap/odm --project-path /datasets project
```

You can pass [additional parameters](https://docs.opendronemap.org/arguments/) by appending them to the command:

```bash
docker run -ti --rm -v /datasets:/datasets opendronemap/odm --project-path /datasets project [--additional --parameters --here]
```

For example, to generate a DSM (`--dsm`) and increase the orthophoto resolution (`--orthophoto-resolution 2`) :

```bash
docker run -ti --rm -v /datasets:/datasets opendronemap/odm --project-path /datasets project --dsm --orthophoto-resolution 2
```

## Viewing Results

When the process finishes, the results will be organized as follows:

    |-- images/
        |-- img-1234.jpg
        |-- ...
    |-- opensfm/
        |-- see mapillary/opensfm repository for more info
    |-- odm_meshing/
        |-- odm_mesh.ply                    # A 3D mesh
    |-- odm_texturing/
        |-- odm_textured_model.obj          # Textured mesh
        |-- odm_textured_model_geo.obj      # Georeferenced textured mesh
    |-- odm_georeferencing/
        |-- odm_georeferenced_model.laz     # LAZ format point cloud
    |-- odm_orthophoto/
        |-- odm_orthophoto.tif              # Orthophoto GeoTiff

You can use the following free and open source software to open the files generated in ODM:

- .tif (GeoTIFF): [QGIS](http://www.qgis.org/)
- .laz (Compressed LAS): [CloudCompare](https://www.cloudcompare.org/)
- .obj (Wavefront OBJ), .ply (Stanford Triangle Format): [MeshLab](http://www.meshlab.net/)

> **Note:** Opening the .tif files generated by ODM in programs such as Photoshop or GIMP might not work (they are GeoTIFFs, not plain TIFFs). Use [QGIS](http://www.qgis.org/) instead.

## API

ODM can be made accessible from a network via [NodeODM](https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/NodeODM).

## Documentation

See http://docs.opendronemap.org for tutorials and more guides.

## Forum

We have a vibrant [community forum](https://community.opendronemap.org/). You can [search it](https://community.opendronemap.org/search?expanded=true) for issues you might be having with ODM and you can post questions there. We encourage users of ODM to participate in the forum and to engage with fellow drone mapping users.

## Windows Setup

ODM can be installed natively on Windows. Just download the latest setup from the [releases](https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/ODM/releases) page. After opening the ODM Console you can process datasets by typing:

```bash
run C:\Users\youruser\datasets\project  [--additional --parameters --here]
```

## GPU Acceleration

ODM has support for doing SIFT feature extraction on a GPU, which is about 2x faster than the CPU on a typical consumer laptop. To use this feature, you need to use the `opendronemap/odm:gpu` docker image instead of `opendronemap/odm` and you need to pass the `--gpus all` flag:

```bash
docker run -ti --rm -v c:/Users/youruser/datasets:/datasets --gpus all opendronemap/odm:gpu --project-path /datasets project --feature-type sift
```

> **Note:** `opendronemap/odm:gpu` is the latest GPU release. To pin a release, use `opendronemap/odm:<version>-gpu` (for example `opendronemap/odm:3.6.1-gpu`); for the latest development build, use `opendronemap/odm:edge-gpu`.

When you run ODM, if the GPU is recognized, in the first few lines of output you should see:

```
[INFO]    Writing exif overrides
[INFO]    Maximum photo dimensions: 4000px
[INFO]    Found GPU device: Intel(R) OpenCL HD Graphics
[INFO]    Using GPU for extracting SIFT features
```

The SIFT GPU implementation is CUDA-based, so should work with most NVIDIA graphics cards of the GTX 9xx Generation or newer.

If you have an NVIDIA card, you can test that docker is recognizing the GPU by running:

```bash
docker run --rm --gpus all nvidia/cuda:10.0-base nvidia-smi
```

If you see an output that looks like this:

```
Fri Jul 24 18:51:55 2020
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 440.82       Driver Version: 440.82       CUDA Version: 10.2     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
```

You're in good shape!

See https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-docker and https://docs.nvidia.com/datacenter/cloud-native/container-toolkit/install-guide.html#docker for information on docker/NVIDIA setup.

## Video Support

Starting from version 3.0.4, ODM can automatically extract images from video files (.mp4, .mov, .lrv, .ts). Just place one or more video files into the `images` folder and run the program as usual. Subtitles files (.srt) with GPS information are also supported. Place .srt files in the `images` folder, making sure that the filenames match. For example, `my_video.mp4` ==> `my_video.srt` (case-sensitive).

## Developers

Help improve our software! We welcome contributions from everyone, whether to add new features, improve speed, fix existing bugs or add support for more cameras. Check our [code of conduct](https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/documents/blob/master/CONDUCT.md), the [contributing guidelines](https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/documents/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md) and [how decisions are made](https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/documents/blob/master/GOVERNANCE.md#how-decisions-are-made).

### Installation and first run

#### Dependencies

Install [pixi](https://pixi.sh), (or use the [devcontainer](https://containers.dev/)):

**MSVC and the Windows SDK come from a host install** of Visual Studio 2022 or Build Tools ([conda-forge Windows native notes](https://conda-forge.org/docs/how-to/advanced/windows/notes-on-native-code/)):

- Desktop development with C++
- Windows 10/11 SDK

#### Build and test

```bash
pixi install --locked
pixi run build
pixi run test
pixi run smoke
```

#### Process a dataset

Process a dataset (from the repo root, with a pixi shell or `pixi run`):

```bash
pixi run odm -- --project-path ~/datasets mydataset
# or, after: eval "$(pixi shell-hook)"
./run.py --project-path ~/datasets mydataset
```

GPU builds use the `gpu` environment: `pixi install -e gpu && pixi run -e gpu build`.

## Advanced

### Build Docker images from source

CPU image (matches CI):

```bash
pixi run docker-build
```

GPU image:

```bash
pixi run docker-build -- --gpu
```

These stamp the image with the OCI labels (revision, version, created) and tag
it `opendronemap/odm:edge` (`:edge-gpu`) on master, or `opendronemap/odm:<branch>`
off master. Pass a custom tag or extra `docker build` flags after `--`, e.g.
`pixi run docker-build -- -t my_odm_image --no-cache`.

If you have questions, join the developer's chat at https://community.opendronemap.org/c/developers-chat/21

1. Try to keep commits clean and simple
2. Submit a pull request with detailed changes and test results
3. Have fun!

## Credits

ODM makes use of [several libraries](https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/ODM/blob/master/pixi.toml) and other awesome open source projects to perform its tasks. Among them we'd like to highlight:

- [OpenSfM](https://github.com/mapillary/OpenSfM)
- [OpenMVS](https://github.com/cdcseacave/openMVS/)
- [PDAL](https://github.com/PDAL/PDAL)
- [Entwine](https://entwine.io/)
- [MVS Texturing](https://github.com/nmoehrle/mvs-texturing)
- [GRASS GIS](https://grass.osgeo.org/)
- [GDAL](https://gdal.org/)
- [PoissonRecon](https://github.com/mkazhdan/PoissonRecon)

## Citation

> _OpenDroneMap Authors_ ODM - A command line toolkit to generate maps, point clouds, 3D models and DEMs from drone, balloon or kite images. **OpenDroneMap/ODM GitHub Page** 2020; [https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/ODM](https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/ODM)

## Trademark

See [Trademark Guidelines](https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/documents/blob/master/TRADEMARK.md)