I am using a Mavic 2 Pro for surveying gravel stockpiles to calculate volumes. I’m still learning and have been using all default settings for the camera. The piles are generally less than 15 m high, and I’ve been flying at 75 m altitude, which is about 2 cm/pixel.
I often find that it is difficult to identify the edges of the piles in the app, particularly with crushed rock. As the loaders work around the piles there tends to be material spread around the pile and it all looks white in the image. I’ve taken to walking around the pile with a spray can marking the edge periodically. Blue seems to work best. But I’m hoping different camera/processing parameters might yield more contrast.
Absent the paint dots I’ve found the most useful way of identifying the edges of the pile is by fiddling with the elevation view. An option to colour by slope rather than elevation would be the cat’s pyjamas.
I would try turning on the elevation mask and you can adjust the sliders for the top and toe elevations to give you a much better color gradient and we’ll be able to see the toe much more easily.
You can also adjust the stockpile volume boundary line in model view. After drawing the approximate boundary in map view, switch to model view and select the blue shaded volume polygon. The TIN will pop up above the stockpile for easier viewing. By adjusting your observation point and viewing angle, you can get right down to ground level and see vertical displacements in the boundary line. This makes it much easier to identify the limits of the pile. While still in model view, you can grab the handles on the boundary line and slide the boundary up/down the slope to find the bottom.
