Requires and LP360 Drone or an LP360 Land Standard license.

The Auto Create Flight Lines tool , found on the Sensor Tab of the ribbon, is the automated tool used in conjunction with the Manual Flight Lines tool, also found on the Sensor Tab of the ribbon, in the step of the workflow where one takes each real-time trajectory of the flights and segments them into only those sections you need for data generation. This allows you to eliminate sections of the flight that were not over the area of interest or where you simply do not need to generate data. And, to remove sections of acquired data where the trajectory solution is known to be of lesser quality, such as in turns and transition lines. For example, the transit legs to/from the home location. Having a single trajectory file for each flight line – each segment of interest – also assists if you need to do any system calibration (flight line matching) downstream. These individual flight segments are referred to as flight lines.  

The flight lines are generated from the [XXX]_TrajectoryPoints layer. LP360 will use these points to create vectors representing the flight lines and add them to a layer called [XXX]_FlightLines.

How to Create Flight Lines

Compute Mode

1. Select the Auto Create Flight Lines button . The Auto Create Flight Lines dialog will appear in Compute Mode (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Auto Create Flight Lines dialog in Compute Mode

2. This tool is multi-Cycle aware, so select the flights for which to Compute Flight Lines. Select all, none, or individually select the checkbox to the left side of each row to enable the flight line computation for the desired flights. 
3. Select the desired method for the auto creating flight lines.
   • Geometry-Based Method: Uses the geometry of the Trajectory Points to determine flight lines. Adjust the Flight Line Geometry Settings to control how LP360 creates the flight lines from the trajectory points. 
     • Min Length: will eliminate individual flight lines shorter than the specified map distance. This number should usually be set to the shortest flight line length. Use the Measure tool on the LP360 Map toolbar to measure the shortest desired flight line length.   

     • Turn Radius: will eliminate all points within the specified map units from the end turning point of the flight line. The smaller the number, the closer the flight lines will be cut to the turns. The greater the radius, the larger the gap.

     • Max Deviation: will breaks a single line into two separate lines when the 3D distance of the next trajectory point is greater than the specified map units from the current line center. The smaller this number, the more linear the flight lines but the more flight lines that will be created. The larger this value, the more “bend” will be allowed in a relatively straight segment without splitting. Hence, increase this value significantly if you have curved flight lines or significant elevation changes along the trajectory.

   • Time-Based Method: Uses time from the Trajectory Points to determine flight lines. Adjust the Flight Line Time Settings to control how LP360 creates the flight lines from the trajectory points. Recommended for mobile and handheld sensors where the drive and walking paths do not resemble flight lines that can be determined from the geometry-based method.
     • Duration: The maximum length in seconds of a flight line.
     • Ignore First: The number of seconds from the beginning of the trajectory points to ignore. Useful for removing the start of a drive or walk.
     • Ignore Last: The number of seconds from the beginning of the trajectory points to ignore. Useful for removing the end of a drive or walk.
4. Selecting Compute Flight Lines will generate the segmented flight lines for the selected flights and display them in the map view. The number of flight lines created will then populate in the Flight Lines column and the Status will change to Computed.
5. You can re-compute the lines for any combination of flights multiple times until you are satisfied with the results before pressing Next to finalize the computed lines and move into the Edit Mode.

Edit Mode

1. The Edit Mode (Figure 2) of the Auto Create Flight Lines dialog, is single Cycle mode, and toggling from one flight to another automatically turns off the display of all flight line layers except the selected flight. 

Figure 2: Auto Create Flight Lines dialog in Edit Mode

2. Select a flight in the list and the select/delete any unwanted flight lines in the Map View. Note: While in Edit Mode, the Select/Edit Features tool will automatically be enabled.
   1. Select flight lines you wish to delete, then press the Delete key on your keyboard or the Delete Selected Features button on the Feature Edit tab to delete the selected feature(s).
      • • Holding CTRL or dragging the mouse while selecting can be used to select multiple flight lines.
      • After editing the flight lines, the Status will change to Edited to indicate a change has been made. Any edits made within Edit Mode will automatically be saved.
   2. Tools on the Feature Edit tab can also be used to complete any edits.
      1. Select the Select/Edit Features tool on the Feature Edit tab.
      2. Select the flight line you wish to delete, and the line will be highlighted.
         • If multiple feature layers are selected, you will be prompted to choose a layer. Choose the flight line layer.
         • Holding CTRL or dragging the mouse while selecting can be used to select multiple flight lines.
      3. Press the Delete key on your keyboard or the Delete Selected Features button on the Feature Edit tab to delete the selected feature(s).
      4. Delete all unnecessary flight lines. Undo  and Redo  may be used if you accidentally remove the wrong flight line.
      5. To manually add flight lines, use the Manual Flight Lines tool on the Feature Edit tab.
      6. If you had closed the Auto Create Flight Lines dialog, be sure to Save Feature Edits on the Feature Edit tab to save the edits.
3. When you are satisfied with the results displayed in the Map View for the Cycle, select the next flight to toggle off the display of the current flight lines and display those flight lines to make your desired edits.
4. When complete, select Close on the dialog to finalize the flight line creation and editing.

The flight lines are stored as a feature file (.SHP) for each each Cycle in the Project\Area\Cycle\Flight\Positions subfolder of your project.