The drone survey is done. The data is processed. Your point cloud, orthomosaic, and elevation models are sitting in a folder on your desktop.
Now: how do you get them to your client?
If your answer is “zip it up and put it on Dropbox,” you’re in good company — but you’re also leaving significant value on the table. Here’s what professional drone survey delivery looks like today, and why it matters.
The problem with Dropbox delivery
Dropbox (and Google Drive, WeTransfer, and any other file-sharing tool) solves a storage problem, not a viewing problem.
When you send a client a Dropbox link, you’re asking them to:
- Download potentially gigabytes of data
- Figure out what software to open each file type with
- Install CloudCompare for the LAZ, QGIS for the GeoTIFF, Adobe Reader for the report PDF
- Navigate unfamiliar software to look at the data
- Not bother and just email you asking what things mean
The data you captured cost real money and real time. A client who can’t engage with it gets less value from your services — and is less likely to be a repeat client.
What professional delivery looks like
Professional drone survey delivery means your client can:
- Click a single link
- See all their deliverables in one place
- View each one in an appropriate viewer — point cloud in 3D, orthomosaic on a map, PDF rendered inline
- Do this on their laptop or phone, with no software to install
- Come back to it later (the link doesn’t expire after 7 days)
And from your side:
- Your company name and branding is on the portal, not a generic “Shared folder” from Dropbox
- You have a record of every file you’ve delivered to every client
- You don’t have to chase down “did you receive everything?” emails
The typical drone survey deliverable set
A professional drone survey typically delivers a combination of:
| Deliverable | Format | Who needs it |
|---|---|---|
| Orthomosaic | GeoTIFF | Everyone — visual reference for the site |
| Point cloud | LAZ/LAS | Engineers, GIS teams, technical clients |
| DSM/DTM | GeoTIFF | Civil engineers, planners |
| Contour lines | DXF/SHP/PDF | Civil engineers, architects |
| 3D mesh model | OBJ/GLB or 3D Tiles | Visual delivery, project management |
| Survey report | All clients | |
| Flight certificate | Some clients, aviation compliance |
Each format has a different viewer requirement. A proper delivery platform handles all of them without the client needing to install anything.
The formats and their viewers
GeoTIFF → Leaflet map viewer Orthomosaics and elevation models displayed as interactive map layers. Client can pan, zoom, and compare with the existing satellite basemap.
LAZ/LAS → Potree point cloud viewer Full-resolution point cloud in the browser. Client can orbit, zoom, measure features, and slice cross-sections. The same technology used by national mapping agencies.
OBJ/GLB/3D Tiles → CesiumJS or Three.js viewer Textured 3D models and meshes — particularly useful for building and infrastructure surveys.
PDF → inline viewer Survey reports, certificates, and as-built drawings rendered in the browser. No downloading.
MP4/MOV → video player Drone footage or inspection video, played directly in the browser.
Organising deliverables by site and capture date
If you’re doing repeat surveys of the same site — construction progress monitoring, asset inspection, environmental monitoring — delivery organization becomes even more important.
A professional delivery system groups files by:
- Site: The physical location (a construction site, a farm, a mine)
- Capture session: The date of each survey flight
- File type: Within each session, the different deliverable types
This structure gives clients (and your own records) a clear history: Site X was surveyed on 12 January, 14 February, and 15 March — here are the deliverables from each session, organised chronologically.
That’s a fundamentally different proposition to three separate Dropbox links emailed over three months.
How to upgrade your delivery workflow
You don’t need to build any infrastructure to do this. Platforms like Swyvl handle the conversion, hosting, and viewer generation automatically.
The workflow:
- Complete your survey processing as normal
- Log into Swyvl and create a site (the physical location)
- Create a capture session (date of flight)
- Upload your deliverables — LAZ, GeoTIFF, PDF, whatever you’ve produced
- Swyvl generates a shareable portal link
- Send the client the link instead of a Dropbox link
The client sees a branded portal with all their deliverables, each viewable in the appropriate browser-based viewer.
The professional positioning argument
Survey work is a professional service. The way you deliver your work reflects your professionalism.
A surveyor who sends a Dropbox link is communicating: “here are some files.”
A surveyor who sends a branded portal link — with an interactive point cloud, an orthomosaic on a map, and all reports inline — is communicating: “here is your survey, presented professionally.”
The underlying data is identical. But the presentation changes how clients perceive the value of what they received — and whether they come back.
The technology to deliver spatial data professionally in a browser has been available for several years. The gap has been in making it accessible to individual operators without requiring them to build their own infrastructure. That gap is closing.