Options & Flags
This is the complete list of options available in ODM.
3d-tiles
Section titled “3d-tiles”Generate OGC 3D Tiles outputs.
Default: False
Path to a GeoTIFF DEM or a LAS/LAZ point cloud that the reconstruction outputs should be automatically aligned to. Experimental.
Options: <path string>
Default: None
auto-boundary
Section titled “auto-boundary”Automatically set a boundary using camera shot locations to limit the area of the reconstruction. This can help remove far away background artifacts (sky, background landscapes, etc.). See also —boundary.
Default: False
auto-boundary-distance
Section titled “auto-boundary-distance”Specify the distance between camera shot locations and the outer edge of the boundary when computing the boundary with —auto-boundary. Set to 0 to automatically choose a value.
Options: <positive float>
Default: 0
bg-removal
Section titled “bg-removal”Automatically compute image masks using AI to remove the background. Experimental.
Default: False
boundary
Section titled “boundary”GeoJSON polygon limiting the area of the reconstruction. Can be specified either as path to a GeoJSON file or as a JSON string representing the contents of a GeoJSON file.
Options: <json>
build-overviews
Section titled “build-overviews”Build orthophoto overviews for faster display in programs such as QGIS.
Default: False
camera-lens
Section titled “camera-lens”Set a camera projection type. Manually setting a value can help improve geometric undistortion. By default the application tries to determine a lens type from the images metadata.
Options: auto | perspective | brown | fisheye | fisheye_opencv | spherical | equirectangular | dual
Default: auto
cameras
Section titled “cameras”Use the camera parameters computed from another dataset instead of calculating them. Can be specified either as path to a cameras.json file or as a JSON string representing the contents of a cameras.json file.
Options: <json>
Create Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFFs instead of normal GeoTIFFs.
Default: False
copy-to
Section titled “copy-to”Copy output results to this folder after processing.
Options: <path>
Automatically crop image outputs by creating a smooth buffer around the dataset boundaries, shrunk by N meters. Use 0 to disable cropping.
Options: <positive float>
Default: 3
dem-decimation
Section titled “dem-decimation”Decimate the points before generating the DEM. 1 is no decimation (full quality). 100 decimates ~99%% of the points. Useful for speeding up generation of DEM results in very large datasets.
Options: <positive integer>
Default: 1
dem-euclidean-map
Section titled “dem-euclidean-map”Computes an euclidean raster map for each DEM. The map reports the distance from each cell to the nearest NODATA value (before any hole filling takes place). This can be useful to isolate the areas that have been filled.
Default: False
dem-gapfill-steps
Section titled “dem-gapfill-steps”Number of steps used to fill areas with gaps. Set to 0 to disable gap filling. Starting with a radius equal to the output resolution, N different DEMs are generated with progressively bigger radius using the inverse distance weighted (IDW) algorithm and merged together. Remaining gaps are then merged using nearest neighbor interpolation.
Options: <positive integer>
Default: 3
dem-resolution
Section titled “dem-resolution”DSM/DTM resolution in cm / pixel. Note that this value is capped by a ground sampling distance (GSD) estimate.
Options: <float>
Default: 5
Use this tag to build a DSM (Digital Surface Model, ground + objects) using a progressive morphological filter. Check the —dem* parameters for finer tuning.
Default: False
Use this tag to build a DTM (Digital Terrain Model, ground only) using a simple morphological filter. Check the —dem* and —smrf* parameters for finer tuning.
Default: False
end-with
Section titled “end-with”End processing at this stage.
Options: dataset | split | merge | opensfm | openmvs | odm_filterpoints | odm_meshing | mvs_texturing | odm_georeferencing | odm_dem | odm_orthophoto | odm_report | odm_postprocess
Default: odm_postprocess
fast-orthophoto
Section titled “fast-orthophoto”Skips dense reconstruction and 3D model generation. It generates an orthophoto directly from the sparse reconstruction. If you just need an orthophoto and do not need a full 3D model, turn on this option.
Default: False
feature-quality
Section titled “feature-quality”Set feature extraction quality. Higher quality generates better features, but requires more memory and takes longer.
Options: ultra | high | medium | low | lowest
Default: high
feature-type
Section titled “feature-type”Choose the algorithm for extracting keypoints and computing descriptors.
Options: akaze | dspsift | hahog | orb | sift
Default: dspsift
force-gps
Section titled “force-gps”Use images’ GPS exif data for reconstruction, even if there are GCPs present.This flag is useful if you have high precision GPS measurements. If there are no GCPs, this flag does nothing.
Default: False
Path to the file containing the ground control points used for georeferencing. The file needs to use the following format:
EPSG:<code> or <+proj definition>
geo_x geo_y geo_z im_x im_y image_name [gcp_name] [extra1] [extra2]
Options: <path string>
Default: None
Path to the image geolocation file containing the camera center coordinates used for georeferencing. If you don’t have values for yaw/pitch/roll you can set them to 0. The file needs to use the following format:
EPSG:<code> or <+proj definition>
image_name geo_x geo_y geo_z [yaw (degrees)] [pitch (degrees)] [roll (degrees)] [horz accuracy (meters)] [vert accuracy (meters)]
Options: <path string>
Default: None
Generate single file Binary glTF (GLB) textured models.
Default: False
gps-accuracy
Section titled “gps-accuracy”Set a value in meters for the GPS Dilution of Precision (DOP) information for all images. If your images are tagged with high precision GPS information (RTK), this value will be automatically set accordingly. You can use this option to manually set it in case the reconstruction fails. Lowering this option can sometimes help control bowling-effects over large areas.
Options: <positive float>
Default: 3
gps-z-offset
Section titled “gps-z-offset”Set a GPS offset in meters for the vertical axis (Z) by adding it to the altitude value of the GPS EXIF data. This does not change the value of any GCPs. This can be useful for example when adjusting from ellipsoidal to orthometric height.
Options: <float>
Default: 0
show this help message and exit
ignore-gsd
Section titled “ignore-gsd”Ignore Ground Sampling Distance (GSD).A memory and processor hungry change relative to the default behavior if set to true. Ordinarily, GSD estimates are used to cap the maximum resolution of image outputs and resizes images when necessary, resulting in faster processing and lower memory usage. Since GSD is an estimate, sometimes ignoring it can result in slightly better image output quality. Never set —ignore-gsd to true unless you are positive you need it, and even then: do not use it.
Default: False
matcher-neighbors
Section titled “matcher-neighbors”Perform image matching with the nearest images based on GPS exif data. Set to 0 to match by triangulation.
Options: <positive integer>
Default: 0
matcher-order
Section titled “matcher-order”Perform image matching with the nearest N images based on image filename order. Can speed up processing of sequential images, such as those extracted from video. It is applied only on non-georeferenced datasets. Set to 0 to disable.
Options: <positive integer>
Default: 0
matcher-type
Section titled “matcher-type”Matcher algorithm, Fast Library for Approximate Nearest Neighbors or Bag of Words. FLANN is slower, but more stable. BOW is faster, but can sometimes miss valid matches. BRUTEFORCE is very slow but robust.
Options: bow | bruteforce | flann
Default: flann
max-concurrency
Section titled “max-concurrency”The maximum number of processes to use in various processes. Peak memory requirement is ~1GB per thread and 2 megapixel image resolution.
Options: <positive integer>
Default: 4
Choose what to merge in the merge step in a split dataset. By default all available outputs are merged. Options: [‘all’, ‘pointcloud’, ‘orthophoto’, ‘dem’].
Options: all | pointcloud | orthophoto | dem
Default: all
merge-skip-blending
Section titled “merge-skip-blending”During the orthophoto merging, skip expensive blending operation: False
Default: False
mesh-octree-depth
Section titled “mesh-octree-depth”Octree depth used in the mesh reconstruction, increase to get more vertices, recommended values are 8-12.
Options: <integer: 1 <= x <= 14>
Default: 11
mesh-size
Section titled “mesh-size”The maximum vertex count of the output mesh.
Options: <positive integer>
Default: 200000
min-num-features
Section titled “min-num-features”Minimum number of features to extract per image. More features can be useful for finding more matches between images, potentially allowing the reconstruction of areas with little overlap or insufficient features. More features also slow down processing.
Options: <integer>
Default: 10000
Name of dataset (i.e subfolder name within project folder).
Options: <dataset name>
Default: code
no-gpu
Section titled “no-gpu”Do not use GPU acceleration, even if it’s available.
Default: False
optimize-disk-space
Section titled “optimize-disk-space”Delete heavy intermediate files to optimize disk space usage. This affects the ability to restart the pipeline from an intermediate stage, but allows datasets to be processed on machines that don’t have sufficient disk space available.
Default: False
orthophoto-compression
Section titled “orthophoto-compression”Set the compression to use for orthophotos.
Options: JPEG | LZW | PACKBITS | DEFLATE | LZMA | NONE
Default: DEFLATE
orthophoto-cutline
Section titled “orthophoto-cutline”Generates a polygon around the cropping area that cuts the orthophoto around the edges of features. This polygon can be useful for stitching seamless mosaics with multiple overlapping orthophotos.
Default: False
orthophoto-kmz
Section titled “orthophoto-kmz”Set this parameter if you want to generate a Google Earth (KMZ) rendering of the orthophoto.
Default: False
orthophoto-no-tiled
Section titled “orthophoto-no-tiled”Set this parameter if you want a striped GeoTIFF.
Default: False
orthophoto-png
Section titled “orthophoto-png”Set this parameter if you want to generate a PNG rendering of the orthophoto.
Default: False
orthophoto-resolution
Section titled “orthophoto-resolution”Orthophoto resolution in cm / pixel. Note that this value is capped by a ground sampling distance (GSD) estimate.
Options: <float > 0.0>
Default: 5
pc-classify
Section titled “pc-classify”Classify the point cloud outputs. You can control the behavior of this option by tweaking the —dem-* parameters.
Default: False
pc-copc
Section titled “pc-copc”Save the georeferenced point cloud in Cloud Optimized Point Cloud (COPC) format.
Default: False
pc-csv
Section titled “pc-csv”Export the georeferenced point cloud in CSV format.
Default: False
pc-ept
Section titled “pc-ept”Export the georeferenced point cloud in Entwine Point Tile (EPT) format.
Default: False
pc-filter
Section titled “pc-filter”Filters the point cloud by removing points that deviate more than N standard deviations from the local mean. Set to 0 to disable filtering.
Options: <positive float>
Default: 5
pc-las
Section titled “pc-las”Export the georeferenced point cloud in LAS format.
Default: False
pc-quality
Section titled “pc-quality”Set point cloud quality. Higher quality generates better, denser point clouds, but requires more memory and takes longer. Each step up in quality increases processing time roughly by a factor of 4x.
Options: ultra | high | medium | low | lowest
Default: medium
pc-rectify
Section titled “pc-rectify”Perform ground rectification on the point cloud. This means that wrongly classified ground points will be re-classified and gaps will be filled. Useful for generating DTMs.
Default: False
pc-sample
Section titled “pc-sample”Filters the point cloud by keeping only a single point around a radius N (in meters). This can be useful to limit the output resolution of the point cloud and remove duplicate points. Set to 0 to disable sampling.
Options: <positive float>
Default: 0
pc-skip-geometric
Section titled “pc-skip-geometric”Geometric estimates improve the accuracy of the point cloud by computing geometrically consistent depthmaps but may not be usable in larger datasets. This flag disables geometric estimates.
Default: False
primary-band
Section titled “primary-band”When processing multispectral datasets, you can specify the name of the primary band that will be used for reconstruction. It’s recommended to choose a band which has sharp details and is in focus.
Options: <string>
Default: auto
project-path
Section titled “project-path”Path to the project folder. Your project folder should contain subfolders for each dataset. Each dataset should have an “images” folder.
Options: <path>
radiometric-calibration
Section titled “radiometric-calibration”Set the radiometric calibration to perform on images. When processing multispectral and thermal images you should set this option to obtain reflectance/temperature values (otherwise you will get digital number values). [camera] applies black level, vignetting, row gradient gain/exposure compensation (if appropriate EXIF tags are found) and computes absolute temperature values. [camera+sun] is experimental, applies all the corrections of [camera], plus compensates for spectral radiance registered via a downwelling light sensor (DLS) taking in consideration the angle of the sun.
Options: none | camera | camera+sun
Default: none
Rerun this stage only and stop.
Options: dataset | split | merge | opensfm | openmvs | odm_filterpoints | odm_meshing | mvs_texturing | odm_georeferencing | odm_dem | odm_orthophoto | odm_report | odm_postprocess
rerun-all
Section titled “rerun-all”Permanently delete all previous results and rerun the processing pipeline.
Default: False
rerun-from
Section titled “rerun-from”Rerun processing from this stage.
Options: dataset | split | merge | opensfm | openmvs | odm_filterpoints | odm_meshing | mvs_texturing | odm_georeferencing | odm_dem | odm_orthophoto | odm_report | odm_postprocess
rolling-shutter
Section titled “rolling-shutter”Turn on rolling shutter correction. If the camera has a rolling shutter and the images were taken in motion, you can turn on this option to improve the accuracy of the results. See also —rolling-shutter-readout.
Default: False
rolling-shutter-readout
Section titled “rolling-shutter-readout”Override the rolling shutter readout time for your camera sensor (in milliseconds), instead of using the rolling shutter readout database. Note that not all cameras are present in the database. Set to 0 to use the database value.
Options: <positive integer>
Default: 0
sfm-algorithm
Section titled “sfm-algorithm”Choose the structure from motion algorithm. For aerial datasets, if camera GPS positions and angles are available, triangulation can generate better results. For planar scenes captured at fixed altitude with nadir-only images, planar can be much faster.
Options: incremental | triangulation | planar
Default: incremental
sfm-no-partial
Section titled “sfm-no-partial”Do not attempt to merge partial reconstructions. This can happen when images do not have sufficient overlap or are isolated.
Default: False
skip-3dmodel
Section titled “skip-3dmodel”Skip generation of a full 3D model. This can save time if you only need 2D results such as orthophotos and DEMs.
Default: False
skip-band-alignment
Section titled “skip-band-alignment”When processing multispectral datasets, ODM will automatically align the images for each band. If the images have been postprocessed and are already aligned, use this option.
Default: False
skip-orthophoto
Section titled “skip-orthophoto”Skip generation of the orthophoto. This can save time if you only need 3D results or DEMs.
Default: False
skip-report
Section titled “skip-report”Skip generation of PDF report. This can save time if you don’t need a report.
Default: False
sky-removal
Section titled “sky-removal”Automatically compute image masks using AI to remove the sky. Experimental.
Default: False
sm-cluster
Section titled “sm-cluster”URL to a ClusterODM instance for distributing a split-merge workflow on multiple nodes in parallel.
Options: <string>
Default: None
sm-no-align
Section titled “sm-no-align”Skip alignment of submodels in split-merge. Useful if GPS is good enough on very large datasets.
Default: False
smrf-scalar
Section titled “smrf-scalar”Simple Morphological Filter elevation scalar parameter.
Options: <positive float>
Default: 1.25
smrf-slope
Section titled “smrf-slope”Simple Morphological Filter slope parameter (rise over run).
Options: <positive float>
Default: 0.15
smrf-threshold
Section titled “smrf-threshold”Simple Morphological Filter elevation threshold parameter (meters).
Options: <positive float>
Default: 0.5
smrf-window
Section titled “smrf-window”Simple Morphological Filter window radius parameter (meters).
Options: <positive float>
Default: 18.0
Average number of images per submodel. When splitting a large dataset into smaller submodels, images are grouped into clusters. This value regulates the number of images that each cluster should have on average.
Options: <positive integer>
Default: 999999
split-image-groups
Section titled “split-image-groups”Path to the image groups file that controls how images should be split into groups. The file needs to use the following format:
image_name group_name
Options: <path string>
Default: None
split-overlap
Section titled “split-overlap”Radius of the overlap between submodels in meters. After grouping images into clusters, images that are closer than this radius to a cluster are added to the cluster. This is done to ensure that neighboring submodels overlap. All imagesneed GPS information.
Options: <positive integer>
Default: 150
texturing-keep-unseen-faces
Section titled “texturing-keep-unseen-faces”Keep faces in the mesh that are not seen in any camera.
Default: False
texturing-single-material
Section titled “texturing-single-material”Generate OBJs that have a single material and a single texture file instead of multiple ones.
Default: False
texturing-skip-global-seam-leveling
Section titled “texturing-skip-global-seam-leveling”Skip normalization of colors across all images. Useful when processing radiometric data.
Default: False
Generate static tiles for orthophotos and DEMs that are suitable for viewers like Leaflet or OpenLayers.
Default: False
use-3dmesh
Section titled “use-3dmesh”Use a full 3D mesh to compute the orthophoto instead of a 2.5D mesh. This option is a bit faster and provides similar results in planar areas.
Default: False
use-exif
Section titled “use-exif”Use this tag if you have a GCP File but want to use the EXIF information for georeferencing instead.
Default: False
use-fixed-camera-params
Section titled “use-fixed-camera-params”Turn off camera parameter optimization during bundle adjustment. This can be sometimes useful for improving results that exhibit doming/bowling or when images are taken with a rolling shutter camera.
Default: False
use-hybrid-bundle-adjustment
Section titled “use-hybrid-bundle-adjustment”Run local bundle adjustment for every image added to the reconstruction and a global adjustment every 100 images. Speeds up reconstruction for very large datasets.
Default: False
version
Section titled “version”Displays version number and exits.
video-limit
Section titled “video-limit”Maximum number of frames to extract from video files for processing. Set to 0 for no limit.
Options: <positive integer>
Default: 500
video-resolution
Section titled “video-resolution”The maximum output resolution of extracted video frames in pixels.
Options: <positive integer>
Default: 4000