You will learn:

Introduction


This article guide aims to provide a minimum portion of information that is sufficient to go through basic usage scenarios including:

For further reading, in each paragraph and in the end of the article you will find links to detailed tutorials on useful features that are available in service.

How to sign up for an account in Agisoft Cloud


To get started with the Agisoft Cloud you have to sign up for an account first.


To sign up for an account:

  1. Open https://account.agisoft.com/register page in a preferred web-browser,
  2. Fill in your personal information and credentials
    1. Valid email address, disposable email addresses are not considered as valid,
    2. Password of at least 6 characters 
  3. Make sure that you've read and agree with our terms of service,
  4. Click on the Sign Up button.



Check your inbox for an email with Registration confirmation subject from noreply@cloud.agisoft.com, open it and click on the Activate my account button.



For a detailed tutorial on how to manage your account refer to "How to manage your account" article.  

How to process a photoset in the cloud


PLEASE BY NOTIFIED THAT CLOUD PROCESSING SERVICE IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO METASHAPE PROFESSIONAL LICENSE OWNERS AND CAN NOT BE USED WITHOUT METASHAPE.


Understand the basics


Cloud processing service is only available for Metashape Professional license owners including trial and educational licenses, Metashape Standard license does not provide access to cloud processing service. The lowest version of Metashape Professional that supports processing in the cloud is 1.8.5.


To ensure the flexibility of Metashape while processing in the cloud, the cloud processing workflow is organized as follow:

  1. Desired processing operation or batch of desired processing operation should be configured and sent into the cloud from Metashape Professional user interface.  

  2. When the processing is completed  the local project's version is automatically synchronized with the processed cloud project's version, and available for further editing and processing on your local device.

 

The workflow described above has a number of advantages:

  • Control over what to build - single processing task or a batch or processing tasks can be configured and sent into the cloud.
  • Control over where to perform every operation - computation power demanding operations can be done in the cloud, and other locally.
  • Control over every parameter - all parameters available for configuration when processing locally are available for configuration when processing in the cloud.

Configure Metashape


Once you have an account it's time to set up Metashape Professional for cloud processing:

  1. Start Metashape Professional

  2. Select Preferences option from the Tools menu

  3. In the Preferences pop-up open the Network tab

  4. In the Network tab opt-out Enable network processing option and opt-in the Enable cloud processing option and og option.

  5. Input account credentials in the Cloud section and click on the Ok button to finish configurations.


In case you are using a firewall ensure that ports 443 and 8086 are opened through a firewall as well as https://api.agisoft.com:8086 and https://account.agisoft.com URLs are whitelisted to allow Metashape to communicate with the cloud.


Start processing


If you are not familiar with the basic data processing workflows please refer to the: Aerial data processing, Multispectral and thermal data processing, Close range data processing,  
Processing data from special sources; sections of the knowledge base.  


The rough estimation of how much compute time and storage space is required for typical projects can be found in the Plans & billing article.


When Metashape is set up for cloud processing, each time you start a processing operation or a batch of processing operation you are asked to process locally or in the cloud.


To start processing in the cloud:

  1. Start Metashape Professional
  2. Open an existing PSX project or create a new project, import the desired photoset and save it in PSX format.
  3. Configure and start desired processing operation or a batch of processing operations
  4. Confirm that this processing should be done in the cloud when asked


In case you need to work with project visualization online, opt-in Publish results option, see more information about processing results visualization in the following paragraphs.


When initiating the processing in the cloud, synchronization procedure starts and the source imagery together with the project files directory are uploaded to the cloud.  When synchronization is finished the project is locked for local usage until processing completion and you can safely disconnect from the cloud to work with other projects locally.


Monitor the progress


Processing progress may be monitored both in Metashape or through the Agisoft Cloud web-interface.  


To monitor project status in Metashape simply open the corresponding PSX file in Metashape, current progress on the project, the time spent on processing and the estimation of time left to finish the processing will be displayed.



You can safely disconnect from the cloud to work with other projects locally at any time or wait for processing completion to automatically synchronize the project with its processed version in the cloud.


To monitor project status in the web interface, sign it to your data dashboard at https://cloud.agisoft.com with your credentials. On Drive page current progress on the project processing and the estimation of time left to finish the processing will be displayed.

Get the results


When processing is finished, you receive an email notification. To get a processed project from the cloud, open the corresponding PSX file in Metashape and the local project’s version will be automatically synchronized with the cloud one - which means that update project files will be automatically downloaded to your device.



Alternatively, in case the local project's version has been deleted from this device, on in case you need to download the project to other device:

  1. Start Metashape Professional

  2. Select Download project option from the Cloud submenu of the Files menu 

  3. In the Download project pop-up select desired project and click on the Ok button

  4. Select directory and optionally project's name and click on the Save button


If you also need to download project photos, do as follow:

  1. Start Metashape Professional
  2. Open an existing PSX project that has been previously uploaded into the cloud, for which you want to download photos

  3. In the Download photos pop-up select photos you need to download and download directory and click on the Ok button

  4. When downloaded, photos paths will be automatically updated.


Run new processing


Once the project is in the cloud you can run new processing operations in the cloud without need to reupload project photos and files. 


To start new processing in the cloud:

  1. Start Metashape Professional
  2. Open an existing PSX project that has been previously uploaded into the cloud
  3. Configure and start desired processing operation or a batch of processing operations
  4. Confirm that this processing should be done in the cloud when asked

How to work with processed projects online


By default processing results that are stored in Metashape project files directory are in internal formats that are not suitable for the purposes of visualization and interaction on the web. 


In order to start working with the project processing results online it is required to generate their copies in web optimized formats, those copies are called tilesets and the process is called publication.


In case the Publish results option were opted-in when starting the first processing of the project in the cloud, the project will be published automatically on processing completion, otherwise it can be done manually through the web interface.



Publish the project that is processed in the cloud


To publish the project manually:

  1. Login into your account at https://cloud.agisoft.com with your credentials,
  2. On Drive page click on the desired project's menu button
  3. Click on the Publish button



When publication is finished, you receive an email notification and can view, analyze and share its visualization. To view the project's visualization, simply click on the project card on Drive page at you data dashboard at https://cloud.agisoft.com when signed in with your credentials.


If the project is published, its visualization will be automatically updated each time the new processing of this project in the cloud is done in case new processing results are being built.


Upload and publish locally processed project


Whether you do not need to put all processing results of a particular project online, you can approach it the other way. Instead of uploading the whole project into the cloud, create an empty one via your projects dashboard, locally export desired processing results as files in formats that are supported in the cloud and upload them into this project. Refer to How to work with ready-to-use data online paragraph for details.



In case you have a locally processed project that you need to share with the clients or colleagues, you can upload it into the cloud and publish it manually.


To upload the locally processed project into the cloud:

  1. Start Metashape Professional

  2. Select Upload project... option from the Cloud submenu of the Files menu 

  3. Confirm that this project is new and a new project will be created in the cloud when asked

  4. Wait until upload completion



When upload is finished:

  1. Login into your account at https://cloud.agisoft.com with your credentials,
  2. On Drive page click on the desired project's menu button
  3. Click on the Publish button



When publication is finished, you receive an email notification and can view, analyze and share its visualization. To view the project's visualization, simply click on the project card on Drive page at you data dashboard at https://cloud.agisoft.com when signed in with your credentials.


If the project is published, its visualization will be automatically updated each time the new processing of this project in the cloud is done in case new processing results are being built.

How to work with ready-to-use data online


To view, analyze and share ready-to-use geospatial datasets online you first have to create an empty project and then upload desired datasets into it.


Create an empty project


To create an empty project:

  1. Login into your account at https://cloud.agisoft.com with your credentials,
  2. On Drive page click on the the Add+ button to create a new empty project,
  3. Enter project's name and click on the Create button.



When the project is created you automatically redirect to its visualization page, where you can upload new datasets and create vector layer.


Upload data via web interface

Please note that only data in coordinate system that is transformable to WGS84 (EPSG::4326) coordinate system is supported.


To upload a new dataset:

  1. Sign in to https://cloud.agisoft.com with your credentials
  2. Click on the project card on Drive page to open it.


On the Files page:

  1. Click on the Add+ button and select Upload data option from a context menu
  2. In the Upload data pop-up click on the Browse button
  3. Select one or more files of supported type and format on you device and confirm selection
  4. Selected files will appear on the project files page.


On the View page:

  1. Click on the Upload button in a Workspace pane on the left
  2. In the Upload data pop-up click on the Browse button
  3. Select one or more files of supported type and format on you device and confirm selection
  4. Selected files will appear in the Workspace pane on the left. 



If the file is invalid, the upload procedure is not started, the validation error is displayed in the properties pane on the right. In case the file is not removed from the project during the current session it will be automatically removed on leaving the project.


If the file is valid but its coordinate system is not recognized, the upload procedure is paused until its coordinate system is configured. In case the file coordinate system is not configured the file will be automatically removed on leaving the project.



Whether the file is valid and its coordinate system is recognized or has being configured manually, the upload procedure is started. When upload is finished, the file is automatically published, which means that a copy of the file in a web optimized format called tileset is generated for it in order to be able to work with it in a web viewer.

Next steps

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