DJI waypoints: drones, apps, limits and how to plan them

What a DJI waypoint mission is

DJI Fly stores a waypoint mission as a KMZ file in DJI's WPML format: a list of points, each with a height above the takeoff point, a speed, the drone's heading, the gimbal angle and actions such as a photo or a hover. The drone flies from point to point on its own while you watch and keep the sticks ready.

In DJI Fly itself you can set a few waypoints on the screen. For more than that, a planner on a computer is quicker: you see the whole site, set the heights from a terrain model and copy the finished file over.

Which DJI drones fly waypoints

These are the DJI Fly drones that waypoint missions are made for here, with what each has in common: 200 waypoints per mission, heights from the takeoff point, and one battery per mission. Only the Mini 4 Pro is in DJI's Mobile SDK v5, so it is the one that Android apps can also fly live.

The DJI Fly drones with Waypoint Flight. The camera from DJI's specifications, the cap from DJI Fly, live control from DJI's Mobile SDK v5 and the planners from their own pages.

• DJI Mini 4 Pro waypoint missions: GSD per height, flight time and planners.
• DJI Air 3S waypoint missions: GSD per height, flight time and planners.

Plan DJI waypoints on a computer

1. 01

   Check your drone

   Make sure it is one of the drones in the table and that DJI Fly is up to date on the controller or the phone.

2. 02

   Plan the route on the site

   Open a web planner on a PC or a Mac and lay out the route: the points, a height for each and the photos. The comparison of waypoint planners has the options and their prices.

3. 03

   Keep within the limits

   At most 200 waypoints and one battery per mission; plan each flight within 70% of the rated flight time. A bigger job is several missions from the same takeoff, up to 1000 waypoints in all.

4. 04

   Set the heights from the ground

   Heights in the file count from the takeoff point and DJI Fly doesn't follow terrain, so a slope has to be in the heights. Keep every waypoint within 120 m of the ground under it.

5. 05

   Export a DJI Fly KMZ

   Download the mission as a KMZ for DJI Fly, made for the same drone model you will fly.

6. 06

   Put it into DJI Fly

   DJI Fly has no import button: make a placeholder mission, then replace its file under the same name. The KMZ guide has the iPhone and DJI RC 2 steps.

7. 07

   Set Max Altitude and fly

   Set Max Altitude at least as high as the highest waypoint, take off from the planned spot, and check every waypoint on the map before you start.

File formats for DJI waypoints

The same route can go to more than one app. These are the formats Skyplanr exports, all free on every plan:

• DJI Fly KMZ, for the drones in the table.
• DJI Pilot 2 KMZ, for enterprise drones flown with DJI Pilot 2.
• Litchi CSV, for Litchi's Mission Hub.
• KML with the 3D path, for Google Earth and GIS tools, and GeoJSON.
• QGroundControl .plan, for PX4 and ArduPilot drones.

The limits in short

DJI Fly refuses more than 200 waypoints, doesn't resume a mission after a battery swap, counts every height from the takeoff point, and fails a mission with a waypoint above its Max Altitude setting, which EU builds stop at 120 m. The waypoint limits guide explains each one and how to plan around it.

For a mapping grid, the cap means about 200 photos per flight, because each photo is a waypoint with a stop. The mapping guide covers the grid, the overlap and the photos, and photo processing turns them into an orthophoto and a 3D model.

Questions

Related guides

• Waypoint planners for DJI Fly compared: Litchi, Waypoint Map, Dronelink, Pixpro, Skyplanr

  Litchi, Waypoint Map, Dronelink, Pixpro and Skyplanr for DJI Fly waypoints: price, drones, the iPhone path, terrain heights and exports, from their docs.

• How to import a KMZ into DJI Fly (iPhone and RC 2)

  How to import a KMZ into DJI Fly: your own waypoint mission in the app on iPhone, DJI RC or RC 2. It works by swapping a placeholder mission's file.

• DJI Fly waypoint limits: 200 waypoints, no auto-resume after a battery swap, no terrain follow, Max Altitude

  DJI Fly takes at most 200 waypoints, has no automatic resume after a battery swap or terrain follow, and fails above Max Altitude. How to plan around each.

Sources

Skyplanr is not affiliated with the third-party guides linked here.

1. DJI Developer: DJI WPML overview (the KMZ format DJI Fly reads) (developer.dji.com)
2. DJI Developer: Mobile SDK v5 for Android, supported products (github.com)
3. DJI: Mini 4 Pro (Waypoint Flight in DJI Fly) (dji.com)
4. DJI: Mini 5 Pro (Waypoint Flight in DJI Fly) (dji.com)
5. DJI: Air 3 (Waypoint Flight in DJI Fly) (dji.com)
6. DJI: Air 3S (Waypoint Flight in DJI Fly) (dji.com)
7. DJI: Mavic 3 Pro (Waypoint Flight in DJI Fly) (dji.com)
8. DJI: Mavic 4 Pro (Waypoint Flight in DJI Fly) (dji.com)
9. DJI Developer: DJI WPML waylines.wpml reference (executeHeightMode: heights relative to the start point) (developer.dji.com)