On August 8th 2016, almost three years ago, the WebODM project was started. The goal was to bring a friendly user interface to OpenDroneMap, which at the time worked only via command line and had a bare-bone UI via NodeODM which lacked things like user authentication, map previews, 3D model display, etc.

Yesterday I merged the entwine branch which upgrades the 3D model display to support EPT and the new features of Potree 1.6. The release is mostly symbolical, as the software has been working quite reliably for a while. There are still some issues with handling certain low-memory error scenarios which need improvement (worker processes getting killed by the OS during high memory usage and tasks sometimes getting stuck), but with proper memory configuration the software is stable.

So what’s next?

We will continue improving the software of course. A better GCP interface, better workflows for cataloging data and providing a more customer focused experience, easier installation on Windows and many of other issues continue to be a priority.

We are also planning to launch a cloud version of WebODM. This has been in the planning for a while, but there have been many challenges to create a sustainable offering (mostly around the difficulty of storage requirements).

The future is exciting. Update your versions or download the new WebODM 1.0. As usual, report any issues on GitHub.