Field guides for farm mapping, drones & the workshop

Practical, no-BS guides on mapping your fields in 3D, drone-mapping accuracy, spray calibration, photogrammetry targets, and getting parametric prints to actually fit — from the team at Field Forge 3D.

• Precision Ag · Irrigated Ground

  How Many Acres Does a Center Pivot Water? (Measure the Circle, Not the Quarter)

  The deed says 160; the machine waters about 126. The circle math, what the corner acres cost you, and a free way to measure the circle your pivot actually covers.

• Land & Habitat · Food Plots

  How Many Acres Is Your Food Plot? (Measure It Free — the Seed Math Depends on It)

  Seed, lime, and fertilizer are all rated per acre — so a guessed plot size wastes money both ways. How to measure your plots free and map them on real 3D terrain.

• Precision Ag · Hay

  How Many Bales of Hay per Acre? (Track Your Real Number, Field by Field)

  Why every quoted bales-per-acre figure is a guess, the real-acres math that makes your count mean something, and a free per-cutting record you keep field by field.

• Precision Ag · Land Records

  How to Read a Legal Land Description (Township, Range & Section)

  Township, range, section, and the NW¼ of the SE¼ — how to decode the description on your deed, count its acres, and put the boundary on a 3D map of your own.

• Precision Ag · Offline

  How to Map Your Fields Without Cell Service (GPS Doesn’t Need Bars)

  Download your field maps, check readiness, and rehearse reopening offline before leaving service. What stays on your device, what needs a connection, and how to keep recovery copies.

• Drone & Mapping · NDVI

  How to Read an NDVI Map of Your Field (And What It Can’t Tell You)

  What the green-to-red actually means, why the same field can look different on two maps, and a free way to drape NDVI over your fields on real 3D terrain.

• Precision Ag · Grazing

  How to Map Your Pastures for Free (Acres, Paddocks & Grazing Records)

  Free ways to get real acres on every pasture, sketch paddock splits over 3D terrain before you buy wire, and keep simple per-pasture grazing records in your own units.

• Precision Ag · Boundaries

  How to Find Your Property Lines for Free (And What Tax Maps Can’t Tell You)

  Where the free records live — county GIS parcel maps, deeds, plats, and FSA maps — what each can and can't tell you, and how to put the boundary on a 3D map of your own.

• Drone & Mapping · Photogrammetry

  How to Turn Drone Photos into a Farm Map — Free (Ortho, NDVI & Elevation)

  A drone's photos aren't a map yet — what processing actually produces, the free WebODM route to GeoTIFF orthos and elevation, and a free mapper that drapes them on 3D terrain.

• Drone & Mapping · Change Detection

  How to Compare Two Drone Maps of the Same Field — Free (See What Changed)

  Two drone maps, different dates — free ways to see what actually changed between flights, and a beta tool that maps NDVI gains and losses or dirt moved in cubic yards.

• Precision Ag · Boundaries

  How to Open a Shapefile or KML of Your Farm — Free (No GIS Software Needed)

  Someone sent you your farm as a shapefile or KML and nothing opens it — what those files are, free ways to view them, and a free mapper that puts them on 3D terrain.

• Precision Ag · Leveling

  How to Estimate Cut and Fill for Field Leveling — Free (Before You Get a Bid)

  Leveling is priced by the yard moved — free ways to get a first-pass cut/fill number, plus a beta terrain tool that reports balanced cut and fill in cubic yards.

• Precision Ag · Frost

  How to Find Frost Pockets on Your Land for Free (Before You Plant)

  Cold air drains like water — free ways to find the frost pockets and warm thermal belts on your ground, plus a beta terrain tool that flags them before you plant.

• Precision Ag · Drainage

  How to Map Field Drainage Problems for Free (Find Where Water Stands)

  Free ways to find where water stands in a field — walking it right, reading old imagery, and beta terrain tools that show low spots before you call a tile contractor.

• Precision Ag · Mapping

  How to Map Your Farm in 3D for Free (Tools That Actually Work)

  Free ways to map your farm in 3D — what Google Earth, county GIS, and QGIS each do well, and a free mapper that puts your field boundaries on real terrain.

• Precision Ag · Yield

  How to Track Crop Yield by Field (Without a Spreadsheet Mess)

  What a useful per-field yield record contains, why whole-farm averages hide your best and worst ground, and a free way to keep estimates and harvest actuals per field.

• Precision Ag · Acreage

  How to Measure Field Acreage Accurately (Without Expensive GIS)

  What a "map acre" really is, the common ways to measure a field and where each one bites, and a free way to measure the standard map acre from a boundary you draw.

• Precision Ag · Farm Software

  How to Keep Simple Spray & Re-Entry Records Without Losing Your Mind

  What to log in a farm spray record, REI and PHI explained in plain terms, and a free way to track re-entry and pre-harvest countdowns per field.

• Drone & Mapping

  Photogrammetry Scale Bar: How to Scale a 3D Model Accurately

  When to use a scale bar instead of GCPs, how to measure and place it, how to enter it in Metashape, RealityCapture, and Pix4D, and how coded targets cut post-processing time.

• Drone & Mapping · Pillar

  Ground Control Points for Drone Mapping: A Field Guide to Survey-Grade Accuracy

  How many GCPs, where to place them, checkpoints, scale bars and RTK — the complete ground-control workflow for survey-grade drone maps.

• Drone & Mapping

  The Best 3D-Printed Drone Accessories for Mapping (Field-Tested)

  Sun hoods, RTK mounts, GCP targets, prop clips and field organizers — the most useful 3D-printed gear for mapping and precision-ag pilots.

• Drone & Mapping

  Why 3D-Printed GCP Targets Beat Paper for Photogrammetry

  Why 3D-printed ground control targets beat paper for accuracy, durability and clean auto-detection in Pix4D, DroneDeploy and Metashape.

• Precision Ag

  DJI Agras Spray Rate Calibration: A Field-Proven Bench Test (L/ha You Can Trust)

  A timed nozzle catch test to verify your DJI Agras output in litres per hectare — and the graduated cup that makes it repeatable.

• 3D Printing

  Parametric vs. Fixed STL: Why One-Size Files Let You Down

  Why adjustable, editable files fit your real hardware better, cut failed prints, and beat one-size-fits-all STL downloads.

• Shop Storage

  Gridfinity and Multiboard: The Modular Shop Storage Trend Explained

  What Gridfinity and Multiboard are, why they took off, and how parametric bins let you fill any drawer or wall exactly.

• Repair

  3D Printed Replacement Knob: How to Measure, Print One That Fits

  Lost or broke a stove, cabinet or dresser knob? How to measure the shaft (D-shaft vs splined), set clearances, and print one that fits.