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)

  Zero bars doesn't stop GPS — it stops the imagery. How to cache maps before you leave wifi, free offline tools that hold up, and a 3D farm mapper built for dead zones.

• 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.