Creating Custom Background Maps for use in Emlid Flow

This video will walk through creating a WMTS (Web Map Tile Service) layer in Mapbox Studio to use your high-resolution drone imagery as a real-world background layer in Emlid Flow.

Prerequisites & File Preparation

To follow this custom mapping guide, you will need your drone orthomosaic fully processed and exported in a standard geo-referenced .tiff format. Keep in mind that individual uploads or sets of image tiles must be kept under a file size limit of 300MB each to ensure smooth server side processing.

💡 Account Note: This deployment pipeline requires a standard map design interface. Setting up a basic developer profile is completely free on the Mapbox Studio portal, though the hosting interface steps themselves are what we focus on inside this workflow video.

Integrating the Layer in Emlid Flow

Once your raster data is accurately georeferenced and compiled into active tilesets within Mapbox Studio, the platform generates a unique integration token. By mapping this custom endpoint link directly into your survey collector settings, you override the standard low-resolution satellite basemaps.

This advanced functionality lets operators visually check boundary flags, track construction site progress, or spot topographic constraints live in the field with sub-centimeter canvas resolution.

⚠️ Subscription Requirement: Please note that custom map background integration via WMTS data stream syncing is a premium feature available exclusively to users with an active Emlid Flow +Survey subscription plan.