Free tool
Spray Prescription Map Builder
Load your drone ortho, draw a zone around every weed patch, set rates, and download a prescription your sprayer or spray drone can import. Spray only where it's needed.
Draw: pick the polygon or rectangle tool at the top left of the map and outline each weed patch. New zones get the default rate.
Rates: click a zone to change its rate. Darker red is a higher rate. Where zones overlap, the higher rate wins.
Field: add the boundary to clip zones to it and set a rate for the rest of the field (0 = no spray).
Product and rates
Covers drift and drawing error.
Needs a boundary.
Field boundary (optional)
Spray zones
No zones yet. Draw one around each patch to spray.
Export
- The zip holds an Rx folder with a WGS 84 shapefile. RATE is the rate column; UNIT names its unit.
- Operations Center: upload the zip under Files. Display: unzip so the Rx folder sits at the root of a USB drive, then import with File Manager.
- On import, pick RATE as the rate column and confirm the unit. Areas at rate 0 turn sections off.
Shapefile in an Rx folder, as John Deere displays import.
Draw at least one spray zone on the map.
From map to sprayer
Spray the weeds, not the field
- Fly and stitch the field, then export the ortho as a GeoTIFF.
- Outline the field with the boundary tool if you don't have it yet. It can trace over the same ortho.
- Draw, rate, download, then test the import on the controller before the job.
Questions
How do I build a prescription?
Add your ortho (a GeoTIFF from DJI Terra, Pix4D, DroneDeploy, WebODM, or similar) so you can see the weeds, and the field boundary as KML or KMZ if you have it. Draw a zone around each patch with the polygon or rectangle tool. Set the rate for each zone, a buffer around them, and a rate for the rest of the field (0 for no spray). Pick your spray platform and download.
Which formats does each platform get?
John Deere: a WGS 84 shapefile in an Rx folder with a numeric RATE column. DJI Agras: a shapefile of spray areas for spot spraying, or for variable rate a boundary shapefile plus a rate GeoTIFF in L/ha or kg/ha, in the DJI folder layout the controller imports from an SD card. XAG: a WGS 84 shapefile with RATE. EAVision: a KML of spray areas for EAV MapCloud. Hylio: GeoJSON for AgroSol. Ceres Air has no published format, so you get shapefile, KML, and GeoJSON.
Will it import first time?
The layouts follow each platform's published import requirements, but platforms change their software. Do a test import on the controller or in the platform's software before the job, and check the zones, rates, and units there.
What does the buffer do?
It grows every zone outward by the distance you set, so drift, GPS error, and a drawing that hugs the weeds too tightly don't leave plants unsprayed. A few feet is typical for spot spraying; follow the product label.
What if zones overlap?
Where zones overlap, the higher rate wins, so no ground gets two rates. Zones are clipped to the field boundary when there is one.
How big an ortho can it open?
Multi-gigabyte orthos open; the tool reads the file in pieces and shows a preview up to 4,096 pixels across. It reads GeoTIFFs in WGS 84 or UTM (WGS 84, NAD83, ETRS89) with LZW, Deflate, JPEG, or no compression. Re-export in one of those if yours doesn't open.
Is my data uploaded?
No. The ortho, boundary, and zones stay in this browser tab, and the prescription is built here. Closing the tab discards it, so download before you leave.