dm_extract ( drone metadata extract )

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Extract drone image metadata from the command line.

dm_extract is a CLI tool for extracting EXIF, XMP and GPS metadata from drone JPG images.
It produces structured, ready-to-use output in multiple formats — designed for integration into geomatics and photogrammetry workflows.

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Features

• 📷 Parses EXIF / XMP metadata from drone JPEG images (single file or batch)
• 📍 Extracts GPS coordinates, altitude, gimbal angles and calibrated focal length
• 📤 Exports to CSV and GeoJSON
• ⚡ Fast, scriptable, pipeline-friendly
• 100% written in C
• Runs on Windows, Linux and macOS
• Bonus: Python GUI tool

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Usage

Syntaxe

dm_extract [options] FILE [FILE ...]

At least one file must be provided. Wildcards are accepted.

Options

Option	Forme longue	Description
-o FILE	--output FILE	Output file. Default: stdout
-g	--geojson	GeoJSON output format. Default : CSV
-n	--no-header	Omit the header line CSV
-r	--raw	Diagnostic mode: raw EXIF/XMP dump + structured summary
-q	--quiet	Delete progress messages on stderr
-j N	--jobs N	Number of threads (2, 4, 6 or 8).
-V	--version	Show version and exit
-h	--help	Show help and exit

Multithread options:

• Default: automatic selection based on available RAM.
• Use -j 1 to force sequential mode.
• Ignored with --raw (always sequential).

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success — all files have been processed
1	At least one file in error (read, format not recognized)
2	Arguments error (unknown option, inaccessible output file)

Single file

# Linux / macOS
./dm_extract DJI_0001.JPG

# Windows
dm_extract.exe DJI_0001.JPG

See binaries for more details

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Test Python GUI

GUI

Quick python tool to graphically test dm_extract.
The static binary use is preferred to be able to make scripts or to be integrate into an exernal workflow.
The GUI does not allow it.

⚠️ the Python GUI is a simple test tool that is not part of the code of dm_extract

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Output:

output CSV

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Limitations

• Only JPEG files (.jpg, .JPG) are supported. RAW formats (DNG, CR2, NEF) are not yet supported.
• The processing is sequential (one file at a time) only with -- raw
• In GeoJSON mode, images without valid GPS are excluded without warning message (use '--raw` to diagnose).
• The parser reads only the first 512 KB of each JPEG file to locate the EXIF and XMP blocks — not the entire file (which can be 20–50 MB for a drone photo). In practice, these metadata blocks are always found within the first 128 KB; the 512 KB limit is a conservative safety margin.

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Use cases

• Build flight logs from a set of drone images
• Feed coordinates directly into QGIS, GDAL, or any GIS tool
• Pre-process image sets before photogrammetry pipelines (Metashape, ODM...)
• Quality-check GPS coverage before processing

Supported drones:

7 brands detected automatically: DJI, Parrot, senseFly, Skydio, Autel Robotics, Yuneec, Xiaomi.

Drones

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Part of the Aeroforger ecosystem

dm_extract is an open-source tool maintained under the Aeroforger project — a collection of tools for drone data processing, photogrammetry and geomatics.

Support the project on Patreon.

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License

LGPL v3