Export panel

Once you are finished with your drone show, use the Export panel to export it from Blender to different formats for further processing or direct upload to the drones.

The available output formats depend on whether you selected the "Indoor" or "Outdoor" setting in the Swarm panel's Show type dropdown, and also on your specific license purchased.

Press the Refresh file formats to enable export formats according to your license.

Note that export operations require Blender to sample trajectories and lights which can take a long time. To see the progress or predicted remaining time of the export procedure, run Blender from a terminal window or press "Toggle System Console" in the "Windows" menu to watch its terminal log.

Export to .skyc

The Skybrush compiled show format is a single-file descriptor of your complete drone show. It is used as the primary drone show format throughout the entire Skybrush suite:

If you wish to visualize or verify your show or you simply want to send a link with an interactive 3D visualization of the show to your clients, use Skybrush Viewer.
If you want to execute your drone show on your real drones, use Skybrush Live.

If you press the Export Skybrush SKYC button, you have to choose the path and filename of your output file. There are also some parameters you can setup conveniently:

Export selected drones only: Export all or only selected drones
Frame range: Define the frame range of the output (Storyboard / Render / Preview / Current formation or transition)
Trajectory FPS: Set output frame rate for drone trajectories (make sure it is a submultiple of your render FPS)
Light FPS: Set the output frame rate for light programs (make sure it is a submultiple of your render FPS)
Export yaw: Enable this checkbox to output rotations around the yaw (vertical) axis of your drone objects into the .skyc file
Export cameras: Enable this checkbox to export Blender cameras into the .skyc file (to be used by Skybrush Viewer).

Export to CSV

The trajectories and LED light colors of the drones can also be sampled at regular intervals and exported to CSV files for further post-processing in external tools. This option appears only if you have installed and enabled the CSV export addon that is distributed separately. The CSV export will produce a single ZIP file that contains multiple CSV files, one for each drone, with the following columns: time (milliseconds), X, Y and Z coordinates (meters) and the red, green and blue components of the color of the LED light, in the usual 0-255 range.

We recommend using Skybrush Live for drone show control, together with the official Skybrush Compiled Format (.skyc), as it contains a lot more information about your show in a more optimized way than this simple CSV representation.

If you press the Export Skybrush CSV button, you have to choose the path and filename of your output file. There are also some parameters you can setup conveniently:

Export selected drones only: Export all or only selected drones
Frame range: Define the frame range of the output (Storyboard / Render / Preview / Current formation or transition)
Frame rate: Set output frame rate of drone trajectories and light programs (make sure it is a submultiple of your render FPS)

Special characters in drone names are converted to standard characters in the exported filenames.

Export validation report

The Export validation report button creates a unique safety report of your show in .pdf format for standalone self-checking, validated reporting or as a supplement for flight permissions or other administration purposes.

The validation report starts with a summary of flight statistics and safety test results, and continues with detailed plots on all aspects of the implemented safety checks.

IMPORTANT

The validation .pdf is created by a local or remote instance of Skybrush Studio Server running in the background. As creating the validation report is resource intensive, access to this feature might be disabled on our public server and might be only available through a paid license option. If you need but do not have access, visit Skybrush Store for obtaining the proper Skybrush Studio Server license.

If you press the Export validation report button, you have to choose the path and filename of your output file. There are also some parameters you can setup conveniently:

Export selected drones only

Export all or only selected drones

Frame range

Define the frame range of the output (Storyboard / Render / Preview / Current formation or transition)

Trajectory FPS

Set output sampling frame rate for drone trajectories (make sure it is a submultiple of your render FPS)

Light FPS

Set the output sample frame rate for light programs (make sure it is a submultiple of your render FPS)

Plot positions

Include position-related plots in the safety report, such as an elevation profile or horizontal extent of the trajectories.

Plot velocities

Include velocity-related plots in the safety report including horizontal and vertical velocity timelines focusing on maximum velocity breach warnings.

Plot projected drift

Include projected drift plots in the safety report. The drift plot is a complex output for checking integral predicted deviations from show trajectories due to maximum velocity or maximum acceleration threshold breach events.

Plot nearest neighbor

Include a unified nearest neighbor plot in the safety report to check for minimum distance between drones throughout the entire show.

Plot all nearest neighbors

Include nearest neighbor curves on a per-drone basis on a separate page of the safety report.

Creating this plot might take a longer time, depending on the number of drones, frames and output frame rate.

Create individual drone plots

Include validation plots for each drone individually on separate pages in the final output.

Creating these plots might take a long time, depending on the number of drones, frames and output frame rate.

Export to Finale 3D VVIZ format

If you are preparing your drone show as part of a larger event with fireworks, you can export to Finale 3D VVIZ format directly. Note that this export option requires a professional license that can be purchased from Skybrush Store.

If you press the Export to Finale 3D VVIZ button, you have to choose the path and filename of your output file. The Export selected drones only, Frame range, Trajectory FPS, Light FPS and Export yaw options will be available for this export type as well.

Export to various third-party show formats

Upon purchasing a professional license, we provide additional exporters to various external drone show formats, including DSS PATH, DSS PATH3, Drotek, EVSKY, LiteBee, etc.

Visit Skybrush Store to purchase a professional license with third-party exporters. Contact us if you need any additional exporters that are not on the list yet.