Kmz on ikml.com

A DJI Drone Mission KMZ and What a GIS Import Would Drop

Sun, 25 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Drone mapping and inspection work runs on mission files. DJI’s planning software saves a mission as a KMZ that holds a folder called wpmz, with a template.kml describing the route and a waylines.wpml file the drone’s controller actually flies. The KML uses DJI’s own wpml namespace for everything a drone needs: heights, speeds, gimbal angles, what to do at each waypoint.

A survey company that receives one of these and wants to see the route on its own maps usually opens it in a GIS or converts it to GeoJSON. The waypoints come through. Almost nothing else does, and nothing says so.

KMZ Files That Point to Pictures on Someone Else's Computer

Sun, 25 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A KMZ is supposed to carry its pictures with it. That’s the reason it exists: the KML document goes into a zip archive together with the icons, the photos in the descriptions and the images of any overlays, and the whole thing works anywhere.

It only works if the document refers to the copies inside the archive. When someone builds a placemark in Google Earth with an icon from their desktop, or pastes a photo into a description, the reference can end up as a path on their own computer. They see everything, because the files are right there. Everyone else sees a broken image.