Units and Conversions
Acres ↔ hectares, gallons ↔ liters, feet ↔ meters, pounds ↔ kilograms — what the portal converts automatically and what you need to know.
The portal supports two unit systems globally and converts on the fly. This page documents every conversion and the gotchas.
The toggle
Settings → System Settings → General → Measurement Units lets you pick:
- Imperial — acres, gallons, feet, pounds. The US default.
- Metric — hectares, liters, meters, kilograms.
Once set, every:
- Screen displays values in the chosen unit.
- PDF (flight reports) is generated in the chosen unit.
- Shapefile (prescription) carries the chosen unit in the
unitattribute.
Conversion table
The portal uses these precise conversions:
| Imperial | Metric | Factor |
|---|---|---|
| 1 acre | 0.404686 hectares | 1 ac = 0.404686 ha |
| 1 hectare | 2.471054 acres | 1 ha = 2.471054 ac |
| 1 US gallon | 3.785412 liters | 1 gal = 3.785412 L |
| 1 liter | 0.264172 US gallons | 1 L = 0.264172 gal |
| 1 foot | 0.3048 meters | 1 ft = 0.3048 m |
| 1 meter | 3.28084 feet | 1 m = 3.28084 ft |
| 1 pound | 0.453592 kilograms | 1 lb = 0.453592 kg |
| 1 kilogram | 2.204623 pounds | 1 kg = 2.204623 lb |
These are the standard conversions used by USDA and international ag data systems.
Composite units
Rate units combine area and volume:
| Imperial | Metric | Conversion |
|---|---|---|
| 1 gal/ac | 9.353854 L/ha | gal/ac × 9.353854 |
| 1 L/ha | 0.106907 gal/ac | L/ha × 0.106907 |
| 1 lb/ac | 1.120851 kg/ha | lb/ac × 1.120851 |
| 1 kg/ha | 0.892179 lb/ac | kg/ha × 0.892179 |
These appear in flight reports and prescription shapefiles.
Common reference values
For sanity checks:
- A typical soybean drone spray rate is 2–3 gal/ac ≈ 19–28 L/ha.
- A typical corn fungicide rate is 1–2 gal/ac ≈ 9–19 L/ha.
- A typical drone swath width is 13–20 ft ≈ 4–6 m.
- A typical drone capacity is 8–10 gal ≈ 30–40 L.
If a rate or swath value reads wildly off these, something's wrong — usually a unit-mismatch between the portal and the controller.
Where unit choice matters
Flight reports
The Flight Log → Generate report flow prompts for the unit at PDF generation time:
- Hectares (metric) — area in ha; volumes in L (spraying) or kg (seeding); swath in m.
- Acres (imperial) — area in ac; volumes in gal (spraying) or lb (seeding); swath in ft.
You can regenerate the same flights in the other unit any time.
Prescription shapefiles
The downloaded prescription-*.zip carries the unit in the unit attribute of the .dbf table. Values are stored as the unit you generated with.
If you re-import a metric prescription into an imperial-configured controller, you'll get a ~2.5× error. Always confirm the controller's unit before flying.
Display
Every numerical UI element (acres covered, applied volume in the dashboard, ranges in the Map Prescription Estimate) reflects the portal's global unit setting.
When the portal doesn't convert
A few things the portal stores in absolute units, not unit-converted:
- GPS coordinates are always WGS84 (decimal degrees).
- Polygon geometry in shapefiles is always WGS84.
- Time is always UTC internally; displayed in the user's local timezone.
Switching units mid-season
If you change the portal's measurement unit halfway through a season:
- Already-downloaded shapefiles keep their unit. The pilot's existing files still work.
- Already-generated PDFs are static; they don't change.
- New PDFs and shapefiles use the new unit.
This is generally safe, but communicate the change to your team to avoid confusion.
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Last updated Oct 20, 2018