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Create Your First Prescription Map

End-to-end walkthrough: from drawing a field to downloading a VRA shapefile.

Agronomist
Farmer

This tutorial takes you from a fresh GTRV account to a downloadable VRA shapefile in about 20 minutes, using a satellite image as the input. No drone flight required.

What you'll need

  • An account with at least Member role.
  • A field you want to manage. The example below uses a 40-acre soybean field.
  • Roughly 20 minutes.

What you'll produce

  • A farm (if you don't have one yet).
  • A field with its boundary drawn.
  • A plot inside the field.
  • A prescription map generated from satellite NDVI.
  • A prescription-*.zip shapefile bundle ready for the controller.

The walkthrough

  1. Open the Map Prescription wizard

    From the sidebar, click Map Prescription, then Create New.

  2. Pick or create a farm

    In the wizard's Farm dropdown, pick an existing farm or click Add New Farm. Name it (e.g., "Smith Farms — North"), click Create.

  3. Draw the field

    In the Field dropdown, click Draw new field. The map enters drawing mode.

    • Click on each corner of the field.
    • Click the first point again to close the polygon.
    • Click Create Field.
    • Name it (e.g., "North 40").
    • Click Create Field.

  4. Define the plot

    In the Plot dropdown, click Create new plot, then Draw plot.

    • Draw the plot polygon. For your first prescription, draw the plot equal to the field boundary.
    • Click the first point to close.
    • Click Create Plot.
    • Fill in:
      • Plot Name: "North 40 — 2026 Soybean"
      • Crop Type: Soybean
      • Season: 2025-26
    • Click Create Plot.

  5. Pick satellite imagery

    On the Processing step, leave the source as Satellite.

    • Click Search Satellite Image.
    • Wait for "Searching for recent images..." to complete.
    • Inspect the scene. Toggle between True Color and NDVI (Health).
    • Verify in the info card that Cloud Cover is < 20% and the Date/Time is recent.

    If no acceptable scene is found, try again later or switch to drone imagery — see Satellite vs. Drone.

  6. Save and proceed to the Zone Editor

    Click Save & Proceed. The Zone Editor drawer opens.

  7. Configure zones

    • Zone count: Medium (3 zones).
    • Method: K-Means.
    • Block size: 5 m.
    • Prescription preset: Recovery (applies more product where NDVI is low).

    Click Generate Zones Automatically.

    Wait for "Generating Zones..." to complete. You'll see "Zones generated successfully!" with the count of polygons.

  8. Review and adjust the VRA prescription

    • Inspect the Statistics panel — Zones, Avg NDVI, Min NDVI, Max NDVI.
    • In the VRA Prescription card, pick the mission type: Spraying.
    • Review the Application Rate by Zone table. The portal pre-fills sensible defaults based on the Recovery preset.
    • If you want to override a rate, click the value and edit it.
    • Optionally draw Exclusion Zones for waterways or sensitive corners.
    • Click Generate VRA Prescription.

  9. Download the shapefile

    On the Product Estimate step, review:

    • Total Area (in your unit setting — should match the field acreage).
    • Required Product (total volume).
    • Estimated Flights.
    • Avg. rate.

    Click Download Shapefile (.zip). The bundle saves to your browser's Downloads folder.

  10. Load the shapefile into the controller

    Hand the .zip to your pilot. They'll unzip it onto the controller and load the prescription before takeoff. See the controller documentation for the exact import steps on your model.

What's next

Common pitfalls

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Last updated Oct 20, 2018