HIGHER EDUCATION & RESEARCH
Plan educational licensing, shared laboratory access, workstation infrastructure, curriculum-ready workflows and professional training for academic photogrammetry.
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ACADEMIC PRIORITIES
TEACHING
Repeatable course workflows
RESEARCH
Defensible technical methods
DEPLOYMENT
Users, computers and concurrency
PROCUREMENT
Clear institutional purchasing
LICENSING. INFRASTRUCTURE. CURRICULUM. SUPPORT.
Drone Emotions Srl supports universities, colleges and research organizations in connecting Agisoft Metashape licensing with the practical requirements of teaching laboratories and academic projects.
FROM ONE RESEARCHER TO A SHARED LAB
A university deployment is more than a software purchase. The correct plan connects permitted use, edition capabilities, concurrent access, workstations, storage, sample datasets, faculty preparation and the outputs students or researchers must produce.
An individual researcher may need one dedicated license. A teaching laboratory may require predictable simultaneous access across many computers. A research group may combine shared licenses with higher-capacity workstations or processing nodes. Each environment should be evaluated before procurement.
✓ Educational eligibility and permitted-use review
✓ Standard, Professional, Node-Locked and Floating selection
✓ Laboratory capacity and concurrent-seat planning
✓ Hardware, storage and representative-dataset assessment
✓ Training designed around academic disciplines and workflows
WHO THIS PAGE SUPPORTS
Faculty and instructors
Planning practical photogrammetry modules, field exercises and assessable outputs.
Researchers and laboratory leaders
Selecting tools and infrastructure for scientific or interdisciplinary projects.
IT and systems teams
Managing workstations, license servers, storage, security and software deployment.
Procurement and administration
Confirming eligibility, quotations, billing details and institutional purchasing requirements.
Students and postgraduate researchers
Evaluating an eligible license for supervised learning or non-commercial academic research.
ACADEMIC LICENSE PATHS
Educational status determines permitted use and eligibility. Standard or Professional determines software capabilities. Node-Locked or Floating determines how users and computers obtain access.
For eligible users who need core image-based reconstruction, dense point clouds, textured 3D models and panoramas without a complete geospatial workflow.
✓ One computer at a time
✓ Rehostable activation
✓ Core 3D reconstruction
Typical fit: artifact digitization, close-range 3D modelling and introductory non-geospatial projects.
For an eligible researcher, instructor or dedicated workstation requiring georeferencing, mapping, GCPs, DEMs, orthomosaics, measurements, multisensor processing or automation.
✓ One computer at a time
✓ Complete Professional toolset
✓ Research and advanced teaching
Typical fit: a dedicated research workstation or instructor computer used for non-commercial academic work.
For eligible institutions that need a central license server to distribute Professional access across installed computers according to the purchased number of simultaneous seats.
✓ Shared concurrent pool
✓ Professional edition only
✓ Quotation-based configuration
Typical fit: teaching laboratories, shared research facilities and departments with variable workstation use.
Important: Educational licenses are restricted to eligible educational users and non-commercial use. If the institution or project does not meet those conditions, a regular commercial license should be evaluated instead.
CONFIGURATION MATRIX
The final choice depends on eligibility, deliverables, concurrent users and infrastructure. The matrix below is a planning aid rather than an automatic licensing determination.
| Academic situation | Primary requirement | Likely starting point | Confirm before purchase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Student or researcher | Core object-based 3D reconstruction | Standard Educational Node-Locked | Eligibility and absence of geospatial requirements |
| Advanced research workstation | GCPs, orthomosaics, DEMs, LiDAR or multispectral data | Professional Educational Node-Locked | Eligibility, workstation and dataset requirements |
| Teaching laboratory | Predictable access across multiple installed computers | Educational Node-Locked seats or Professional Floating pool | Edition, simultaneous users and network design |
| Shared research facility | Flexible access for several eligible research groups | Professional Educational Floating | Concurrent seats, server reachability and permitted use |
| Commercial or external service work | Paid deliverables or use outside Educational terms | Regular commercial license | Edition, license model and applicable legal terms |
UNIVERSITY LAB DEPLOYMENT
A reliable lab connects access, computing resources, course data, operating procedures and faculty capability. Installing Metashape on multiple computers is only one part of the deployment.
Dedicated Node-Locked workstations may suit a stable room with predictable computer assignments and infrequent license movement.
A Professional Floating server can distribute access across installed computers, limited by the number of simultaneous seats purchased.
Teaching computers, instructor workstations and research systems can use different access models when their schedules and workloads differ.
Large projects may require separate high-capacity workstations or network-processing resources beyond the classroom configuration.
IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK
The institution should document these decisions before fixing seat numbers, purchasing workstations or committing a course to large production datasets.
Define what students must acquire, process, validate, interpret and communicate before choosing the edition or dataset.
Map students, courses, researchers and timetable peaks to the number of sessions that must run at the same time.
Test representative exercises against CPU, GPU, RAM, storage and the maximum time available during a practical session.
Define dataset distribution, naming, permissions, temporary files, submission, backup and retention for each course or project.
Plan software versions, deployment, license-server availability, firewall rules, user permissions and recovery procedures.
Create repeatable project templates, teaching notes, quality criteria and staff capability before opening the lab to students.
ACADEMIC APPLICATIONS
Metashape can support different teaching and research questions, but acquisition design, validation and expected accuracy must remain specific to the discipline and project.
Teach acquisition planning, control, checkpoints, coordinate systems, orthomosaics, elevation models and accuracy reporting.
Create detailed models of artifacts, excavations, buildings and sites while addressing scale, reference, preservation and reproducibility.
Process aerial and multispectral imagery for habitat mapping, forest structure, coastal monitoring and vegetation-index research.
Document rock slopes, outcrops, fossils, tracks and laboratory specimens through measurable two- and three-dimensional products.
Explore as-built documentation, terrain, volumes, structural surfaces and multi-temporal datasets with explicit validation limits.
Teach image-based reconstruction, textured assets, multi-camera projects and the transfer of 3D content to visualization pipelines.
SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES
Explore a curated archive of peer-reviewed publications that document concrete uses of Agisoft Metashape across environmental science, forestry, geoscience, palaeontology and cultural heritage.
Each entry links to the original publisher, identifies the DOI and explains the documented role of the software without implying endorsement or affiliation.
DRONE EMOTIONS RESEARCH
Access practical resources for project readiness, RTK and checkpoint validation, hardware planning, quality assurance, camera diagnostics and controlled performance benchmarking.
The library separates planning frameworks from measured results and states the evidence and limitations required for project-specific decisions.
INSTITUTIONAL PROCUREMENT
Universities and public research organizations often need more than an online checkout. A complete request allows edition, eligibility, seat count, end-user registration and commercial documentation to be reviewed together.
Provide the legal name, country, billing address, tax or VAT details and institutional website.
State the department, laboratory, principal contact and intended teaching or research application.
Specify the edition, computers, users, required simultaneous sessions and preferred license model.
Indicate quotation format, purchase-order process, payment requirements and any vendor documentation deadline.
✓ Exact license designation and quantity
✓ Node-Locked or Floating configuration
✓ Educational eligibility status
✓ Billing and end-user information
✓ Electronic license delivery
Ask Drone Emotions to confirm the selected license, final customer information, quotation validity, applicable tax treatment, available payment methods and any documentation required by the institution.
Educational status and commercial terms should be validated before the institution commits funds or publishes a tender specification.
ACADEMIC CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT
Training can be adapted to faculty, technical staff, researchers or students and aligned with the institution’s datasets, equipment, learning outcomes and expected deliverables.
Review an illustrative framework connecting licensing, hardware, curriculum, shared datasets and laboratory operations.
Review the dedicated university session covering teaching, research, workstations and multi-user deployment.
Plan workshops, online learning or consultation around the institution’s subjects, data and level of experience.
ACADEMIC LICENSING QUESTIONS
Current official Agisoft terms and the circumstances of the actual institution remain decisive for eligibility and permitted use.
Educational licenses are available to accredited educational institutions, including eligible universities, colleges and technical or vocational schools, as well as their qualifying students and teaching or research employees. Agisoft may request written proof of eligibility.
No. Educational and regular licenses of the same edition are technically identical. The difference concerns eligibility and permitted use rather than reduced software functionality.
No. Educational licenses prohibit commercial use. If the intended work includes paid client deliverables, commercial services or another use outside the Educational terms, a regular commercial license should be evaluated.
The choice depends on the curriculum and research outputs. Standard may suit core object-based 3D reconstruction. Professional is required for workflows involving georeferencing, GCPs, checkpoints, orthomosaics, DEMs, advanced measurements, LiDAR, multispectral data, scripting, network processing or Agisoft Cloud processing access.
A Floating license server distributes Metashape Professional access to installed computers. The number of simultaneous sessions is limited to the number of Floating seats purchased. One Floating seat permits one concurrent session.
Yes. Floating licensing allows the client application to be installed on multiple computers, while simultaneous use remains limited by the purchased seat count and managed through the configured license server.
No. Floating licensing is available for Agisoft Metashape Professional only. Standard is available as a Node-Locked license.
The Educational Node-Locked and Floating licenses described here are perpetual and are not time-limited. The update and support entitlement supplied with an order is governed by the current Agisoft terms and the selected product conditions.
Yes. Send the institution’s legal and billing details, department, end-user contact, intended use, edition, license model, required quantity and simultaneous-user requirement. Include any quotation format, payment or vendor-documentation requirements that must be reviewed.
Provide the courses and research areas, estimated student and staff users, maximum simultaneous sessions, number and specifications of computers, typical datasets, required outputs, network environment, target deployment date and training requirements.
Consult the current official definitions of Educational, Node-Locked and Floating licensing.
Review eligible users, permitted activities, documentation and situations requiring a commercial license.
Verify the company operating this website and its Agisoft Authorized Reseller and Training Center status.
PLANNING AN ACADEMIC DEPLOYMENT?
Tell Drone Emotions about your institution, departments, academic use, computers, concurrent users, datasets and expected outputs. We can help identify the questions that should be resolved before licensing, procurement, deployment or training.
Drone Emotions Srl
Agisoft Authorized Reseller & Training Center
