I fly mapping jobs out of Springdale, Arkansas. The flight is the easy part. The hard part is the hour after I land, when a superintendent wants the current ortho and I don't want to walk them through another account.
They didn't hire me to set up software. They hired me for a map they can open, check, and forward. If that takes a password I created under their company name, I will get the same text next week. "Where's the ortho?"
In September 2026 I'm shipping SkyView Desktop on Pilot Ledger. You process locally. You send the selected deliverable layers. The client gets a unique share link. They do not need a Pilot Ledger login. They do not need an account. The web side is a viewer for those shared layers. It is on the waitlist now. It is not in customers' hands today.
The login is the delivery
I have watched good maps die in a portal.
You finish the job. You upload the ortho. You send an invite. The invite sits in spam. The superintendent is in a truck, not at a desk. He forwards the email to the owner. The owner hits a create-account screen. They stop. Then I get the call.
A lot of mapping software treats the client as a user of the software. Most of my clients are not. They are a GC, a plant manager, a lender, or an owner who wants to see this week's site next to last week's. They will not keep a second password for my tool.
I don't blame them. I wouldn't either. The quote already lives in email. The invoice already lives in email. The map should not be the one file that needs a new login.
What I used to send instead
When I didn't want to fight a portal, I sent the file.
A GeoTIFF is a bad email attachment. It fails. Then I zip it. Then I put it on a drive link. Then I name the folder FINAL, then FINAL_v2, then USE_THIS. A week later the owner has last month's ortho because that was the file that actually opened.
There's a version of this that looks professional and still fails. You host the map in a processor account you pay for. Sharing is fine if the client already lives in that world. If they don't, you are the help desk for someone else's login screen.
I am not going to name those tools. I use some of them. They are not bad. They are just not the handoff I want. On a Springdale grading job the only question is, "Is this the current map?"
A share link is a deliverable
The deliverable is not the processing project. The deliverable is the layer the client asked for.
On a weekly construction site, that is usually the orthomosaic. Sometimes it's a surface. Sometimes it's a cloud. Most of the time the person in the truck wants the current ortho, at the site they paid for, without installing anything.
A unique share link is the clean version of that. I send the link. They open it. They look. They forward it to the owner if they need to. Nobody creates an account to see a map I already flew.
That is the job SkyView is built to finish. Not a new portal with a new password. A viewer for the layers I chose to send.
Process it locally. Send the layer, not the card.
I already wrote about processing drone maps on your own hardware. The short version still matters here, because the share is only honest if the heavy work stays on your desk.
SkyView is a desktop app. You process locally on the machine you already own. Raw imagery does not have to leave the laptop for the job to start. When a layer is ready, you send the selected deliverable. Not the raw card. Not the whole project. The layer you meant to hand over.
That is the rule I want on a plant, a quarry, or a job the client has not announced. The site stays on your hardware until you choose what goes out.
I am not going to invent a point-cloud cap I can't point to in the docs. If that gets written down, I'll say so then.
The web side is a viewer
The desktop app does the work. The web side is not a second processor. It is a viewer for the layers you shared.
You get a unique share link. The client opens it in a browser. They do not need the desktop app. They do not need a Pilot Ledger login. They do not need to remember the email you used when you set up their company.
The link is good for 90 days from when you send it. It is not password-protected. If that is a problem for a plant or a job that is not public yet, don't send the link to a wide list. Send it to the people who already have the job. The client can also download the exact file you uploaded. The viewer is the easy look. The file is there if their surveyor wants the GeoTIFF.
If they can open a link, they can see the ortho. That is a smaller promise than a full client platform. I am fine with that. The superintendent did not ask for my stack. They asked for this week's map.
The text I want to stop getting
I still get the message that says the owner wants last month next to this month. I still get the message that someone on the owner side never got the invite.
Those texts are not a photogrammetry problem. They are a handoff problem.
If the share is a unique link, and it does not require an account, a few of those go away. I can answer from the same place I quoted the job. The client can forward the link without creating an account. I am not hunting for a password I set up under a spelling of the company name that is not on the check.
I will still get calls. Mapping work does that. I would rather the call be about the site than about how to log in.
What I will not promise
SkyView Desktop ships in September 2026. It is not shipping today. I will not write like it is already on your machine.
It will be included with paid Pilot Ledger plans when it ships. The public page is still a waitlist, because the desktop app is not in customers' hands.
I am not going to promise that a share link replaces a survey workflow, a CAD package, or the photogrammetry tools you already trust. If you need those, keep them. SkyView is the local process and the handoff. The web side views what you sent.
I am not going to promise a waitlist email I can't verify from here. Go to the SkyView waitlist on Pilot Ledger. That button emails support. Watch for September.
Send the map. Don't send a password.
Most clients do not want your processing software. They want to open the current ortho, look at the pile, and show it to the next person on the project.
That is why I built the share this way. Process locally. Send the selected layers. Give them a unique link. Let the viewer do the rest. No client login. No extra account.
I still fly out of Springdale. I still process on my own machine. I still answer the phone when a project manager can't find last week's ortho. I would rather that map be a link they can open than a login they have to recover.
It ships September 2026.