User Manual

1. What is Makkaddam GPS Camera?

A construction-site camera app that stamps every photo with GPS location, date/time, compass heading, elevation, and the project/site/activity it was taken for — then lets you organize, mark up, combine into a PDF and share those photos. The core workflow works fully offline.

2. Who should use it?

Civil engineers, site engineers, site supervisors, contractors, builders, architects, surveyors, project managers, and QC/safety/infrastructure teams documenting construction-site work.

3. Installation

Install from Google Play on an Android phone running Android 7.0 or later. See the Download page for details.

4. First launch & permissions

On first launch, you'll be guided to create your first Project, Site and Activity before the camera opens. Camera and Location permissions are asked the first time they're needed. Location is used only while the camera screen is open — never in the background. On Android 7, 8 and 9 the app also asks once for storage permission, the first time it copies a photo to the phone Gallery; newer Android versions don't need it. No account or sign-up is needed.

5. Setting your profile

Under ⋮ → "My Information," enter your Name, Designation, Company, and an optional Makkaddam ID. These appear on stamped photos as "Captured By" when the corresponding overlay field is enabled. Fields left blank are simply omitted — never invented.

6. Creating a project

From the Project picker, tap "Create Project" and name it (e.g. "ABC Residential Tower"). Switch projects at any time by tapping the project name at the top of the camera screen.

7. Creating a site

Within a project, create one or more Sites (e.g. "Rajkot Site"). Sites can be renamed or deleted; deleting a site does not delete photos already saved for it.

8. Selecting an activity

Tap the activity name on the camera screen to search or pick from common construction activities (Survey, Excavation, PCC, Shuttering, RCC Slab Casting, Plastering, and more), or add your own custom activity.

9. Building & floor (optional)

Optional free-text notes (⋮ → "Building / Floor") you can attach to your current selection — useful for multi-building or multi-floor sites. Leave blank if not needed.

10. Project benchmark (optional)

If your project has a genuine surveyed reference level, enter its code and Reduced Level once under ⋮ → "Project Benchmark (RL)". This value is kept separate from the phone's own GPS elevation on every photo.

11. Opening the camera & capturing

The camera preview opens immediately; GPS, compass and address lookup load in the background. Pinch to zoom. Tap the shutter: a short flash confirms the shot, "Saving photo…" shows while it's stamped, and a "Saved MM26-…" message appears with a Share button. The thumbnail next to the shutter opens the last photo. The original is saved first, so a slow or missing GPS fix never costs you the shot.

12. GPS status

The badge on the camera screen shows "GPS…" while searching, "GPS ✓ ±Xm" with a good fix, an amber warning when accuracy is poor or the fix is getting old (e.g. "40s old"), "GPS MOCK" if the position comes from a mock-location app, or "GPS unavailable". Capture always proceeds; if the fix used is more than 15 seconds old, the photo stamp says how old it was.

13. Compass / heading

Shown live on the camera screen. If the sensor reports low accuracy, the app indicates the compass needs calibrating (a figure-eight motion recalibrates most phone compasses).

14. Photo stamping & overlay settings

After capture, a stamped copy is generated with your chosen overlay template and the small "Makkaddam GPS Camera" watermark. Tap the sliders icon on the camera screen to choose a template and turn individual fields on or off.

15. Where photos are saved

Every capture is saved inside the app's private storage as two files: the unedited original and the GPS-stamped copy, named like PROJECT_SITE_YYMMDD_PHOTOID. A copy of each stamped photo is also saved to your phone's Gallery, in the album Makkaddam GPS Camera. You can turn that off under ⋮ → "Account & Storage".

16. Gallery

Tap the gallery icon at the top of the camera screen. Each project has its own three-column grid, newest first; use the chips at the top to show one Site. Tap a photo to open it full screen, swipe left/right through the photos, pinch to zoom and double-tap to reset. From the viewer's ⋮ menu: Details, Show original (unedited), Save to phone gallery, Rename, Move, Delete.

17. Selecting several photos

Long-press a photo to start selecting, tap more photos to add or remove them, or tap "Select all". The buttons at the top then let you Share, make one PDF, or (from ⋮) Move, Rename, Save to phone gallery, see Details, or Delete. Press the Android back button to cancel the selection.

18. Making one PDF

Select the photos and tap the PDF button. Every selected photo goes into a single PDF, one per page, in gallery order, with its Photo ID, date, project, site, activity and remark under it. Tap Cancel to stop. When it's done, the share sheet opens so you can send the PDF; a copy stays in the app.

19. Marking up a photo

Open a photo and tap the pen icon. Choose a tool — Select, Text, Arrow, Box, Circle, Line, Draw, Highlight or Tag (numbered markers) — and a colour, and drag on the photo. With Select you can move, resize, recolour, edit or delete a mark. Undo/redo any step, type a remark (shown as a banner at the top), use the eye icon to preview, and the tick to save. A marked-up copy is saved separately; the original and stamped photos are never changed, and your marks stay editable.

20. Rename, move and delete

Rename: type a name; the Photo ID is always kept at the end of the file name, and leaving the name empty restores the automatic name. Move: pick another project and site; the stamp on the photo stays exactly as captured. Delete: you'll be asked to confirm the exact number of photos. Deleting removes the app's copies (original, stamped, marked-up); copies already in the phone Gallery are not deleted.

21. Sharing

Tap Share on a photo, on a selection, or after creating a PDF to send it through your phone's own share sheet — WhatsApp, email, Drive, or any other installed app — with an auto-built caption. Nothing is sent unless you choose to share it.

22. Backup

Uninstalling the app or using "Clear data" in Android settings deletes the app's own copies of your photos. Under ⋮ → "Account & Storage", tap "Back up all photos (ZIP)" to create one ZIP with every photo and its details, and save it to Files, Drive or a computer.

23. Offline use

Capture, GPS, compass, stamping, the gallery, marking up and PDF creation all work without a network connection. Address lookup is the only feature that needs connectivity, and the address is simply left off when offline.

24. GPS & elevation accuracy

See the How It Works — Accuracy section for a full, honest explanation of what affects GPS and elevation readings.

25. Troubleshooting

Camera won't open: tap the on-screen error to retry; if it persists, close and reopen the app.
GPS unavailable indoors: expected behavior — move to a location with a clearer sky view, or continue capturing without location.
Compass looks wrong: move away from metal objects and recalibrate with a figure-eight motion.
Address missing on a photo: the address wasn't available yet (no network, or you'd just moved more than about 150 m); every other stamped field is unaffected.
Photos not in the phone Gallery: check that "Also save photos to phone Gallery" is on in Account & Storage; on Android 7–9, allow the storage permission. Older photos can be copied with "Save to phone gallery".
"Phone storage is full": free some space; the app tells you instead of saving a broken file.

26. Privacy & data

See the full Privacy Policy. In short: photos and project data stay on your phone; the app has no Makkaddam server and uploads nothing. A photo or PDF leaves the phone only when you share it.

27. Support

Visit the Support page for further help.