photogrammetry solutions?

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Hello all,

My first post... I am looking for a simple, cheap photogrammetric software solution (preferably mac-based) for pulling dimensions from exterior digital pictures. I will be using the dims to calculate square footages of window area, wall area, etc. So far, I have tried and been frustrated by DigiCad3D (http://www.interstudio.com) and am currently trying and liking HighDesign (http://www.ilexsoft.com) I don't need too many bells and whistles, just basic photogrammetry. Eventually, it would be nice to generate elevations, models, etc. ...but that's down the road.

 

I am open to suggestions and will be buying soon. Thanks for any input.

-Marshall

[J.R.]

I dont know any mac-software but a rather easy to use software for autocad is Photoplan. http://kubit.de/english/index.htm

It can rectify imported images with different approaches, stitch images together and with autocad you can draw dimensions and measure areas.

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Thanks for the suggestion. I used to run Autocad, but switched to macs and they didn't. Also, the prices are pretty steep. I'm having better luck with support from DigiCad (interstudio.com) --I sent them a sample picture with questions and they just replied back with answers and basically a personalized tutorial!

I am still open to more suggestions. I can post other info/programs I have found and my successes/failures if anybody is interested.

Thanks again,

-m

[bjornkn]

I don't know what kind of precision you need, but you may find SketchUp useful for this?

Why don't you post a picture here so we can see what you're dealing with?

 

For full photogrammetry you could have a look at ImageModeler, but it is far from cheap..

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Thanks for more suggestions. ImageModeler looks like it might be a good app for my purposes --but I'm trying to stay at the low end of the price spectrum. Sketch-up, at $500, is at about my high end price. It looks like a great program, but I don't see how I could quickly generate the models from photos --am I missing this feature from their website?

 

I perform energy audits, mostly residntial, and must calculate square footage of the house, square footage of the thermal envelope, and volume of the thermal envelope. Currently, I do a rough sketch of the exterior, trudge around the exterior with a rolling tape measure, and take a few (ceiling heights, etc.) measurements of the interior with an ultrasonic 'tape'. I also take pictures of the exterior elevations --usually including a corner and two sides (but this is obviously flexible)-- in order to help me remember volume arrangements, etc. At the risk of sounding lazy, I am concerned that my trusty rolling tape won't do well in a foot of snow or pouring rain and anything I can do to minimize the time required for data collection is essentially a $$ raise for me.

 

Also, there are often structural volumes that are simply out of reach yet still must be measured. Window and door areas all need to be measured and differentiated from wall areas --in order to assign proper U- or R-values, etc. The precision is obviously the-more-the-better, but I usually round to the nearest 1/4 foot and hope that it evens out in the long run. As long as I use the same dimensions for both the 'before' and 'after' tests, I can get useful improvement data from the leak testing (I use a blower door.)

 

Regarding what kinds of houses...think everything from inner city rehabs to sprawling multilevel suburbia mcmansions; everything from 1.5k to 6.5k sq ft. I'll try to attach a typical picture of an actual client's house...

 

Thanks for the great suggestions --please keep them coming!

-m

[J.R.]

Another very professional and expensive program would be Photomodeler Pro 5.2 . http://www.photomodeler.com/ Thats why I didnt suggested it in first place. But I remember that there was a photomodeler light edition once which was discontinued from the original vendor. But I just discoverd that it is still available as freeware on different sites like http://www.soft-ware.net/multimedia/grafik/3d/p00715.asp

[bjornkn]

In SketchUp you could apply the image as a texture, undistort it and stitch to the face. It helps a lot on the precision if you know more than dimension (in all photogrammetry progs you'll need at least one measurement).

Then you could draw quick rectangles, lines, arcs etc on the surface tracing around windows, and then add text/dimension which automatically gives you the correct value, either square or length, depending on what you selected.

Or you could make all windows one material, all walls another and so on, and have SU tell you the total square meters/feet with that material applied.

The example took about 5min, but you can get a lot better results if you spend some time on it, and if you have more photos - and measurements.

You could also model roofs etc from the photo. There is a video tutorial on the @Last web site showing how to make a textured bird house from a photo.

 

Photomodeler is also a nice tool, but I think it's PC only?

The advantage of PM is that you could make a "solution" from one photo. That is not possible in IM.

[Richard McCarthy]

Have you tried :

Plenoptics Photogenesis

http://www.plenoptics.com/

 

Realviz Imagemodeler

http://www.realviz.com/