Photogrammetry software?

does anyone know of any trial version or freeware photogrammetry software packages to convert 2d photos to 3d objects?

I’ve tried to track down a copy of photomodeller lite but can’t find a link that is active and leads to a non-corrupted install. The one russian site that has a link in another thread here seems to have a fried version…

I could not find the download page for PhotoModeler, either.

Is it for inorganic/organic items to be modeled? Either one can be modeled by putting in a background image, adding a plane (in orthographic view, of course) and the putting points at detail spots on the Z and Y axes. Then you can move to front view, set the background to a picture of the front view, and then move the reference points to where they are located on the X axis. This works for most objects without major indentations and such, and then all you have to do for a texture is get a reference picture with a 45 degree angle shot that has both sides and UV map it.

Or, you could just search for another program that could it, but I had much trouble myself.

here’s a freebie. haven’t tried it yet.
http://www.surv.ufl.edu/wolfdewitt/download.html

I posted a question about photogrammetry a while ago. I seem to remember we experienced some difficulty with exporting files to use with Blender (due to it being a demo copy).

Here’s the thread:

https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22442&highlight=photogrammetry

Also (am not sure if this is mac-only stuff though) have a look here:

http://www.uzrtechnology.de/modules.php?name=Products&sel=0&page=im3d_web

[edit]
try here too http://www.imodeller.com/

iModeller is both Mac and Windows compatible. Looks like a great program, only 29 euro (~35US$).

29 euros is for the upgrade from a previous version. The price for a new application is 599 euros (about US $730).

I had to respond about clockdug’s search for Photomodeler Lite (win platform). When EOS Systems pulled support a couple of years ago, the hyperlinks went dead. But a few places with on-site code, such as
http://www.filelibrary.com/Contents/Windows/133/22.html and http://www.ftp.nsk.su/cgi-bin/bbs2html?pub/windows/graphics , still have it. Or do a search for pmlt31a.zip, sites with only hyperlinks to EOS will not come up.

Conducted a satisfactory export test yesterday with PML tutorial model. I liked it that quads exported with the DXF face info option unchecked opened as quads in Blender. It was still necessary to add faces (in Blender), but I would rather add faces than remove cross braces.

hehe this software is awesome. I just converted four photos of my nephews toy truck to 3D!
<edit> also just as a test to see how it worked on organic objects, I made the head of a bear. worked great.

ok just one note before you start constructing kubla khans palace, I thought I’d make a really complex model, and drew lines all over a plastic model, and started making it, and I had done about half of it when it told me that i had exceded the allowed number of points for the free version! arg! oh well it’s still cool I just have to work around that little inconvenience, or use less points. :slight_smile:

I ran into the same problem with PML, Modron. I guess you could reference 100 points w/edges in a project, export, start a new project with exact same photos, reference another hundred, export, etc., then assemble the whole model in Blender. However, I assume each piece would come in occupying the same space as the last piece, and from there, spatial adjustment might be time-consuming.

I haven’t even learned to add additional objects into a Blender scene. Is that the ‘append’ function?

yes, if you are appending an object from a blend just use F1, and if you are appending a DXF or VRML mesh press shift F1. also, i noticed you can set the size of the mesh at the beginninbg. ( default 1 metre )
<edit> btw once you import the dxf, you’ll have to select all vertices in edit mode and press the ‘remove doubles’ button.

Vice-versa…

F1 to load DXF/VRML
Shift+F1 to append from a .blend

Incidentally, I’ve had problems in the past with loading DXFs into full scenes. Sometimes it just does nothing.
As a workaround I always load DXFs into a new file, save that as a .blend and append it into the main file with Shift+F1. This hasn’t failed me yet.

Thanks for info, Modron, works great. I’ve done a test on the PML export process, proves in concept, but with important reservation. First, it is not necessary to make separate projects in PML for those larger models. You can keep the same project, just strip away detail to stay under the 250-mark limit. Before stripping away marked points, though, naturally you export the model to dxf. Some points are left as references to make them easy to identify in Blender, then your work in the PML project continues. The orienting process in Blender is a piece of cake. Just superimpose the reference edges (of all model versions) in three axes, join, and eliminate duplicates. Very fast.

But I have run into two problems.

First problem is that PML does not seem to maintain an absolute scale in constructing its model when remaining points near an extreme boundary are mixed with new ones. Necessary, I think, to make a sort of bounding box of reference points to remind PML of the overall model scale. Not sure of this right now, continued unreliability could torpedo the whole process.

The second problem is the accumulation of object origin markers in Blender. Each time objects are imported they bring their origin markers, very soon it is a huge uncontrolled pile of BBs, even after the mesh sections are joined. Is there any way in Blender to consolidate the origin symbols for a group of joined objects into one symbol? If not, is there a workaround?

just select them and press ‘X’, and choose ‘origin’, if I get your meaning correctly. I think though, that you can just uncheck ‘points’ when exporting.

Thanks. It seems trivial now, don’t know why I couldn’t seem to do that before.