I visited South Eastern Utah this spring to capture in photos some of the natural geology like Arches National Park and also some of the amazing archeological sites from the ancient pueblo cultures from about 800-1500 year old.

I took a series of photos using my Nikon D7000 and a point and shoot Panasonic camera. Using the recently released free download of Project Photofly version 2 I was able to convert the photos into a 3D Photo Scene which is a 3D model constructed of 3D point and even a textured 3D mesh. The 3D photo scene was created from 110 photos and took NO manual point selection by me it was automagically converted to a 3D model using mathematical algorithms in Project Photofly.

Here you see the 3D Photo Scene in Project Photofly’s Photo Scene Editor.

Here you can see the close up view of the created a 3D mesh.

Video animation of the House on Fire ruin photo scene created in Project Photofly
http://bit.ly/jvMh8G

I then want to take the 3D data into AutoCAD 2012. I select the Export Scene As option  then select the Point Cloud format .LAS. Note the DWG format does not export the mesh it only exports any manually created points and lines.

Now in AutoCAD I use the Index Point Cloud and then Attach option and now have a nice point cloud generated from my consumer digital camera in AutoCAD.

Close up of the point nodes in AutoCAD. Point nodes represent 3D space y,x,z coordinates.

I then can use the point cloud as a reference to snap to nodes to get dimensions, or perhaps use to reference in a design for a walkway or a barrier to protect the fragile archeological ruins to protect them from people walking and degrading the site.

Some Project Photofly References:

Autodesk Labs Project Photofly v2 A to Z in 7 minutes: http://fb.me/vgyPHFJ2

Project Photofly v2 Shooting Guidelines
http://autode.sk/is2ive

My quick overview video of Project Photofly v2
http://autode.sk/lgwKBC

Getting Started Guide (PDF)
http://autode.sk/iGVloq

Hovenweep Ruin

In a future post I am writing I will talk about comparing Photogrammetry technology based product like Project Photofly and a laser scanner technology. One does not replace the other as they are really quite complimentary and each have unique strengths. Advancing technology and democratizing the ability for people to capture reality around them is good for all. I am also working on a Tips and Tricks blog post for Project Photofly.

Cheers,
Shaan