Need Help 1880 Train Station Scan

Kilby

Active Member
My wife and I were visiting relatives over the holidays and saw this train station from the 1880's being moved from it's original location. Of course, I had to pull over and capture a model of it. I grew up walking by this everyday on our way to school, so I really wanted to document it. We just used the portable rig I keep in the car, a Phantom with a GoPro 3+ and 5.4mm lens to remove fisheye. I did the whole flight by eye and didn't even bother to use waypoints. I'm pretty happy with the results. Check the Sketchfab link below to see it in full 3D.

https://skfb.ly/CJKS

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Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
that's very cool Terry so here come the questions!

how long does it take to shoot all of the photos to build the model?
how precise do the photos have to be spread out around the subject? does neatness even count or does the software just use whatever you throw at it?

it would be cool if I could map the park by my house for the teams that play there and the families that have to drive in and find the field they'll be playing on.

nice job!
 


Kilby

Active Member
We are using Photoscan by Agisoft right now, but are starting to test a variety of other solutions including a few cloud based options. The flight itself is the fastest part. I think I did this one in 2 batteries, and even that was a little overkill. Total it was about 400 photos, but I think I could have used half that number and still got the same model.
 

stevemaller

Heavy Lifter
We are using Photoscan by Agisoft right now, but are starting to test a variety of other solutions including a few cloud based options. The flight itself is the fastest part. I think I did this one in 2 batteries, and even that was a little overkill. Total it was about 400 photos, but I think I could have used half that number and still got the same model.
I tried Photoscan and didn't have great luck with the basic version, and the "pro" version is super expensive. I suspect you are using the pro version, right? I'm always hesitant to throw down big bucks for and "upgrade" when the basic tool doesn't work right. Usually things like this are based on the same code base. But maybe I should just buckle down and get spendy?
 

Kilby

Active Member
This was processed with the Pro version, but the engine that makes the model itself is the same. The basic version is just missing some of the geo-referencing stuff, which you don't need unless you lay this over another map. I would think that the problem may have some from something else in your process. How many images where you feeding it and what camera did you use?
 

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
Terry,

to what degree does the neatness of the process matter? if you just fly around randomly taking photos from different angles and at varying distances from the project being modeled does the software still manage to come up with a useful 3D model? Or does the software benefit from having images from consistent distances, altitudes, zooms, etc.
 

stevemaller

Heavy Lifter
This was processed with the Pro version, but the engine that makes the model itself is the same. The basic version is just missing some of the geo-referencing stuff, which you don't need unless you lay this over another map. I would think that the problem may have some from something else in your process. How many images where you feeding it and what camera did you use?
The problem I ran in to was that the resulting plot was backwards, and the folks at Agisoft wrote this in response to my emailed question. It appears it's the luck of the draw, which doesn't work for me. :confused: What I want to do is share the plots online, and when I tried with my first plot, I could reverse it in the software, but the exported model was backwards and the web-based viewer doesn't have the tools to fix it.

PhotoScan Standard doesn't have any reference instruments, so the scale and orientation of the model by default are arbitrary. However, using Rotate Object tool located on the Toolbar you will be able to rotate the model relatively to the coordinate system (for more convenient way you can switch to the orthographic view mode and use predefined views, like Top, Front and etc. while rotating the model).
 

Kilby

Active Member
This is a problem I see often, but just as they outlined, it's very easy to fix. Just hit the rotate object tool and adjust it (usually a perfect 180 on the a axis) till its correct. My train model was upside down at first and I finally fixed it in PS before re uploading it. If you need a point of reference while adjusting it, look at the axis map in the lower right hand corner. The blue z axis should point straight up if I remember correctly. Good luck!
 

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