Basic reference system, 3 markers, CP , for Metashape Standard

[CheeseAndJamSandwich]

In Metashape Standard, we don't have any way defining the orientating or scaling the model, other than manually... We don't have the ability to add markers with known coordinates.

We can only orientate and scale it by using the workaround method of setting the grid to, say, 5m, 10CM, 10', 12", whatever, and then manually scaling the model or features on it, roughly to the grid, and rotating into into the correct oriendation horizontally, vertically and rotating it so that north is up perhaps.

Could Metashape Standard have a very basic reference system? A tiny subset of what Professional has?

If we could at least have the ability to place down 3 markers, with x,y,z coordinates, this would kinematically define the model's position perfectly in space, and scale it.

Perhaps we could only use Euclidean/Cartesian coordinates, x, y, z
So no access to georeferenced coordinates, WGS84, etc, etc...
3 points is the minimum to define something's position & scale in 3D space, but perhaps we could get 4, or 5 points, such that it would help with camera calibration issues, bowing, dishing of the model? But a lot more code i guess.

Just being able to also add 3 markers to our photos before alignment would be amazing, saving a lot of work.

[stahlmandesign]

I was also looking for this. Thanks for the info about showing the grid and setting grid cell size to meters.

Hello taran,

There's a workaround in Standard edition:
- in Model Menu -> Show/Hide Items enable Show Grid option,
- in Tools Menu -> Appearance tab -> Model View section set Grid cell units to "meters",
- in Model view use Scale Object tool to apply approximate dimensions, according to the grid displayed in the background.

That workaround is helpful for the time being.

[Ucodia]

Any update on this feature?

The workaround only works if your object are at least 1m large since the smallest unit that can be set on the grid is 1m. If the smallest unit could be set to 1cm it could cover a lot more use cases without creating a huge pain for standard license users.

[CheeseAndJamSandwich]

Any update on this feature?

The workaround only works if your object are at least 1m large since the smallest unit that can be set on the grid is 1m. If the smallest unit could be set to 1cm it could cover a lot more use cases without creating a huge pain for standard license users.

Ackchyually...   
You can scale it smaller than 1m.
First, scale it with the grid set to be 10x, 100x, or whatever bigger.  So for a 10cm object is 1m... or a 27cm object is 27m... or a 36 inch object to (36" = 0.91m) 91m.
Then use 'Scale Object' again, but looking at the scale value it shows when moving the mouse...  If you click the mouse a looooooooong way away from the centre of the Region, you get lovely fine control of the scaling.  So put the centre of the Region on one side of your screen, and click the mouse on the other.  Then you can easily scaling it accurately to a 0.01 resolution.  And repeat to go magnitudes smaller!?!

Yeah, it would be nice if the units for the grid could be set to anything, mm, inches, yards, nm, angstroms, whatever. Then we wouldn't have to do the scaling fudge.  Internally, the distances would still be in metres, but the grid set to whatever...
So it does work.

But it would be even better if we had a simple reference system, that just allows us to orientate and scale our object.