Forum

Author Topic: Is photoscan professional right for me?  (Read 9027 times)

James

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 748
    • View Profile
Is photoscan professional right for me?
« on: November 09, 2011, 04:16:27 PM »
Hi there,

We currently use photoscan standard edition for small projects where accuracy is not important.

We would like to be able to generate more accurate models and orthophotos of objects such as exterior building facades and ceilings, amongst other things.

I notice that the professional edition of photoscan allows the import of control points, although it seems to be completely oriented around aerial imagery and ground control.

Can anyone confirm whether this is also suitable for control not constrained to ‘ground’ i.e. points on a building facade measured using survey instrumentation - total station, laser scanner etc...

Thanks
« Last Edit: November 09, 2011, 04:18:04 PM by James »

Alexey Pasumansky

  • Agisoft Technical Support
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14813
    • View Profile
Re: Is photoscan professional right for me?
« Reply #1 on: November 09, 2011, 04:55:11 PM »
Hello James,

PhotoScan Professional allows to export orthophoto not only in the horizontal (ground) plane but also in arbitrary planes defined by user, for example you can specify the plane of building facade by setting three markers of it's surface.
Also in PhotoScan Pro you can set up geographic or locale coordinate system using Ground Control dialog inputting coordinates of the cameras or markers on the object's surface. Another way in setting up the scale by defining the  reference distance between two points.
Best regards,
Alexey Pasumansky,
Agisoft LLC

James

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 748
    • View Profile
Re: Is photoscan professional right for me?
« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2011, 06:25:43 PM »
Thanks for your quick reply!

I was wondering if the control points are only used to set the scale, alignment and coordinate system for the model as a whole, or do they also affect the alignment of individual images?

When we tried modelling a ceiling recently, we knew the room was square, but the model came out a kind of slight trapezium shape... (it was not a good candidate for photoscan anyway as it was a mostly white plaster ceiling). If we had control points at the corners and across the ceiling, and used professionel edition, would it have straightened things up, or would the result be the same?

Also, we have been able to generate our own 'orthoimages' by aligning the mesh in external 3d software by 'eye' and creating an orthographic render of the textured surface. Does the photoscan orthophoto process do anything different to this apart from the more accurate definition of a plane?

Thanks again

shoesam

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: Is photoscan professional right for me?
« Reply #3 on: November 09, 2011, 06:35:49 PM »
James & Alexy,

I am wondering about this issue as well.

I notice on my very small scans ( objects 15cm x 25cm x 20cm) that items that are known to be "Square" or "Rectangular" often come out somewhat trapezoidal.....

Now if i doubled the photo count.....this seems to go away.

Does the PRO system with markers fix this?

Also, if I simply take the mesh and know one dimension ( lets say the width of the rectangular item in my scan) and SCALE the mesh......how accurate is the result from Photoscan ( not PRO)

I guess I am wondering of what the benefit is to upgrade to the PRO system.

thank you,

Sam

Alexey Pasumansky

  • Agisoft Technical Support
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14813
    • View Profile
Re: Is photoscan professional right for me?
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2011, 06:25:48 PM »
Hello,

In the PhotoScan 0.8.4 (available now as pre-release) there is Optimize feature in Ground Control dialog that optimizes point cloud using known marker's locations (standard workflow does not use GCP while building point cloud). This feature is supposed to straighten the surface.

Quote
Also, we have been able to generate our own 'orthoimages' by aligning the mesh in external 3d software by 'eye' and creating an orthographic render of the textured surface. Does the photoscan orthophoto process do anything different to this apart from the more accurate definition of a plane?
There is the difference between texture creation and orthophoto generation. Creating orthophoto allows to use several additional options, e.g. hole filling. Also the photos for orthophoto generation are selected by special algorithm improving the quality of resulting photomap. And also the size of the orthophoto could be greater than one of the texture.


Quote
I notice on my very small scans ( objects 15cm x 25cm x 20cm) that items that are known to be "Square" or "Rectangular" often come out somewhat trapezoidal.....
If it possible could you please provide us sample data-set of such object so we can check if such problems could be corrected by improving the conditions or quality of shooting. Because in optimal conditions the result should reproduce the real geometry angles.
Best regards,
Alexey Pasumansky,
Agisoft LLC

James

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 748
    • View Profile
Re: Is photoscan professional right for me?
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2011, 02:24:54 PM »
There is the difference between texture creation and orthophoto generation. Creating orthophoto allows to use several additional options, e.g. hole filling. Also the photos for orthophoto generation are selected by special algorithm improving the quality of resulting photomap. And also the size of the orthophoto could be greater than one of the texture.

This sounds great, but is there any way to evaluate it before spending the money?! Maybe by seeing a couple of example orthoimages created by photoscan of something like a building facade - maybe from the building in the "Building Modelling" tutorial? Or the ability in the trial version to export orthophoto with a watermark, or time limited functionality etc?

Thanks

James

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 748
    • View Profile
Re: Is photoscan professional right for me?
« Reply #6 on: November 22, 2011, 01:58:12 PM »
Does anybody have an example of an terrestrial-based orthophoto (ideally building interior or exterior) created in photoscan professional that they would be so kind to share?

It's the main thing we are likely to use if we buy the professional edition, but it's the one thing we can't evaluate in the trial version!

Or can anyone suggest a more appropriate software package?

Thank you

Alexey Pasumansky

  • Agisoft Technical Support
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14813
    • View Profile
Re: Is photoscan professional right for me?
« Reply #7 on: November 22, 2011, 03:16:03 PM »
Hello James,

Sorry for the inconvenience.

We can send you a 30-days trial key so you can evaluate the results based on your data. Please send an inquiry to info@agisoft.ru so we could provide you with trial key.

Here is an example of the facade export of the building-tutorial dataset (the orthophoto plane was set by markers placed in the corners of front windows):
« Last Edit: November 22, 2011, 03:54:28 PM by Alexey Pasumansky »
Best regards,
Alexey Pasumansky,
Agisoft LLC