PhotoModeler Features

Why Use Photogrammetry and PhotoModeler?

Choose PhotoModeler for your next measurement, diagramming, 3D modeling, or 3D scanning task if you need to:

• Save money and time
• Complete projects that are impossible by other methods

Professionals in many industries trust PhotoModeler as an indispensable tool for doing critical measurement and modeling work. PhotoModeler uses a standard digital camera to capture accurate 3D data using photogrammetry technology, making it a solution anyone can use to achieve professional results.

Why PhotoModeler?

• There is no product like it in the world – a perfect combination of price, features and professional support.
• PhotoModeler Technologies has been in the industry for some time and by listening to customers, they have delivered a product that solves real needs.
• Technical support is exemplary.

Additional benefits of using PhotoModeler in your measurement and modeling tasks include:

• No expensive hardware or equipment
• Efficient – especially saving time in the field
• Standard camera equipment is rugged and easily portable
• Non-contact
• Highly accurate
• Measure small or large objects and scenes
• Capture of moving and vibrating subjects
• Easy integration of other measurement data sources (laser scanners, total stations)

Learn more about how PhotoModeler can help with your application.

How PhotoModeler Works

1. Take Photos from different angles

2. Load images into PhotoModeler Software

3. Choose the method

Export your accurate 3D model, point cloud, or measurements in industry-standard formats for use in CAD, GIS, or analysis software.

Manual Marking
Manually match common features between photos

Learn More

Coded Target Detection
Automatically mark coded targets - Models solve quickly and automatically

Learn More

SmartMatch/DSM
Generate dense point clouds from overlapping photos

Learn More

SmartMatch/DSM - Aerial
Generate dense point clouds and surfaces from overlapping aerial photos

Learn More

4. Review, Measure, and Export

What is PhotoModeler?

While the process seems relatively simple, accomplishing this with hundreds of photos and thousands of points is very difficult to do efficiently and with high accuracy. PhotoModeler Technologies has been fine tuning the algorithms in PhotoModeler for over 20 years – a claim very few in this industry can make! PhotoModeler Technologies' overriding goals for the development of PhotoModeler are user-centered design, high accuracy and high efficiency.

Regardless of the source of imagery (dslr, mirror-less, drone, or smart phone) the science is the same: light hits an object, reflects, passes through the lens and is captured on the camera’s image sensor or film.

Finding the correct position and angles of the camera involves first a rough approximation stage, which must then be refined to achieve higher accuracy. This is handled by a key algorithm in photogrammetry called 'Bundle Adjustment' that takes advantage of the massive processing power of modern computers to adjust the solution until the bundle of light rays between all points and camera positions is optimal.

Using multiple photographs, Photomodeler can compute the position of a point in 3D space by simple geometry if known: a) where the point is imaged on each photo, b) the parameters of the camera (focal length, lens distortion, etc.) from camera calibration, and c) the relative positions and angles of the camera when the photos were captured.

To get absolute measurement in real units (e.g. "those two points are 6.23cm apart") one last thing is needed - a reference scale. In the picture below the distance could be 10cm, and the object a toy car, or it could be 2.8m and represent a real car. This problem is easily solved by measuring one or more scales (ruler, tape measure, other distance/survey device) and adding that to the photogrammetric project.

How to know the positions and angles of the camera though? When there are matching locations of multiple points on two or more photos, there is usually just one mathematical solution for where the photos were taken.