Autocad 123D Catch

[pmolsen]

For those of you who haven't tried it, I suggest you have a look at Autocad 123D Catch from http://www.123dapp.com 

It builds a 3D model from a series of photos of an object.

You upload the photos to their web site, it builds the model, which you can then download and save in various formats, including OBJ.

If you install Fluidimporter OBJ importer for Sketchup you can then import the model to Sketchup. The result is mind-blowing. 

Fluidimporter is available here: http://www.fluidray.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=10

One word of warning. The supplied example that comes with 123D Catch, namely photos of a statue of Buddha, does not work properly. Various errors occur when trying to upload and process the photos. Here is what I had to do to get it to work:

- Rename all the photos to remove the leading underscore

- Open all the photos in 123D Catch

- Click on Organise Images

- Delete all the individual photos and small groups, leaving just the two big groups of photos

- Compute Photo Scene

- Save as OBJ

- Download and install Fluidimporter

- Start Sketchup

- File/Import (Files of type OBJ) - select saved file

- Voila!

The end result Sketchup file is available from http://www.3dgooglemodels.com.au/buddha.skp

Note that it is 13.5Mb in size, due to the large poly count. I just used the default mesh size, which can be changed in 123D Catch. The only other thing I did was open and re-save the texture file, which shrunk it from 4.5Mb to about 800k.

I also didn't pay too much attention to the size units. Once imported it showed as 20m tall so I resized it in SU to be 20cm tall, but that can be done during the Fluidimporter import I believe.

[TomHarvey]

Hi,

I'm very interested in this program. It looks like it could be a big help in a project I'm working on. 

I followed your instructions and got the Buddha model back from the cloud in 123D Catch. However, I've run into two problems: first, It only saves the files in .3dp file format, i.e., I can't find a way to save it as .obj; second, I downloaded and installed Fluidimporter, but it doesn't seem to work in Sketchup. Maybe that's because the original file is not saved as an .obj file.

Thanks for any help you can give,

Tom

[TomHarvey]

OK. I've figured it out and it works GREAT!

[Peter Davies]

Hi Tom and pmolsen,
This looks really interesting . However I am having problems getting the 123D Catch to work. Any help would be appreciated. I have renamed files on computeer to get rid of leading underscore. I have uploaded photos to the prog, and have deleted the small geoups leaving onlt two. When I click on the green tick the program says I have no authority or insufficent disk space and that prog cannot write to local disk. This has me baffled. Do you know where I have gone wrong?
Best wishes,
Peter

[jago716]

I did everything pmolsen suggested and got just what I wanted, only there were two deviations in my process

1) In Autodesk 123D Catch, you don't *save* a .3dp file as an .obj file, you *export* it as such.  Then you import the .obj file into Sketchup c/o the FluidImporter plugin

2) That said, I didn't bother getting rid of any underscores in the photos used for a previously saved .3dp file.  The transition worked just fine.

-jago716

[TomHarvey]

Peter,

You have to copy the Buddha sample photos into a file that is not in the Program Files. Then the permission error goes away.

Tom

[TomHarvey]

After getting the Buddha sample to work, I wanted to try one with my own photos. Here's the result:  http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=18c6f18d2134cd422f155b06166ca217

The 123D Catch software picks up a lot of background images and produces a huge file size (over 10mb.) So, I imported the model into SU and cleaned up all the extra bits and trimmed the edges of the model. I also added the base in SU. The is fun stuff!

Tom

[Peter Davies]

Thanks for getting back Tom. I have actually got the thing to work now, but the result I got of a Coke can was trrible. I used large photo file sizes and perhaps too few photos. How  many did you take and what size in Megapoxels were yours? That's a very good result you have there.
Best wishes,
Peter

[TomHarvey]

Peter,

I used 15 photos, 3648 X 2736 pixels and averaging about 2.5 MB each.

I noticed in one of the tutorials on the 123D  Catch web site that transparent and shiny surfaces don't work very well.

Tom

[Peter Davies]

Tom,
Ha ha and I used a Coke can. I never read tfm.
Peter

[TomHarvey]

Peter,

Ha ha, indeed. Today I tried one with a old Japanese Sake bottle. I thought it was cloudy enough this morning to not worry about changes in  light as I moved around the bottle. Unfortunately, I was wrong and the back side of the bottle was both in brighter light and it was reflective. 123D Catch just ignored the shiny side. It was a mess!

Tom

P.s. my next experiment was going to be a half-used tube of toothpaste, but I've given up on that now.

[Dang Lam]

what if i want to import a desgin from Sketchup to Autodesk 123D ? Please help me ASAP !! thank you

[Google Craig]

Hi Dang, this thread is a few years old now, and since SketchUp has since been sold to Trimble, you may have better luck if you ask for assistance on Trimble's new SketchUp forums HERE.

Best,

    - Craig