Photomodeler / I-Witness
For surveyors, I think that the PhotoModeler Scanner product would be more useful than I-Witness, which seems to targets police people/forensics groups. From the website of I-Witness: iWitness and iWitnessPRO are widely used in engineering, architecture, heritage recording, animation and modeling, and especially in accident reconstruction and forensics.
Both I-witness and PhotoModeler offer the same camera and lense in their pre-calibrated bundle deals. So I am sure they keep an eye on each other.
A few internet links:
Photomodeler / I-Witness
My opinions stand on their own merits. Marketing decisions by the respective software houses are immaterial to the applications of the products themselves. Take a look at the breadth of the software products offered by all close-range photogrammetric products worldwide. Take a look at the reputation of the various software companies. Note that there's only one underwritten by GSI out of Melbourne, Florida and that's the best there is in the world, bar none.
Photomodeler / I-Witness
> Marketing decisions by the respective software houses are immaterial to the applications of the products themselves.
Unless I did not understand you correctly, I have to disagree on this one. I think that applications of the products have a direct influence on the marketing decisions.
"This is what our product does - this is how we can help you"
What software did you use for terrestrial and photogrammetry projects as a surveyor bentley context capture or reality capture?
Although I am relatively inexperienced in photogrammetry I am currently getting a minor in Geographic Information Systems and have been slowly diving deeper and deeper into the technology and processes involved. It seems that Aerial photogrammetry dominates this field in comparison to ground-based photogrammetry. In my opinion, it is going to be very interesting to see how quickly government regulation speeds up to catch pace with how fast the technology is advancing. The cameras used in the process are getting more and more accurate at further and further distances and at this point, it seems the government regulation has not caught up with how simple to use and cheap this kind of equipment is getting. Especially with this ongoing pandemic, the online resources for Aerial-photogrammetry are becoming vast and in-person learning is needed less and less.?ÿ
I'm not sure that the ground based photogrammetry has really grabbed the survey industry. It's been around for quite awhile, but I haven't seen it "in the wild" as a survey product.?ÿ My salesman haven't pushed it, and in fact have been reluctant to even discuss it.
I have seen some handheld mobile scanner product which was super impressive. It might be that that technology has superceded photogrammetry.?ÿ
Drone based photogrammetry I have seen plenty of.?ÿ ?ÿ
You can of course, add ground based imagery to the aerial data collected by a drone, especially when you need to fill in gaps in the model under tree canopy or to get better resolution on building faces (aerial stuff is near vertical so the building face quality tends not to be high). We use the camera out of the UAV to add in that ground work. Generally go for higher than 60% overlap - 80% is better. Camera goes on a tripod with 4 metres of extension rod for structures more than two storey height, unless we can get a high vantage point. Remember that if the aerial stuff is from 350 ft. then you don't have to be much closer than that for the ground fill-in, so you can quite often gain that extra height you need.
We have one of the five V10 systems Trimble actually sold. With the SX10 we've been developing a new work flow that has provided some pretty cool results.
Not likely to make a come back but they are pennies on the dollar now a days compared to when new.
Considering the amount of time, money and effort to assemble and get reasonable results out of a ground-based photogrammetry setup, generally speaking you could get a scanning total station or traditional scanner and get more precise direct measurements, plus photographs, and still use the gear for traditional survey work.
Especially if you are going to have to tie your work to project control - you're going to need that traditional survey gear anyways.
We have one of the five V10 systems Trimble actually sold. With the SX10 we've been developing a new work flow that has provided some pretty cool results.
Are you pairing the V10 with SX10? Or using them separately?
I have used the SX10 (and S7) for photogrammetric measurements in post-processing, and it is a really nice tool to have, but it is rare that I have overlapping station photos - and no DR shot or scan - for an area of interest. I used the V10 for all of two weeks years ago.
While I was impressed with it, once the SX10 came out, my experience was that the versatility and relative accuracy of the SX10 overtook the V10. Especially considering the SX10 can be set up with a GNSS point resection using integrated surveying, and obtain a point cloud that is already oriented to the project and requires minimal processing to get results that are more accurate.
We've been using it to build a new work flow to get photos that are directly tied to the SX10 and with the R10/12 and possibly the mt1000 sandwich can use it to shoot behind rock walls and other blocking objects when roaming along residential roads with cars and other things.
Once we finish the work up I'll post some of the results.
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