

Show HN: 123D Catch by AutoDesk – Create 3D scans of virtually any object - kevinwdavid
http://www.123dapp.com/catch

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lcrs
There's documentation of a method to achieve the same thing using free-ish
software here:
[http://wedidstuff.heavyimage.com/index.php/2013/07/12/open-s...](http://wedidstuff.heavyimage.com/index.php/2013/07/12/open-
source-photogrammetry-workflow/)

Principally it uses VisualSFM and Meshlab, both of which came to life as
testbeds for algorithm research but are now useful in their own right. By all
accounts 123D Catch does an excellent job, but is quite rigid in its workflow.
Apparently it uses the engine from Acute3D's considerably more expensive
Smart3DCapture.

Sadly neither VisualSFM or 123D Catch are usable for commercial work because
of license and copyright problems respectively.

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hnha
Try insight3D(dng), it's AGPL!

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AndrewKemendo
So this came out a few years ago [1] and then it seemed like it just
disappeared. This is the second or third thing I have seen on this in just a
few days.

What happened in the interim?

[1] [http://blog.123dapp.com/2011/12/3d-scanning-for-
posterity](http://blog.123dapp.com/2011/12/3d-scanning-for-posterity)

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simoneau
The Android version was released recently, September 9, 2014.

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yourad_io
Just FYI, You must create account to have an imageset processed. This looks
like it is happening server-side, so I suppose there's a reason for it.

Cleverly enough, it doesn't prompt you to do so until after you've taken the
10-20-however-many pictures of your object. I suspect this would make a hell
of a difference over a login screen upon launch or capture.

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nwh
They also publicly display everything you do with it.

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vfxGeek
Having worked with this kind of software solutions since the ninties I must
say that you should really instead look into the software Photoscan from
russian Agisoft (www.agisoft.ru) it's alot more flexible and is very cheap
($129 usd)

This was called "Photo Fly" before when it was a "Autodesks Labs project" and
I belive the tech originates from when autodesk bought the french software
company RealViz that made the software Photomodeler.

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mediumfilms
Photomodeler was excellent before Autodesk bought it.

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Kiro
Is this really a Show HN? Did you make this?

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Animats
Autodesk's 123D Catch has been available since 2012. This is just the phone
app interface. All the real work is done on Autodesk servers.

It's reasonably good if you take an organized set of pictures for it. A clean
background behind the object of interest helps. The object has to have lots of
edges for the algorithm to match; sculptured surfaces like cars may not match
well. For some purposes, projecting a pattern of dots or lines onto the object
is helpful. (The original Kinect did something similar).

Programs for this have been around for years. Most of the improvements have
been in doing a better job of guessing about areas where matching edge info
isn't available.

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josephpmay
If you're looking for the professional, desktop based version of this
software, it's called Project Momento and is currently in beta

[https://beta.autodesk.com/callout/?callid=D69655022B4F42C880...](https://beta.autodesk.com/callout/?callid=D69655022B4F42C880513D4E3085C7D0)

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danjruss
It makes me think of the "fabled" (if you will) copy machine, where you
basically xerox a physical object. Obviously it's more complex than this, but
it's exciting to think about where the 3D model and 3D printing industries are
headed, and specifically with development of their intersection

~~~
boatzart
Check out the AIO Zeus:
[http://www.zeus.aiorobotics.com/](http://www.zeus.aiorobotics.com/)

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chenster
Is it similar to what Seene is offering? It doesn't do full scale 3D but
close. [http://seene.co/](http://seene.co/)

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ChuckMcM
FWIW this is a pretty cool app. Makes for an interesting way to generate 3D
models of things without any training in using CAD or modelling tools.

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gcb0
everytime i glance at 3d software i have waking nghtmares on the state of
spreadsheets and text editors in the 80s and 90s.

everyone praise every shenangan. companies couldnt care less about integration
and dat portability, etc.

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lcrs
It's not great but it is slowly getting better as the big studios open-source
their inhouse formats - Disney, Sony Imageworks and ILM are all doing so and
Alembic, OpenVDB, OpenSubdiv, OpenEXR, and Ptex are all widely supported now.
The process of opening up things people are already using seems to be working
out much better than previous committee- or vendor- driven efforts like FBX,
X3D or AAF...

That said, I spent yesterday trying to figure out how to get Leica laser scan
data into Houdini, and the only way is to convert to ASCII CSV, so we've got a
way to go. Text files are great for debugging, but when you've got 300 million
points you pine for the I/O speed of a binary format :/

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dsjoerg
how long should i expect to wait? i've been waiting >90 minutes already

~~~
determinded
Seconded. It might be a 24 hour pool for free users. Maybe not?

Anyone know?

