Technical help with photogrammetry exercise

[gabrielbodard]

If you have any technical problems with installation, use of software, formats, saving files, or anything else that is preventing you from getting on with the photogrammetry exercise or use of Agisoft Metashape trial version, you may ask questions here and we or your colleagues may be able to suggest something. Please keep an eye on this thread in case other students have a problem that you already dealt with.

[K-Doering]

If anyone has a Mac: Metashape may not open automatically because it is not an App Store app or from an 'identified developer' so you will have to manually override.

Here is a link that shows you how: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491

[kemcclin]

@K-Doering - thanks for posting that!

[PAZHames]

@K-Doering thanks, so helpful!

[ChantalvanEgdom]

Hi! It's taken some time but I finally have a good looking model, however when I export it as a model and then try to open the file, the whole thing only appears in shape but not with its colours. Anyone know how to fix that?

[Al-scw]

Hi! It's taken some time but I finally have a good looking model, however when I export it as a model and then try to open the file, the whole thing only appears in shape but not with its colours. Anyone know how to fix that?

When you're exporting as an OBJ file, make sure you keep the MTL and JPG in the same folder. Depending on which program you open it in, it will either open the texture (colour) automatically (programs such as Meshlab and Meshmixer), or you will have to import the JPG separately (such as in Blender).

[ChantalvanEgdom]

Thank you! I have been opening it with my windows 3D viewer which doesn't let me add the JPG, but I will try installing one of the programs you mentioned. Thank you!

[ChantalvanEgdom]

I've tried it in Meshlab and I still have the same issue, no colours at all... Anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

[kemcclin]

@ChantalvanEgdom - When you export your model from Metashape, what file types do you see?

[ChantalvanEgdom]

@kemcclin I see JPEG, PNG, TIFF and EXR for texture

[gabrielbodard]

@ChantalvanEgdom: I'm very pleased to see you have a good model from your photogrammetry exercise. Strictly speaking, it's not absolutely essential for the purpose of this exercise to have the exported file and texture linked together and viewable in a third-party tool (although I don't want to stop you from working on getting that working if you're very keen to!). The point of this exercise was to practice the photography and the Metashape workflow, which it sounds like you have already achieved.

[ChantalvanEgdom]

@gabrielbodard Thank you! I will let it go for now then as it's starting to get a bit frustrating but might give it another go in a few days!

[FabioDFernandes]

For those of us who have already done so, how long has it taken for our models to process? In my case, it gets longer and longer and doesn't progress very quickly, so I don't know if I have too many photos, I think I might (92!).

[ChantalvanEgdom]

I had 139 photos and first that took way too long (kept saying it would take an hour and a half after 2 hours had already passed), so I did it again, with the same photos, however now everything set to "low" (accuracy, quality, etc) and after that it only took about 15 min per model, some even less!

[FabioDFernandes]

Oh, right, that makes sense. Thanks!! Will try that out now - was convinced this might take forever aha.

[bertugkiymaz]

Hey all, I just finished my first two photogrammetry modelling projects, first one is a small egg-and-dart ornament from belevi mausoleum from seleucids , second one is a replica coinage. I've used metashape trial version before that I experimented with meshroom which is free version from same company. I can easily say metashape is much faster and better than meshroom and certainly will worth the money, I've used my simple phone camera for both experiments. First one took around 130 pictures and one hour processing.

For second one, I used 70 pictures also I used indoor lighting and a simple turntable I made out of cardboard. For some reason metashape decided to add surface to my model as well. I think I need a textured surface which will help the software register the camera positions but I don't know how to remove the textured surface from the scan afterwards. Would you be so kind to tell me how can I do that and improve quality overall?

Thank you!

[gabrielbodard]

@bertugkiymaz the textured surface is a good idea (I often use a newspaper or similar), but as with other surfaces or background on your photographs, you may have to crop it from the 3D model before you export it. There are simple editing functions in Metashape (best to search in help or look for tutorials on YouTube), but I've found Meshmixer or other dedicated 3D editing tools easier to use. Good luck!

[FabioDFernandes]

Hello, Gabby suggested I post my technological woes here. I am attempting to post my exported 3D model from Agisoft (Collada, DAE) to Sketchfab in anticipation of our upcoming sessions. However, as the screenshots show, whilst the export itself is of relatively good quality, the resolution once uploaded to Sketchfab declines substantially. Maybe I am missing something quite obvious, but any indication by anyone who might know how to improve the quality would be greatly appreciated!

[K-Doering]

@FabioDFernandes, hi! So I just had the same issue myself. The issue was that my texture was too large of a file to be added separately/along with the .obj file. What I did instead was open my files in Blender, export as a .fbx file, and then add to Sketchfab and it retained my high resolution texture. I think the texture needs to be repackaged and that is the issue. The .fbx option helps support the resolution and mapping which other file formats don't do as well (this is a regurgitation of something I read on a community board on SketchFab support but it seems to make sense!). I hope this route works for you!

[FabioDFernandes]

@K-Doering Thank you, Kéyah, for getting to me! I do appreciate it, as I'm still a bit of a noob. I am not working with an .obj (as it will not recognise the texture/colours of my model) but with a .dae. Your suggestion didn't quite work for me, but in exporting my model as an .fbx directly from Agisoft and tentatively uploading it to Sketchfab, I already got a much better result - though still not the best it could be, I'm sure, so I will keep tweaking around and see what happens. Thank you again - I wouldn't have thought to attempt it as an .fbx file!