Feedback on the image import feature

[felixhwagner]

Hello there,

To begin, the capability to import images holds significant importance in our projects. A big thank you for not only listening to our request but also getting it implemented quickly.

One of our routine workflows revolves around the evaluation of received area plans. Our objective is to determine their feasibility and explore potential optimizations. In this context, the ability to import these plans as underlays assumes a high importance. Regrettably, Forma currently lacks data sources that facilitate the direct import of property boundaries within the German context. Consequently, we have adopted a workaround, relying on images featuring property boundaries as references to trace site limits.

In contrast to Norway or the Netherlands, which benefit from a better base map, the German base map is limited to very basic information. Additionally, with the change to the new version, the ability to import for instance shapefiles as site limits has been discontinued.

While the new way of referencing images needs some time to get used to, I really like the function of tracing the edges of imported buildings to reference the image. However, I now have this problem (assuming that I am using the function correctly):

The first image shows the building to which I used to reference the image.

If you have a look at the second image, the grey rectangle marked with a 2 should be underneath the image building above.

The distance between the building in the image and the 3D building is 5.5 meters.  And since we rely on tracing the site limit, such differences are significant and have an immense impact on our projects.

To give further context, if I am using a zoning plan from the state of Baden-Württemberg, the coordinate system is EPSG:25832. However, the open street map, that is used for the surrounding buildings and streets uses the WGS84 coordinate system. While the old function allowed for the picture to be warped to fit the surrounding building and thus transform the coordinate system of the image, this is not possible in the current form.
And since we are focusing on larger area developments, the distortion becomes even more pronounced, the further one moves away from the building that is used for referencing.

To conclude, the current form of importing images does not suit the requirements that are necessary for us to rely on Forma to extract the best results for further development processes. Therefore, we still prefer to use the classic version for certain projects, since the inaccuracy prevents us from using the standard version.
Therefore, it is highly important for us as users of Forma, that this inaccuracy in referencing gets reduced.

If there is anything that I missed in the current functionality from the members of this forum or if you have found ways of reducing this inaccuracy or can give me tips, I look forward to hearing them.

Have a great day,
Felix

[arne.bjelland]

Hi Felix and thank you for the thorough description of what you are trying to achieve.

It is only possible to do an uniform scale of the image by dragging one of the two points of the reference line. As you pointed out, it may be difficult to place an image on top of the open street map if one of these two images are slightly skewed.

One tip to improve the accuracy when placing an image, is to "redefine reference points" and set the two points as far away from each other/set points between the most important areas. How you redefine these reference points is described here: 

https://help.autodeskforma.com/en/articles/8068708-reference-images-how-to-import-them-and-use-in-yo...

In this way you could rescale the image as you work in different areas of your project.

We may introduce the functionality we had in Classic where you could define more than two points to align an image, but we do not have any immediate plan to do this any time soon. Right now, we have focused on solving the more general case of image placement as we see the opportunity to bring this functionality to other parts of the product that is not "geo-reference specific". 

I hope the tip described above could help you achieving better accuracy.

Have a nice day.

Arne

[daniel.silva.gameiro]

Hi @felixhwagner,
Did Arne's tips work?

Best regards,
Daniel

[felixhwagner]

Hello Daniel, hello Arne

As Arne pointed out, the current version cannot solve the problem. While the tips help in understanding the way of referencing, this was not my issue. Sadly, the underlying problem of a mismatch of the site and the imported image persists.

And I want to point out again, referencing image-based plans is one of the core functionalities allowing us to work with Forma. Therefore, I am sad to hear that there are no plans to fix this issue, as no real alternative is available.
If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards,
Felix