New Recap Photo with Ground Control Points do not work (georeferencing lost)

[nicolasmenu]

Hello,

I am using the new "Recap Photo" (version 18.0.0.56) create a aerial type of work, set the Coordinate system to our swiss LV95.01 and add control points (enough of them on enough pictures)...

The model get created beautifully and scalled pretty well. In Recap photo there is no way you can see the coordinates, but as far as the model is scaled OK I assume the GCP did the work (because if I do the same without GCP the model is not scaled correctly... 30cm wrong on 2m)

Now, export this to take your model back into ReCAP PRO to blend/mix your model with Scan data.... and the model is so far off you can't even see it. 
Coordinates are completly loss during export.

I understand that exporting the model to OBJ or STL may not work if those formats do not support high coordinates (or coordinate systems at all), but if you export to PTS, a laser scan format (and the only format in common between Recap photo and Recap Pro) and loose all the coordinates your model is at, what is the point ?

Most evertime we have a georeferenced points clouds (or mesh) created from Photos + georeferenced point cloud from Laser scans and we need to blend the 2 sources together ?

What is the workflow with Recap and Recap Photo ? 
Any ideas from folks in the field or from Autodesk product designers ?

Thanks 🙂
Cheers, Nicolas

[karthik.nathan · Accepted solution]

Hi Nicolas,

Thanks for the useful feedback. For now, if you opt to generate an rcm mesh and an rcs point cloud when creating a project and uploading the photos from ReCap Photo, the generated mesh and point cloud both will be geolocated properly. A report is also generated by default. You can refer to that to see the accuracy of the reconstruction.

Exporting the mesh to a point cloud (PTS) from ReCap Photo will result in the loss of geolocation. We will look into improving that workflow as well.

Hope this information helps.

-karthik

[murali.p]

And in addition to what Karthik mentioned:

1) We will be bringing back RCS export soon. Still, correct workflow is to select generation of RCS while submitting the project.

2) We will add the ability to query for measuring geo coordinates in ReCap Photo

Regards,

Murali

[nicolasmenu]

Great, at least I can import the Photo project into Recap Pro with my other scans.

Is there a way to do the reverse... from Recap Pro, create an rcm so I can take it into Recap photo ? I am asking this because recap photo does have a tool to compare models,... recap pro does not.

At least being able to import the Recap photo model into Recap pro will help, because from there, I can re-export it in a standard point cloud format and do the cloud comparison in 3DR or CloudCompare. I just need to check it will keep the correct coordinate, but I do believe it will.

Thanks Karthik, it helped !

[nicolasmenu]

Sounds Good Murali !
🙂

PS: Adding back the option to resubmit a project with different options would be great . You need the ability to see which ground control point where used on which pictures, etc...  and the options to change/add/remove pictures if the processing result is bad.
In that sens, I love how Pix4D Cloud works, you can go back any time, modify anything and simply resubmit for processing.

Thanks !

[murali.p]

Hi,

Unfortunately no - there is no mechanism available to convert entire point cloud into RCM. There is Scan to Mesh feature available though which can convert a part (limited by volume) of the point cloud.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zizj7Cv6uJ8

Regards,

Murali

[Anonymous]

Hello,

We are using Recap Photo (version 19.0.0.38) and have created a model using GCPs.

Much like the parent post of this thread we have done everything to incorporate the GCPs and georeference our model but upon export to an .OBJ file or .PTS the georeferencing is lost / nonexistent when the file is imported into another program.

This problem was reportedly solved with updates to the software but we are still encountering this issue.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[acuitygeo]

I am experiencing this still..in 2021 (last post in 2018). What is the work around for the point cloud to retain the GCPs info and the projection assigned for the rcs file??

[acuitygeo]

@nicolasmenu ..above