Local creation

[MJustinTaylor]

Having to upload photos to ReCap 360 and then download is a real pain when you have low or / and intermittent bandwidth.

I love ReCap for working when using my Faro 330x - it's the easiest software to use and produces great results. But this uploading when working with photo's is restricting and so I'm using Pix4D for this type of work.

Will we be able to process photo's to point clouds via ReCap locally?

It's the same type of issue as with Autodesk Live which is the real-time rendering working with Revit. Why must I upload a 400MB model, then it gets processed and then I need to download the model back to Live (plus now it's larger in size) - only to find out that I need to make changes and run the process all over again. Far easier to use solutions like Twinmotion and Lumion. There needs to be an option ADSK local (and I just let my machine work, or via cloud and you process faster and I choose to pay cloud credits)

Both great solutions, don't get me wrong - but I need a local option and so do many countries in Africa and other less developed regions when it comes to internet speeds.

[MJustinTaylor]

Just to give a comparison.

212 photos from my drone, or just over 1GB is still uploading to ReCap 360 and Pix4D has already generated the point cloud and mesh.

[dennis]

Yeah I'm with this post. It makes no sense to me whatsoever that I have to upload and download files. --ds

[dennis]

Great news, I'm hoping for the best. --ds

[Anonymous]

I work with protected data and cannot send this data outside of our systems - so I can't use Recap for work even if I wanted to. Autodesk have effectively removed as a client anyone working with confidential or protected information - its crazy

[Chad-Smith]

I'll also add that ReCap 360 has a photo limit, whereas done locally wouldn't/shouldn't.

It would be better to have to wait a longer time for unrestricted local processing, than not being able to process at all in the cloud for those very large projects.

Larger companies can also have sufficient server room power for local processing.

[Anonymous]

Same here! Due to the confidentiality of some projects I can't use the software. Just the fact that needs to upload something to process Is a big no, no! In top of this It only lets you mesh In 30cm by 30cm by 30cm. It will take me weeks to process some of the environments I have to deal with. 

[mladen.culic]

I vote for offline processing too. having invested in nvidia graphic only to wait for the upload processing to upload , and to wait in queue ....

[ambrose]

Without this feature, recap photo is an unfunny joke. I was initially excited to discover that it is included in the PDM collection, to which I am subscribed. Upon downloading it though, I was very disappointing. 12 credits ($12?) for a simple reconstruction from 20 photos? Are you kidding? 

I will be keeping my subscription to CapturingReality, the subscription costs less, let alone the credits, and will process up to 2500 photos offline, fast, with way more manual control. Ditching ReMake was a massive mistake, it was a great product and recap photo is not a worthy replacement by any stretch of the imagination.

Your photogrammetry offering is not competitive with other cloud based solutions, and it is not competitive with other offline solutions, so why bother. Close the department and stop teasing us, or pull your finger out and produce something so good it's genuinely disruptive.

[ambrose]

Just noticed the "ACCEPTED" above, that is great news, sorry I didn't notice before posting. Thanks Autodesk, godspeed, I look forward to seeing this feature (re)appear at some point.

[nnikbin]

Hi @vidanom

Do you know the launch date of the new version with offline processing capability?

Thanks!

[ambrose]

I have just done a comparison test. In the process, I realised that there is a 1000 photo limit for UAV scenes and a mere 300 photo limit for "objects". This is miniscule, dare I even say pathetic, by modern standards. In theory, it might actually be worth using a cloud solution for a truly massive project with tens of thousands of photos, but that is not an option with Autodesk. It is priced as a premium product, yet it is not on a par with the entry level offerings from CapturingReality or Agisoft.

See below for a brief summary of my test, it does not make good reading for Autodesk. Really hope this becomes No.1 priority for recap photo team. I really don't understand who this product is aimed at. It is priced as if it has unique capabilities that can't be found elsewhere, but I can't find anything exceptional about it.

Sample data: 298 photos * 12 megapixels

Using Recap Photo

• Upload time 9.5 hrs (did not complete during a full working day, finished at home)
• Waiting in queue 20 mins
• Model reconstruction time unknown, completed over night, (for reference it took around 2 hours to reach 18%)
• download 1.5 hrs
• Model failed to load, seems the file is corrupted
• Download again, another 1.5 hrs
• Model loaded, quality is perfectly ok but nothing special, some textures blurry.
• TOTAL TIME TO PROCESS JOB > 21 hrs

Using CapturingReality (running on 5 year old PC)

• Camera alignment, less than 20 mins
• Reconstruction approx 2.5 hrs
• Texturing approx 1.5 hrs
• Model is perhaps a little noisier but is more detailed too, texturing looks better
• TOTAL TIME TO PROCESS JOB < 4.5 hrs

[Anonymous]

I had high hopes for this software. I want to use  Recap pro and photo for personal use. And there is no way in h@// that I'm going to upload a personal photo of my girlfriend for a team of guys to get there jollies off. Why charge people ? This product should be free . And even if it where free I still would not use it unless I can work completely off line. I just shelled out over $3000 for a new PC with a water cooled graphics card just for recap pro and recap photo. Once this is fixed  you guys can have my money. 

Please fix before I find another program.

[KWinslowOA]

Any update on this. For client security reasons I cannot upload any files to the cloud. Is there a bata I can get on?

[mdowney]

Can we get an update on this?

[ambrose]

Dear Autodesk,

please please give us an update on this! It was marked as accepted three years ago by @vidanom  but I've seen no sign of any change since. I still can't understand who the current offering is aimed at; but by now you must have an idea of how that business model is working out for AD. Is this still 'Accepted' or has that changed?

I've noticed that the computer industry goes through fairly regular cycles of centralisation  decentralisation, in-sourcing and out-sourcing. I've really gone off the whole 'cloud' thing and I'm hoping I'm not the only one. I want control over my data and the software I purchase and am willing to shoulder the administrative burden this adds. People act like running a file server is difficult/expensive, it is not. Even setting up a little photogrammetry cluster can be done in a day or two, and with free software!

I have the PDM collection, so I have ReCap Photo and have accrued hundreds of credits. Nonetheless, there is zero prospect of me using recap photo's cloud service (even with my 'free' credits). It's processing speed has been very uncompetitive (painful) every time I've given it a go, and that's not counting the massive upload and download times on our relatively slow connection. Our limit is bandwidth, not processing power!

I'm currently using a competitor's product which can process an unlimited number of photos (hardware allowing) and was very affordable. Another of your competitors offers pay-per-use offline processing for people who aren't full time photogrammetrists. Also, several free options have matured significantly in the last few years.

Perhaps worth mentioning, though I don't know if its relevant, the SIFT patent has just expired. Perhaps that reduces behind-the-scenes licencing fees for AD.

Here's hoping for some good news.