Hi, I’m trying to use Match Photo for the first time. I got a nice wide view of the building site from Google Earth and now I’m trying to place my model on the site. I have modelled rectangular boxes beyond the building on either side to help with scaling the model to fit to the site. But I can’t get it to look right. I’m not sure if the photo just isn’t right for match photo? Thanks.
That’s a panorama, and those don’t work with Match Photo. You need a conventional photo that is not perspective corrected or asymmetrically cropped.
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In addition to @RTCool’s remarks, the image needs to have clear lines that run off to two vanishing points on the horizon and you need to set the red and green dashed lines in the Match Photo settings to align with them. This is an image straight from the camera. No cropping or other manipulation (perspective correction, for example). The red and green dashed lines follow visible lines in the photo and the blue axis is set to run up the corner of the building.
FWIW, before you use Google’s Street View imagery you should read through their terms of use. It actually prohibits this kind of use.
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Thank you. I’ll try using my site photos instead. Thanks for the heads up about Google Earth - I wasn’t aware of that.
Make sure your site photo has suitable lines. Best are ones that are stacked vertically like the line under the windows and the gutter line in my image. They don’t have to be continuous lines but you’d need to be able to draw a line through them and to a common vanishing point for them to work.
And even after all this, its worth noting that it will only be somewhat accurate and not super accurate so set expectations or be prepared for a lot of frustration when things dont exactly line up as you build your model.
Just the idea that you cant use lens corrected photos meaning you will have to work with that distortion should lead you to know it will not be highly accurate no matter what.
Its still a good tool and gets you in the ballpark and great for ideation and great for simple mockups.
Aaron just did a recent friday youtube episode drawing a firehouse from photomatch. I recommend checking that to watch a pro go through the ins and outs of it.
I use a hybrid mix of some measured drawing and some Match Photo to get a reasonably accurate end product. You can zero in on the needed amount of accuracy needed by how much you depend on one or the other. In the example of @DaveR 's photo example, I would get the over all length and width of the building, and the height from bottom of siding to bottom of eave. Model that first from dimensions, then do Match Photo and then finish everything else from the photos.