align view

[Anonymous]

i have been reading the align view from the archiguide online and archicad help and still I can't get it. i am trying to place the new additions into a photo with the align view. the problem is the camera is so far away from the floor plan.

is there anyone out there can spare some tips?

version 7 on xp.

[David Pacifico]

This is a small tutorial on the subject from my newsletter
http://www.parch.com/news/news70.html
If you click on the images you'll see a larger image.

Not sure if the above is going to help with your specific problem.
Have you tried to change the view angle of the camera?
Have you tried navigating closer in the 3D window until it fits right?
I have had to "eye-ball" ariel photos by just navigating in the 3D window until it looks right. (Set the photo as the background in the 3D window, with the same proportions. You may have to set the 3D window to wire frame until you get it to align.)

[Anonymous]

thanks for your help. Clarifications:

1. elevations heights- do I measure this off directly from the photo by placing hotspots and using the dimension tool?

version 7 on xphome

[David Pacifico]

NO
You put in the actual heights of those elements.
They should be the same heights that you read off the ArchiCAD model and in the subject of the photograph.

[Anonymous]

thanks for your response which helps alot....so here is the new additions to the existing house. I have been tweaking with the camera setting for awhile and this is what i came out with.

1. at the back , the roof is tilted up and i can't bring it align with the photo roof.

2. can i have the photorender image in transparency?

3. how can i bring the image(photo) to the centre?

version 7 on xphome

[Karl Ottenstein]

lsid wrote:
thanks for your response which helps alot....so here is the new additions to the existing house. I have been tweaking with the camera setting for awhile and this is what i came out with.

1. at the back , the roof is tilted up and i can't bring it align with the photo roof.

2. can i have the photorender image in transparency?

3. how can i bring the image(photo) to the centre?

Some comments before your questions. Align View will only work "perfectly" with a non-distorted image. Lens distortion is the greatest with wide-angle lenses. If the lens is mapping photons 1 to 1 onto the film or digital sensor, the distortion is the least (and almost undetectable with good lenses). The wider the angle, the greater the distortion ... to the point where lines will start to bend into curves if you draw a straight line against them.

You cannot align computer generated (perfect) geometry with such a distorted image without special software that similarly distorts the computer image. Attempting to 'straighten' the image in Photoshop can help for minor distortion, but you will lose proper scale ... so going the PS route requires that you tweak the partially-aligned geometry in another PS layer until you get things to merge.

Now, having said all that, one can do better than is shown in your image. You can tell that the AC camera is too far to the right of your model.

(1) What did you use for your align-view geometry? It is best to use large elements. If you can see the ground (you clipped it for us), then you could measure from the ground, or the lower shingle course, to the last visible shingle course on the two corners of the building that we see.

If you have Artlantis, it is easy to align there (not using their align tool - it has the same limitations of the AC tool) by dynamically moving the camera since Artlantis shows the background and the model at the same time. Or, set your AC OpenGL window to use the desired background image.

Alternatively, if you have Photoshop, and don't care if the image is absolutely perfect, then manually tweak your camera in AC to get a little closer than you have (don't worry about it not being aligned on top of the background image ... just get the perspectives to match), and then bring the model into PS as a layer on top of the background image and use the PS distort commands to tweak your new roof and dormers to fit over the old one. Very fast thing to do.

(2) If you mean to have your model be semi-transparent to see the image below to help with alignment ... no, not in AC ... have to do that in PS or Artlantis.

(3) If you are not doing an align-view, you can move the background image (and scale it) in the 3D rendering options. I suspect you want to simply do some post-processing in Photoshop.

Since you're in Vancouver, you might want to phone Dwight and set up a couple of hours of tutoring with him?

HTH,
Karl

[David Pacifico]

Good points Karl.

(It would be great if the OpenGL window in AC would show the background image!)

If you use the internal engine and set the the 3D window to wire frame. That should let you move around pretty quickly to get closer. Be sure to set the 3D window size the same as your image.

[Anonymous]

thank you so much for all your help.....still digesting the tips but meanwhile, i got to play with the multi layer, smudge, distort and skew tools in PS ...it's fun!

[Karl Ottenstein]

lsid wrote:
thank you so much for all your help.....still digesting the tips but meanwhile, i got to play with the multi layer, smudge, distort and skew tools in PS ...it's fun!

Good. 😉 A bit more distortion is needed to get things aligned, but I'm sure you've got that by now.

Once aligned, you'll probably want to get the lighting and materials to blend better with your photo? You'll notice that the house is in a flat light with no discernable shadows, vs the brightly illuminated dormer faces of your remodel elements. Decrease the sun and increase the ambient ... but plan on making the tonal match in PS. If the dormer walls are going to be the same shingle and color as the home, you can crop part of the home photo, and use 'distort' to straighten the shingles and use the result as a material texture in AC, for example. (Tip: press ctrl-' in PS when distorting to toggle a grid on to align the shingles to to assure you've got a square/straight result.) I'm drifting away from align view and into Dwight Atkinson's book "Illustration in ArchiCAD", which I highly recommend if you don't have a copy. 😉

Karl