Align view camera problem

[Tom Krowka]

Am working with align view....have set the two reference points on the plan, 4 ref. points on the photo. Have progressed to the point where a camera is placed. However, it is not placed at the point I took the pic from, but from one of the plan reference points.

Have tried it a couple of different times starting from different plan points, but camera always shows up on one of the plan references.


Any clues why camera is not placed correctly? Seems pretty simple and not a lot of roof for error but I guess I'm wrong about that too.


Thank, Tom

[Dwight]

Interpreting the instructions is the trick.

Plan point, then base point in photo, then elevated point on photo, then second plan point…

For users just learning this trick, it is best to use a rendering of a simple rectangular wall as an image reference, not a site photo.

[Dwight]

the sequence

[Tom Krowka]

Did it that way but my camera ends up either right on top of point 1 or point 4. .....dammit.

[Dwight]

How can that be? It must be an incompatible graphics card. [joke].

[Tom Krowka]

Don't know how that can be. I'm going to call GS support on Tuesday. One of the bennies of the subscription program.

TK.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Exactly - use the free support you've paid for. But, for the record, Dwight's recommendation is highly advised - and NOT doing an actual site photo for the first attempt.

If you search the old threads here for 'align view' you'll find a lot of discussion about the issue of lens distortion when wide angle lenses are uses for the site photo. This can NOT be correctly interpretted by 'align view'. It is essential that as undistorted an image as possible is used. That may require a neutral lens and stitching multiple images together and/or various Photoshop corrections for things such as lens barrel distortion.

Good luck - this isn't an easy thing, and often better results are obtained via trial and error.

K

[Dwight]

Stitching images together is a recipe for disaster unless using the shift lens method [preserving the exact viewpoint]. Once you've got two vanishing points in an image it is impossible to solve.

[Tom Krowka]

Only have one vanishing point, standard lens not a fish eye. The problem is not with distortion, but with the automatic camera placement.

TK.

[Dwight]

We sort of moved on to more general advice.
So what did Support say?