Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

Align View

Anonymous
Not applicable
how do i use align view? Doing everything according to manual but camera is not being placed.
12 REPLIES 12
Anonymous
Not applicable
If I understand correctly what you are trying to do...

The align view just changes the current 3D viewpoint. To get a camera setting from this you need to tell it to place a camera for the current view. I forget exactly where this command is (the Image menu?) and I don't have AC running at the moment to check.
Anonymous
Not applicable
So far have the command and executing it according to the book. problem is manual says i make 6 clicks, but after making 4 clicks i'm prompted to enter Z coordinates for picture points
Anonymous
Not applicable
Perhaps I misunderstood. It now sounds to me that you are aligning a texture (picture) to an element in 3D. Please clarify what you are trying to do.
Anonymous
Not applicable
i want to align my model to fit in context with an image
Anonymous
Not applicable
Oh. I guess someone else will have to take this one. I've never done that myself.
Link
Graphisoft Partner
Graphisoft Partner
A quick search on Archiguide does wonders:

http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/archiguide/alignview.html

I think the Align View command is 10% useful, 90% frustrating. The chances of matching up the model with the photo's angle & distortion, is almost impossible.

It's often much quicker to just eyeball it by putting the photo in as a background in the 3D window, moving the camera around using the 3D navigation controls, and placing the camera into the path. Once it's close you can use Photoshop's Edit>Transform commands to do the final tweaking. The Skew, Distort and Perspective methods work a treat.

Here's an image I did for a client who gave me a very distorted photo!

Cheers,
Link.
Before&After.jpg
Anonymous
Not applicable
Good points Link.

Another approach (the one I use) is to estimate the camera location and merge the rendering with the photo in Photoshop.
Link
Graphisoft Partner
Graphisoft Partner
Sorry - I should have made myself clearer. Once I get the view aligned in the 3D window, I take the image out of the background and render it with a white background, then merge in Photoshop. Then I just transform the overlayed layer using the techniques described earlier.

This is much better than the cumbersome Align View command in ArchiCAD IMHO, but it does mean you need Photoshop!

Cheers,
Link.
Anonymous
Not applicable
thanks alot guys, need to try it out in photoshop, good to know its frustrating in AC