We would like to introduce our project database to the public. For over a year, the database was only accessible from web-enabled CAD drawings. At this time, it contains recent projects and selected projects from past work. It is our desire to populate the database with all of our projects; giving us the power to search our data and do statistical analyses. If you would like more information about the project database, please see section 9 of our As-built Survey Specifications.

This is a Building Information Model from a survey of an existing mall. The video starts with a photo taken on site. It fades to a rendered model using camera matching. The model cycles through rendered, shaded, hidden line, wireframe and finally the floor plan. The model and rendering was created on Revit. Apple Motion was used for video editing.

Visit the project page here.

Autodesk Cloud does not allow users to share, embed on a website or export the panorama. I suspect that there are a number of reasons why we are not able to do this at this time, including viewer licensing restrictions, software development and security concerns. In time, I’m sure that users will be able to take better control of their renderings, until then I hope to offer a solution.

Unfortunately, this article will only cover getting the panoramic out of Autodesk Cloud and putting it into a format that can be imported into Autodesk Stitcher and other panoramic software. It is beyond the scope of this article to explain how to host or install viewers on a website. This is due to the vast amounts of options out there. I can offer product and service suggestions at the end of the article. Feel free to contact us if you would like AEC Communications to assist you in setting up a way to host your renderings.

The panorama image viewer in Autodesk Cloud seems to differ depending on the browser, however all of the viewers use a cubical panorama to view the rendering. In short, there are six images. One image for each side of the cube. Autodesk Cloud Rendering places each side of the cube stacked into one image.

The easiest way to download the rendering, on Windows and Mac, is using Google Chrome. Log into your Autodesk Cloud Rendering gallery and select the panorama to be exported. This will load the panoramic rendering into the current session of Chrome. Choose File > Developer > Developer Tools from the pull down menus. This will open the Developer Tools window. Select the Resources tab, Expand Frames > (mygallery.aspx) > Images. Look down the list of images for DataProxy.aspx and click on it. This will reveal the rendering in the preview pane to the right. Drag and drop it from the preview pane to your desktop.

To get the rendering using Internet Explorer, you’ll need to look in the browser cache. Get to the Cache by selecting Tools > Options. In the General Tab, select Settings under “Browser History”. Click “View Files”. It’s best to clear your browser cache before hand and look for a .jpg image starting with DataProxy.

The rendering consists of six 700×700 pixel images combined into one image.  They are arranged in this order, starting from top image to the bottom image: Right, Left, Up, Down, Back  and Front. If we slice these images into individual images and rename them correctly then Autodesk Stitcher will open them as a panorama. You can export the image into a number of different formats, resolutions and tag them as well.

For example the images will need to be renamed from the top image to the bottom image: xxxxxx_R.jpg,  xxxxxx_L.jpg,  xxxxxx_U.jpg, xxxxxx_D.jpg, xxxxxx_B.jpg, and xxxxxx_F.jpg.

For Windows users, slicing the images can be done in any number of programs including Adobe Photoshop. Renaming the files can be done by hand. I’m not aware of any automation tool that can do this on the Windows platform.

For Mac OS X Lion users, I use a free app from the Mac App Store named Tilen to slice the image into 6 separate images. Tilen is easy to use, just be sure to select a tile size of 700×700. I’ve created an Automator application that renames the tiled images so that they can be imported into Autodesk Stitcher. Download it here. Just drop the tiles onto the Automator application icon.

Opening the panoramic in Stitcher Unlimited is a breeze. Just choose ‘File > Load Panorama’ inside Stitcher. Then select the first file in the panorama.

Stitcher exports a cubical panorama to Cubic QTVR, Cubic/Spherical Pure Player, Spherical Image and VRML. The Cubical Pure Player is being used to view the panorama below.

An example of using Google Street View API to view this in a spherical export, here.

Panoramic Authoring:

• Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited
• Pure Starter Toolkit

Panoramic Viewers:

• Pure Player
• Google Street View API

Panoramic Hosting:

• VPIX 360

I apologize, but we do not accept reader comments on this site. Please feel free to contact me on twitter @seandoughtie.

Occipital’s 360 Panorama is an iPhone and Android app that allows you to create a panoramic image with your phone. The app uses the gyroscope in your phone to position the images. The images are automatically stitched and closed. More often than not the results are stunning; without all the work of stitching it by hand.

Occipital has an impressive HTML5 viewer on their website to view the images. The viewer offers a flattened version of the panoramic image for download. If you use the iPhone viewer you are able to view areas above and below, but the flattened image only has a cropped cylinder version. My desire was to download the full image and use it in other applications, viewers and different formats.

To achieve up and down viewing, Occipital’s backend servers create a cubical panorama that has an image for each side of the cube; they are numbered 0-5. These images are number as 0 Back, 1 Left, 2 Front, 3 Right, 4 Up, 5 Down. If you download these images  and rename them correctly then Autodesk Stitcher will open the panorama. You can export the image into a number of different formats, resolutions and tag them as well.

For example the image of the front view would be named xxxxxx2.jpg. To import it into Stitcher you would rename the image to xxxxxx_F.jpg. Images 0-5 would be named respectively: xxxxxx_B.jpg,  xxxxxx_L.jpg,  xxxxxx_F.jpg, xxxxxx_R.jpg, xxxxxx_U.jpg, and xxxxxx_D.jpg.

For Mac OS X Lion users, I’ve created an Automator application that downloads these images from the current panoramic being viewed in Safari and saves them into a folder named “Panoramic” on your desktop. Download it here.

Opening the panoramic in Stitcher Unlimited is a breeze. Just choose ‘File > Load Panorama’ inside Stitcher. Then select the first file in the panorama downloaded from Occipital.

Stitcher exports a cubical panorama to Cubic QTVR, Cubic/Spherical Pure Player, Spherical Image and VRML.

Compare the flattened images below. The flatten panorama from Occipital:

The flattened panorama rendered from Stitcher Unlimited:

Visit our project database to see the Stitcher version of the panorama, here.

Note: 360 Panorama is not a replacement for using a still camera and tripod. The quality does not compare. For example, we routinely create 134 megapixel images, the app produces about a 2 megapixel image. However, it’s up to the task if you want a quick and stunning 360. The only complaint that I have is the app has been crashy after updating to iOS 5.

If you want to see my panoramas at Occipital, here.

I apologize, but we do not accept reader comments on this site. Please feel free to contact me on twitter @seandoughtie.

Our scope of work included photographic work in Grant Park used to reproduce the city skyline, intense texture mapping, animation and rendering.

Our proposal to perspective clients:

• Rely on our experience in documenting existing structures. Using in-house staff may seem like the best solution, but consider: has your staff size been reduced due to the economy? It’s important to keep them productive at what they do best. How often does your staff travel? How often do they document existing structures? Can they perform the survey efficiently? We are able to survey approximately 35,000 SF a day.
• Items Provided: Printable Format
• Final surveys are delivered in Autodesk Autocad (CAD), Autodesk REVIT (BIM) or Nemetschek Vectorworks (CAD/BIM). Our drawings comply with AIA CAD standards or we can incorporate a client’s existing standard.
• Delivery of surveys generally take two weeks from the date that we have access to the structure, however we can rush a project if needed.
• Our fee structure is based on the building area and given by proposal. Clients are able to accurately budget projects rather than guessing at unknowns.
• If we overlook something, we will provide it or return to the site free of charge. See Notes for exceptions.
• All travel, lodging and scheduling are inclusive in our fee structure.

AEC Communications, Inc. provides nationwide as-built surveys of existing structures for Architectural design, facilities management, insurance records, and lease area verification purposes. The goal of a survey is to accurately convey existing conditions in a manor that client understands and can develop a scope of work for new construction.

As the A|E|C industry moves in the direction of Sustainable Design and Green Buildings (LEED) the need for this service is increasingly important. Whether a survey is provided by in-house staff or by a consultant, such as AEC Communications, Inc., accurate knowledge about a structure is required for several reasons including building code compliance, LEED calculations and limiting change orders.

Architectural As-Built Survey – Items Provided: Printable Format

The rendering work were originally composed in REVIT and later modified by hand in Adobe Photoshop for color correctness. Colors and textures were calibrated with materials supplied by the Architect.