Photomontage & Architectural CAD

[Tuna]

This is a bit of a long shot, but it's well known that Pistonheads is the source of all knowledge..

We're going through a complicated planning application for a new house. To show how well the proposed house should fit in the landscape, we need to produce four photo-montages, showing the building from local 'vantage points'. Before we can do that, we need to get the house plans converted to a standard 3D CAD format (our architect is wonderfully stone age and works only on paper).

Unfortunately, architectural photomontage is quite an exact science and is usually done for big commercial buildings rather than individual homes. Finding someone to do it is proving difficult, especially at a realistic cost.

So - does anyone on Pistonheads have any suggestions for getting this done? Really it's two jobs - conversion to 3D Cad (perhaps with textures), and accurate photomontage.

[keppy]

You could try something like FloorPlan 3d. My friend used it for his extension. It's pretty cool, and only £20 from places like Amazon.

www.imsisoft.com/prodinfo.asp?t=1&mcid=244

[Tuna]

keppy said:

You could try something like FloorPlan 3d. My friend used it for his extension. It's pretty cool, and only £20 from places like Amazon. www.imsisoft.com/prodinfo.asp?t=1&mcid=244

Sadly, our proposed house is a mass of odd angles and non-standard openings that breaks FloorPlan 3d. We really need a proper CAD model and accurate insertion into photos rather than 'close enough' images, hence the problems.

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

Having worked with Autocad doing so 3D drawings (some years ago) I'd say that it'd probably be quicker and so cheaper to get your architect to do the drawings in the right aspect, scan them and Photoshop them into the real pictures.

[simpo two]

I know a guy who can do a decent artist's impression (he's an artist!) from plans, then as someone said, montage that over the b/g. Mail me if you want his number.

[fazz81]

Tuna said:

This is a bit of a long shot, but it's well known that Pistonheads is the source of all knowledge.. We're going through a complicated planning application for a new house. To show how well the proposed house should fit in the landscape, we need to produce four photo-montages, showing the building from local 'vantage points'. Before we can do that, we need to get the house plans converted to a standard 3D CAD format (our architect is wonderfully stone age and works only on paper). Unfortunately, architectural photomontage is quite an exact science and is usually done for big commercial buildings rather than individual homes. Finding someone to do it is proving difficult, especially at a realistic cost. So - does anyone on Pistonheads have any suggestions for getting this done? Really it's two jobs - conversion to 3D Cad (perhaps with textures), and accurate photomontage.

Hi Tuna,

Is this still a problem? I have been speaking to my brother about it, this is what he said -

We would transfer drawing into Autocad and then 3D studio Max to produce the renders these would then be placed into photoshop to create the required images. It is not a short process but is very much dependant on the quality and number of images required.

He does this sort of stuff for a living, so if you still need this doing, drop me an email.

Cheers
Simon