Spinning in Circles

Todays post comes courtesy of Jeff Hanson, who is a technical writer/subject matter expert, and is part of the team that produces the help files and tutorials for Revit Architecture.

Can you create a panoramic image using Revit 2009?  In previous versions you could use a Spherical camera to create a PAN file right inside of Revit.  In Revit 2009 you will need to use an image stitcher to “stitch” your rendered still images together.  There are a few options you can try to produce this kind of image for your presentations.  You can use the new export to FBX functionality in Revit 2009 to export your model to 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design where you can do a spherical rendering.  If you don’t have access to 3ds Max or 3ds Max Design you might want to try one of these other options.

The first one is ArcSoft Panorama Maker.  You can try it for free for 30 days to see if it does what you want it to do.  There is also a “pro” version available, but I did not try that one out.

Panorama Maker will allow you to take multiple overlapping still photos/renderings then “stitch” them together into one image.  The image can then be exported out in a MOV or SWF file format that allows a user to “navigate” the image panning left/right and up/down.

Download test_panorama.mov

In this example file above, a series of 5 interior still images were stitched together to create a 180 degree image.  There is nothing stopping you from creating a 360 degree image in the same way.  Certain geometries might work a bit better than others.  In this case, the room is much longer than it is wide so a 360 degree image gets a bit crunched together at the corners.

Another option you might want to look at is Microsoft Photosynth.  Photosynth is a free service hosted by Microsoft.  It uses a similar idea of taking still images and then stitches them together to create a “synth” that a user can navigate using a web browser.  This option seems to need more still images to create the “synth”.  It also does not allow the user to control how/where the images share common reference points.  So in my tests the results were a bit more unpredictable.  Also, your images created with Photosynth way are public and available for everyone to view.

The ability to create a PAN file in Revit is not available anymore but, if you create this kind of image for your presentations, you may want to look into these options.  It might take a few extra steps, but you will be able to leverage the new Mental Ray rendering for your images.

Jeff has worked for Autodesk since 2005. A technical writer/subject matter expert, he is part of the team producing tutorials and help files for AutoCAD Architecture (formerly Architectural Desktop) and Revit Architecture (formerly Revit Building). Before joining Autodesk, he worked for eight years in an architectural firm as a designer, project manager, and CAD manager. In his professional career, he has used Autodesk products to complete numerous commercial and multifamily housing projects. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture from the University of New Mexico and a Master of Architecture from the University of Minnesota.

Comments

[Jean-Paul Trehen]

Hi,

There is a very interesting plugin which authorize the import FBX into QuickTime.
FBX QuickTime Viewer
The FBX plug-in for QuickTime is a component plug-in for Apple® QuickTime® that lets you play back and interact with 3D files from any major 3D application inside QuickTime.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=6839916

Best regards.
Jean-Paul Trehen
AEC Application Engineer