PIXDIM – The Photo Measuring Plug-in for Google SketchUp

By Global Assocaites SketchUp Team

French developer Qualup has introduced Pixdim, Photo measuring plug-in for google sketchUp that allows 3D measurements on digital photographs. The plug-in uses photogrammetry to define relief from two flat images of an object taken from two different positions.

Pixdim is well-matched with Google SketchUp 6 (Pro, free, and evaluation versions). Pixdim supports operating systems like Windows 2000/XP/ Vista 32-bit. A series of digital photographs taken at least 25 degrees apart of the measuring objects are required for all users. All measuring points have to be visible on as a minimum of two photos. You must also make a real measurement to serve as a reference. After that load the photos in Sketchup with Pixdim installed. You can make use of the Google measurement tools to make 3D measurements on the photographed objects once you point out a number of characteristic points on the photos and put a real measured distance. As the numbers of reference points marked on the photo are higher the measurement precision will be more better. The software has the ability to offer constant relative precision from a few millimeters to several kilometers—Pixdim can measure a 100mm part with a precision of +/-1.00mm as well as a distance of 1km between two buildings with a precision of +/- 10m. Actual precision will differ depending on the usability of the camera.

The following are the exclusive features of Pixdim:-

♦ True ray tracing & glossy reflections and refractions

♦ Native SketchUp materials supported and integrated into V-Ray Materials.

♦ True HDRI support- Includes support of proper texture coordinate handling for both cubic and angular maps. Map your images directly without distortions or cropping.

♦ Camera positions - namely, each Page will be converted into an independent Perspective view.

♦ Indirect Illumination (global illumination, global lighting)- Different approaches include direct computation (brute force), and irradiance maps.

♦ Reusable irradiance maps (save and load support). Incremental sampling for fly- through animations.

♦ Area shadows (soft shadows). Includes box and sphere emitters.

♦ Fully multithreaded ray tracing engine.

♦ Antaliasing Includes fixed, simple 2-level and adaptive approaches.

♦ V-Ray Material Editor with Material Preview.

♦ V-Ray Sun and Sky.

♦ V-Ray Physical Camera.

♦ Depth-Of-Field camera effect.

♦ Distributed Rendering allowing a single image to be process over up to 10 machines

♦ Per Material GI, Background, Reflection, and Refraction.

♦ V-Ray Two-Sided Material for easy creation of thin translucency.

♦ Animation Support.