Week 10: Deliverable and Final Presentation

This week we tried to finish our model and send it to the printer while working on our final report and presentation. We started the model over due to the fact that we could not figure out how to stitch the facades together. Maria A. uploaded 70 of the best pictures into 123DCatch again which took time to process each facade. This time, when we uploaded each facade into MeshMixer, we removed all of the extraneous parts, filled in the holes and smoothed out the surfaces before we added another facade into the program. We were better able to stitch them together with increased knowledge of the software. This time the facades were all stitched together. The only part we had trouble with were the 2 roofs. LeBow has one high roof and the highest part of the building and another one that slants downward in the lower section of the building. This was harder to artificially create in MeshMixer. But we did it and smoothed out any last minute imperfections.

Overall this program was very difficult to use. MeshMixer is a software that is supposed to be utilized for small inanimate objects and not for monumental architecture. Had we finished image collecting earlier with our phones, we would have had more time time to either become familiar with the software or switch to a different software and try alternative methods. Below is an images of our final deliverable and what it will look like when printed.

Facade from Market St.

Facade from Pearlstein

Facade from Paul Peck Alumni Center

Facade from Disque

Week 9: Converting to MeshMixer

In week 9, we were slightly off schedule as we still did not have our model ready to be printed. There were some  issues with 123DCatch and Meshmixer that we encountered. 123DCatch was very straightforward to use. We just had to upload 70 of the best images that we had of each facade. Because 123DCatch could not take zoomed in images, we could not upload any of the images obtained by the drone. The images from our phone were great quality and translated well in 123DCatch. But it was very difficult to upload in Meshmixer because 123DCatch creates .stl files whereas MeshMixer uses .obj files..So we had to convert them. Once we did that, the facades lost a lot of detail. The concrete sections of LeBow rendered well but the glass sections of the facade did  not and gave a lumpy and "melting" effect. For week 10, we plan to stitch all the facades together, smooth all of the surfaces and add the roofs of the building. Below is an example of what we were able to create in MeshMixer.

It is still not completely stitched together which we need to work on next week. We tried to use the zipper tool in MeshMixer to stitch it together but so far it has been crashing every time we try so we are going to have to look for tutorials online to find another way to stitch the model together.