Project Photofly is our technology preview for using the Autodesk Cloud to convert ordinary digital photographs to 3D models. Version 2.0 was a big success:
-
"If anything, it’s notable how mundane the objects are, an indication of how easy this modeling process — once mainly the purview of laser scanners — has become."
New York Times -
"Ever wished you could take an object in a museum home with you instead of settling for some photos?"
MIT Technology Review -
"...well-taken photos will be spatially accurate to within 1 percent or less."
ABC News -
"Let's face it, sitting next to your friends as they scroll through the same 40 images of their trip to Mt. Rushmore is a total snooze-fest. Feigning interest... is so boring it's enough to turn you to stone. Might you politely suggest Photofly to your shutterbug friends."
Discovery News -
"This could be the most important design advancement in years."
Gizmodo -
"You gotta see this to believe it."
Fast Company -
"Leave it to Autodesk Labs to come out with the coolest stuff."
Design News -
"You don't need a fancy camera - a point-and-shoot is more than good enough - and by leveraging Autodesk's cloud computing cluster, you don't even need a powerful computer to use Photofly."
Extreme Tech
Thanks to everyone who tried it and provided feedback. We're especially thankful for all those videos we have in the gallery.
![]() |
We are collecting YouTube video links for a Project Photofly Gallery. If you are working with the technology preview and wish to contribute to the gallery, please contact us at [email protected]. |
So with this in mind, we're happy to announce version 2.1. The new features include:
- FBX export (mesh, cameras, user geometry) to get the mesh into AutoCAD
- Corrections in proxy management
- Proper handling of names containing non-ascii characters
- More accurate user feedback on failure cases
- Optimization of the data downloaded by the workers from Amazon S3
- Better use of EXIF data from photographs
- Improved manual stitching workflow
- Multiple-selection of image thumbnails
- IPM exported files (Inventor Publisher format) now support both iPhone and Android
- One installer with the End User License Agreement available in multiple languages
So keep the feedback (email, forum, blog comments) coming. To get started for yourself:
Project Photofly v2.1 on Autodesk Labs
Project Photofly progress is alive in the lab.