Hello,I am hoping that someone can point me in the right direction.  The Background-----------------------------My fiancé is a jeweler and we are currently in the process of setting up a new work studio.  As you can imagine, working on small jewelry items requires fine attention to detail.  As such, as part of the fit-out, we are setting up a high quality video camera which will run through a computer and output the live video image on a large LCD screen.  This camera, whilst we are waiting to confirm details, has high detail zooming capabilities which will ensure that every minute detail of the jewelry piece can be displayed on the LCD... (It makes for much more productive work).The Need-----------------------------On running this live image through the computer, it would be very beneficial to be able to overlay wire frame CAD models for output to the LCD.For example, at times when working on a gemstone, whilst you may be observing it 'top down', the corners may be obscured.  We desire to have a fine wire frame model superimposed over the item which will ensure that we can be truly aware of the outer corners of the gemstone.Of course, there are many other uses, all which will utilize the same principle, however.   The wire model also needs to be rotated in 3 dimensions to match the position of the actual item itself.WHAT SOFTWARE?-----------------------------We are at a loss in regards to what software to use.  We do know (and have) software for jewelry CAD design (Rhino 3D).  But we do not know what software will allow us to overlay a wireframe on to a live video background.We are hoping that we can find software whereby we can import pre-made CAD models (stones, rings, etc), but that will allow us to run the wireframe over the live camera background.If anyone could make a suggestion, or perhaps point us in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated.Regards,Brett

So what you want is almost a form of augmented reality, but not realy.  This is a very interesting use of CAD software that I too would love to see in action.  Do you have to use Rino 3D or are you open to other software?  One option might be to insert a still image of the gem into 3D CAD.  Or, get a 3D scanner, scan the gem and import that into CAD, but I am not sure about a live camera feed.  Interesting.bcbenton2010-04-20 19:05:05

Thanks for the reply.  Yes, it does seem to be a somewhat unique use.  But it would be so very handy!We are open to using other software than Rhino.  We could always, as I understand, create models in Rhino and then import the model files into other software.We would not be 'editing' files at this point, just using them as reference.Do you have any suggestions?Thanks again.

You could draw the diamond, in example, wire frame.



 
The drawing could be save as a *.jpg.
 
Then, if your film editor does so, size and insert the wire frame image on the diamond.
 
Interesting. Never done so but, you can make the *.jpg images from AutoCAD drawings.
 
Sounds like a career job, certainly not a quickie.

Ah ok, I understand what you mean.This won't quite work, as we do need the ability to rotate the 3D wireframe in realtime to match any movements we make with the item itself.Yes, I think this is more complex than I imagined.

The technology is there, but I feel it is going to be way out of your price range.  What you are looking for is very similar to what James Cameron did when filming Avatar.  I don't think what you want is commercially available at the time.  But i can clearly see how it would help you.  And I'm sure there are other applications for the technology as well.

I agree with the poster about Avatar, the technique gets used by a lot of animation creators, basically they link the software animation feature via coloured dots recorded by the camera and even then there is a massive amount of human input required.  The hardware for it also borders on the insanely powerfull.  I can see the value in what you would like to achieve but the best you can hope for is comparison cameras like is used for quality assurance in the turbine blade manufacturing industry, but it works only on silhouettes.
 
Would be great to have something like that tho....

At Brian's urging, I have read this thread with great interest. Though Autodesk is exploring augmented reality, like we had the motorcycle example at AU two years ago, nothing is available as a product or technology preview yet. We know how to process the camera video and add 3D data. The problem is that the data has to be massaged in weird ways and stored in unusual formats. If we can get all of this to be more straight forward, down the road we might be able to offer a technology preview via Autodesk Labs.

Thanks for the replies guys.The 3D model doesn't need to be 'linked' to the physical one... Whilst that would be great, it is quite acceptable for it to remain only movable by mouse input.  Merely having it viewable is all we need.  So you could essentially see this as running a cad program but with a live video background.  The program (more accurately, the wireframe) does not need to in any way interact with the video stream, but merely be superimposed on top of it.  Is anything around to do this?Regards and thanks again.Brett

brettjb2010-04-23 18:10:56