Recall my Why am I posting this? blog article on October 7. I hinted that something was coming with the phrase "how jets now Perfectly Poop" which was an anagram for Project Photofly now 123D Sweep Beta. At the time, we were considering calling the application 123D Sweep Beta as a reference to the picture-taking process that involves sweeping around a person, place, or thing. Things change. Recall my Happy Halloween from Autodesk Labs posting. I hinted that something was coming with the phrase "toPnotch jet coach pry wolf" which was an anagram for Project Photofly now 123D Catch Beta. We decided that catching the geometry was a better analogy than sweeping around what was being captured. So 123D Catch Beta it is. Fear not - it's still free (subject to the terms of use of course).

Project Photofly has been a very popular technology preview. We've had people from all over the globe create 3D models from their 2D photographs using the power of the Autodesk Cloud. Now it's time to take the next step. With today's release, the technology has been incorporated into 123D Catch Beta.

// Learn more about 123D Catch Beta

People who have previously used the Photo Scene Editor for Project Photofly will find 123D Catch Beta very familiar, but here are some new features of today's release:

• We have included a new version of the automatic meshing engine, making it much more accurate and generating fewer ghosts and waves in uniform surfaces (as in the sky).

• We have improved better FBX and OBJ exports in that the model is not split in chunks related to texture images.

• We have improved security as in a new End User License Agreement with the capability to encrypt the data and delete project data on the server upon customer request.

• We have included improvements based on direct feedback.

  • The service is now more robust (i.e., process less likely to get stuck prior to 100%).

  • The service is now less sensitive to non-Latin characters and quotes in image and project names (e.g., Chinese, Cyrillic).

  • The service provides explicit error messages for common user correctable problems (e.g., date and time on your computer being incorrect).

  • The service now makes better use of EXIF data associated with pictures.

• We have improved the workflow for manual stitching of pictures that are not automatically included in the construction of the 3D photo scene.

• We have new tutorials and new training material so that new users can consume this technology much faster.

If the previous success of Project Photofly is any indicator, this evolved application might just catch on.

A totem pole in Las Vegas.

Achieving the next level is alive in the lab.