Pictometry integration with Autodesk Map 3D

At Autodesk University 2011, GISCafe’s Sanjay Gangal interviewed Kevin Reilly, president of Pictometry Business Solutions, Pictometry, about the company’s focus and what new products they were introducing at the event.

Sanjay: How long has Pictometry been around?

Kevin: Pictometry has been around for a little over ten years. It is a disruptive technology company. We have a dataset that’s unique, we fly aerial imagery, we collect oblique images as well as ortho images, which is a rich dataset, and then we have an analytics platform that allows you to mine information from the imagery. What’s unique is every pixel has three dimensional elements to it, so you can measure anything you see on the image from height, distance, measurement, area. Every pixel has a lat long, so you can also measure elevation, and we can also bring GIS layers onto the imagery so you can displayed things like hazard layers, parcels, any other GIS layers can be displayed on the Pictometry platform.

Sanjay: What products are you showing here?

Kevin: We started collaborating with Autodesk a year ago at AU 2010, and we decided to build an integration to AutoCAD Map 3D. We launched that product two weeks ago and made a big launch here at the show.
Because we have georeferenced imagery, this product allows you to bring that imagery in at scale within the AutoCAD Map 3D environment, and so an AutoCAD Map 3D designer – instead of looking at points lines and polygons – can be actually looking at the actual site or structure they’re designing on without leaving the AutoCAD Map 3D environment. You can look at the ortho at scale inside AutoCAD Map 3D and you can get the Pictometry oblique image on a split screen that allows you to validate other data points. You bring in all the measurement tools. This is all delivered through the cloud, to the AutoCAD Map 3D user seamlessly.

Sanjay: Are your images available worldwide?

Kevin: We’ve captured about 83% of the U.S. population and we’ve captured imagery in 140 countries. We control the largest fleet of fixed wing aircraft, about sixty aircraft, and we have about 18 through licensees outside the U.S., worldwide.

Sanjay: Any other new announcements?

Kevin: Pictometry is basically taking this rich data set and allowing a whole bunch of industries to bring the field into the office. An example of that would be in the utilities and infrastructure industries where a lot of the AutoCAD Map 3D users reside, so taking a look at your corridor where encroachments on the right of way, looking at vegetation issues, looking at where your assets are, confirming the lat long of your power poles and other assets.
People are finding that it offers an incredible time savings. Resources in these utility companies are becoming scarce. To send people out in the field to do these inspections when you can do 80 – 90% directly from your desktop is a really powerful message we’re delivering here.

Sanjay: It is great that people are using real world applications for infrastructure. Where can we find out more about Pictometry?

Kevin: Pictometry.com.  Autodesk.com We’re one of the strategic industry partners of Autodesk, so there’s a lot of collaboration going on between the companies.

Tags: Autodesk Map 3D, Autodesk University, dataset, disruptive technology, GIS, imagery, oblique imagery, Pictometry

Categories: Autodesk, Pictometry

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