Masking trouble in Agisoft Photoscan

[cheis]

Hi there,

It has been a while since I've done photogrammetry on a turntable object, and I'm having trouble importing the background masks.   Once I had my photos organized into their appropriate chunks,  I tested my the tolerance for my mask on one photo.  Once I figured out the appropriate tolerance for my situation I tried to apply the mask to the whole set of photos in that circuit. 

1.  I selected all the photos in that circuit and then Right clicked --> Import Masks
2. I copied the file name of the background image from that circuit and pasted it into the Filename Template field
3. "selected cameras" was chosen in the "Apply to" field.

This is where the trouble starts. When I hit "OK"   and try to select the folder of the images from that circuit,  I am not given the option to "Choose" that folder.  My only option is to "open" it and then all of the containing images are greyed out so that they can't be selected. 

What am I doing wrong here?  I'll be grateful for anyone that can help shed some light on this for me.

-Crystal Heis

 

[Dave Martin]

Crystal,

I'm not in front of my PhotoScan workstation, but a couple of quick thoughts:

There are several options for masks, one of which is a separate mask for each image, in which case all you do is select the folder containing the masks - and the symptoms sound like possibly that's the route you're currently going down.

I'm not sure if you have visited it already, but - especially as the issue isn't particularly subject-matter specific - I'm sure you would find it worthwhile to visit the dedicated PhotoScan forum operated by Agisoft themselves, where there's support from Agisoft staff and fellow users  http://www.agisoft.com/forum/index.php?board=7.0

Also, on the Agisoft forum there is info on new masking methods (single image, volumetric...) which have been introduced in recent versions of PhotoScan.

Dave

[cdschroer]

Thanks Dave - yes - we try to keep to more general photogrammetry issues here in this space because Agisoft runs forums for PhotoScan.  We are happy to entertain general questions about setup, good practice, equipment, photogrammetric approaches, etc.  

That said - there are some odd behaviors within photoscan related to masks whether you are doing an individual image, or a whole set.  Crystal is correct that you need to select the folder containing the images, and the background image.  If that folder is already selected then I usually select another folder, then the one I want to use before saying OK.  Go to the Agisoft forums if you continue to have difficulties - and make sure you include what version of photoscan you are using, and what platform you are on (Mac, windows, linux - and OS level)

Carla