In which I take excessive photos

All anybody really cares about are the photos.  So here are a few:

If that's not enough for you, here's the whole album (268 photos): https://picasaweb.google.com/mattritzman/RanchHouse?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIfH-tGRw-3Q1AE&feat=directlink

You may be wondering: Why so many pictures?

Well, first of all, I wanted some reference photos.  I don't get out to the ranch as much as I'd like (who does?), so sometimes the images are the next best thing.  They are a decent second option if I need a measurement I can usually estimate from what I see on screen.

Second, there's a really cool web app, photosynth, that takes pictures like these and orients them in space and relates the images to each other.

Here's the link to the synth of the main room:
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=04e15ae6-88bd-450b-a84b-129c9d8bfacf
Here's the kitchen:
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=5ef44d22-291d-4b1c-afcb-c543646ae8a8

Third, if there are enough shared points in the photosynth images, you can take the points and turn them into 3D models.

AutoDesk's 123D Catch program does exactly that.

Pretty cool looking, but not much more than that.  The program picks seemingly random points to share across images.  The 3D model is almost useless for any future planning ideas.  If the Blob had a home, this would be it.  Sadness.

To create a useful 3D model I'm going to turn to SketchUp and a future post.  Stay tuned.