Comparison between AliceVision Meshroom and Pix4Dmapper software in generating three-dimensional (3D) photogrammetry.

Abstract

The act of powerful photogrammetry software is important to transform photographs into a 3D model that is good and accurate for the as-built survey. Nowadays, there are a lot of choices available on the internet that can be divided into open-source software and commercial software, which produce different outputs of 3D models due to different algorithms used. Thus, this research compares two photogrammetry software (AliceVision Meshroom from open-sourced software and Pix4Dmapper from commercial software) to give a clear view of the accuracy performance of the software. Aerial photographs were taken at Building G24, Kolej Rahman Putra, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor. The same data was used in processing both software to generate the 3D point cloud model and the 3D mesh model as the final output. The comparison between the two software was based on four aspects, including 3D point-cloud model density, 3D-mesh model appearance, Mean Absolute Error (MAE) accuracy assessment and the processing environment. The results showed that commercial Pix4Dmapper software offered better services and accuracy of the products (MAE = 0.016m). In contrast, the open-source AliceVision Meshroom software required third-party software to complete the photogrammetry process (MAE = 0.035m). Thus, Pix4Dmapper is a better choice in an as-built surveying application than AliceVision Meshroom.