Introduction: Visualize a Living Room W/ 123D Catch & Blender! [TfCD]

In this Instructable, we will show you how to visualize a living room using free 3D software and free photo scanning software to add some furniture into the room. The process is not very complicated and once you’re done, you will able to walk around in the room inside the 3D software. Some experience with 3D software is advised but it is possible to do it without.

Step 1: Find Your Subject

  • Find a chair or other piece of furniture you want to put in your virtual living room.
  • Move the furniture out on the floor so that you can photograph it from all around.

Step 2: 123D Catch & Blender

Step 3: Email Mesh

Email the resulting mesh file from the app to yourself. Now, it’s time to create the living room inside Blender, before importing the photo scan into the room.

Step 4: The Room

Create the living room inside Blender!

  • Delete the standard cube by selecting it and pressing delete.
  • Go to File - Preferences - Addons and search for 'Archimech'.
  • Activate the add-on by clicking on the checkmark next to it.
  • Save the user preferences and exit the menu.
  • Hit Shift-A and go to Mesh - Archimech - Add room. (Picture 1)
  • Hit N to bring up a side panel and scroll all way down to the settings of the room you just added.
  • Increase the number of walls and set the dimensions as you like.
  • Tick the following boxes: ceiling, floor and close walls. (Picture 2)

If you feel adventurous, add windows and furniture using the Archimesh addon. Click the following link for a more extensive tutorial. This is not required!
http://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/interior-arch...

Step 5: Import Scan

Import the photo scan into the scene by going to File - Import - Wavefront (.obj) and selecting the mesh file you emailed yourself.

Rotate and scale the chair. My chair was imported in a very big scale and incorrect rotation. (Picture 1)

Rotate the chair by hitting R followed by X, Y or Z to constrain the rotation to the corresponding axis.

Hit S to scale down the chair to a reasonable size.

Step 6: Resize Subject

Now it’s time to resize the chair to more precisely. I measured the seat height on the real chair to be 45 cm.

Create a cube inside blender and set the height to 45 cm.Hit shift-A to add a cube. Hit N to bring up the properties panel and change the height to 45cm. (Picture 1)

Move the cube upwards and resize the chair so that the top of the seat is tangent with the top of the cube. Now the chair is in the correct scale! (Picture 2)

Move the chair inside the room by pulling the arrows that appear when the chair is selected. Hit shift-F to enter fly mode. Move the camera using WADS and the mouse. Move inside the room and hit TAB, to enter walk mode. Now you can walk around in your room and get a sense of the scale and placement of the furniture. (Picture 3)