3D mapping the Matterhorn with a squadron of drones

senseFly 2013-10-15 10:11 article > All

A video crew follows senseFly's team of engineers marking a historic milestone in proof of surveying techniques, using eBee minidrones to map the epic Matterhorn and construct a 3D model of "the most beautiful mountain".

The mission involved the coordination of several teams with multiple eBee drones taking over 2200 images in 11 flights, all within a few hours of a sunny alpine morning. The results are stunning: a high-definition 3D point-cloud made of 300 million points covering an area of over 2800 hectares with an average resolution of 20 cm.

Author: senseFly

Tags:

Arnold 7.5.4: Render Pausing, Faster Viewport, and Shader Compositing

Arnold 7.5.4 adds true render pausing, expands viewport acceleration to 3ds Max and Cinema 4D, and introduces a Shader Imager for pixel-level compositing without full rerenders. GPU instance performance jumps 3x for large scene updates.

V-Ray 7, Update 5: AI Scene Building and AMD GPUs Meet Real-Time Ray Tracing

Chaos embeds AI assistants, MCP server integration with Claude and ChatGPT, 2D-to-3D asset generation, and AMD GPU support into V-Ray 7, Update 5. The update also bundles Vantage real-time ray tracing access for Collection license holders, targeting faster workflows without compromising offline render quality.

Mach9 brings aerial LiDAR and photogrammetry into web-based CAD workflow

Mach9's web-based CAD software now processes drone and helicopter point clouds with automated feature extraction, cutting survey-to-model time by 40%. Export goes to DXF, DWG, LandXML and GIS formats.

Enscape 4.22.0 Launches AI Asset Search and 3D Model Generation

Enscape's November 2026 release adds AI-driven content discovery, custom 3D model generation in beta, and expanded asset libraries to speed up visualization workflows. Over 1,500 new real-time assets, including Evermotion content, bring Cosmos to 13,000+ items.

Autom8Labs launches 22 free AI skills for 3ds Max, Revit, Grasshopper and more

Autom8Labs has released 22 free MCP Skills for AI agents across nine AEC applications, including tools to configure Corona and V-Ray in 3ds Max and build parametric definitions in Grasshopper. The skills pair with MCP Connectors linking Claude directly into design software to automate rendering setup and parametric workflows.

Blender 5.3 brings native Gaussian splatting: what archviz artists need to know

Blender 5.3 adds built-in support for importing and rendering 3D Gaussian splats, eliminating external add-ons and opening photogrammetry capture as a native workflow. The feature works across Cycles, EEVEE and Workbench, but carries current limitations around export, transforms and color space handling.

Client Clarity Is Not Approval: What AI Visualization Actually Changes in Your Workflow

AI visualization tools accelerate early design exploration but introduce new risks in multi-view consistency, architectural accuracy, and revision control. Studios must anchor all work in a production 3D scene and implement structured approval gates before generation.