LARGE scale project

Question

We are looking to bid on a 3D model for an entire CITY! 
 Now have only standard edition license, will be needing many Center licenses. 
 I have a few questions for anyone who knows at least something on the subject : 
 1. What is the largest area (project) produced using CC (km2) cm/pix. 
 The largest I've done was about 15km2 it took forever to shoot and process. Now we are looking for 350 km2 of an urban environment. I wonder if it is realistic at all. On many big data sets, CC just gives me a finger. Even if AT is done properly, I get plenty of missing tiles. Smaller projects under 1km2 is a piece of cake. A project this large sounds scary. How big is the largest done in the history? If the info is available: how many pix were taken, average height? resolution? 
 
 2. What kind of image acquisition system is optimal for 350km2? 
 On smaller projects, just phantom 4 pro is doing just fine. Models come out a bit wavy but with models within 1 km2 it is hardly noticeable. Acquiring accurate GPS for images is critical. Collecting control points for an entire city is not a good option. RTK seems to be a must, with 5-way high rez camera system. Right? What kind of platform offers it? Preferably a UAV. (the tallest city structure is under 250m) 
 
 3. We'd have to build a comuter farm for a project like this. Is it possible to process the whole thing as 1 piece? What is the largest CC farm known to exist? (no need for specific names, just a rough idea) 
 4. Any advice on processing something this massive? 
 5. Is there a viewer that may allow layering information into a LOD model (like street names, building owners, zoning maps,..ets)

Felix James · Accepted Answer

Hi Dennis, 
 1- The largest model processed by Bentley is maybe Helsinki one around 300km&sup2; at 7cm resolution Your project is definitely doable but some precautions need to be taken 2- The optimal acquisition device is probably a multi-sensor aircraft camera (like UltraCam / camera used for Helsinki) A phantom-4 seems under-dimensioned for such a job 3- Yes thanks to CC-Center and parallel processing feature, the mesh can be processed as 1 piece. We have 18 machines here at the office. We have hear of a user in China running 100 engines so this should not be an obstacle 4- Yes we can give a lot of advice and would be happy to discuss this with you further First: take as much time as required to make sure everything is set before starting any processing > You will reduce unexpected risks that couls lead to huge time-loss with such an amount of data 5- This require some customization, Cesium should allow this but it will be the a task for you to tackle personally.