Professionally. This is the proper way to do it: Fast production. Low labor
expense. High quality.
(1) Take photos as far away as you can, and at a height of as near to center
as you can, and as close to staight on to the center of a side (or face) as
you can (do this for each side or each face) while still having sufficient
detail. This will reduce distortion due to angles of view.
(2) Save a copy of each of these photos in full color. Save a copy of each
of these photos in full grey scale. Save a copy of each of these photos in
"2 color" black-n-white.
(3) Use CorelDRAW and CorelTRACE (most older versions are even capable of
this) to undo the distortion of the building. This means that the sides of a
building which is photographed from the bottom up close, which looks skinny
at the top and wide at the bottom, becomes the same width from to to bottom
when scaled in the picture. Do this to all of the similar pictures which are
in color, in greyscale, and in black-n-white, using the SAME distortion
removing commands for each. Save all of these "fixed" images as bmp or jpg
or whatever you prefer (and is usable).
(5) Use 3dStudioMax (2.0 or any newer) to quickly create a mesh of the
images as multiple boxes, while using the saved fixed images as backgrounds
in the editing of the boxes. You might occationally find, by comparing the
full color backgrounds and the grey scale backgrounds and the 2 color b/w
backgrounds, something that you missed.
(6) Map the boxes, in 3dsmax, either combined or seperate as needed, the
full fixed images or parts of the fixed images. View the results, and then
if necessary adjust the boxes.
(7) If you need, save the 3dsmax in 3ds or dxf format for Autocad (at least
version 2000) and then use Autocad to very quickly find dimensions of the
building.
Other programs work, but do not produce as quick and useful a result. A lot
of people hate 3dsmax because they, when they were younger, were not able
to learn its full capabilities due to lazyness and/or impatience. It and
autocad are the absolute best, even better than the vastly more expensive 3d
programs out there.
CorelDRAW, CorelTRACE, 3DStudioMAX, AutoCad.
To get good (really quick, no help need, instructor level) at these: (using
them 8 hours per day and 5 days per week)
CorelDRAW has about a 6 month learning curve.
Writing good quality scripts for CorelDRAW is about a 6 month learning curve
for the non-programmer.
CorelTRACE has about a 1 week learning curve.
3DStudioMAX has at least a 13 month learning curve. 13 for a programmer, 18
for a non-programmer.
AutoCad (AFTER you have learned the others) has about a 6 month learning
curve.
I used to be an instructor of each of these. If you do not have a lot of
time, and want to force feed yourself through the learning curve quickly (in
about 1/2 the time), simply open them up one at a time in the order that I
gave, read the ENTIRE help files from start to finish twice, and go through
ALL of the options, and try ALL of the possible combinations, and reload
sofware and operating system when necessary.