Do you think one of the great things about photogrammetry apps is that we can easily create things we see when out and about? Sometimes that may be something big, like a house or old car. But sometimes it’s something much smaller, like a tree or a rock. So while I was out walking in Lickey Hills Country Park (near the UK Birmingham) one day I decided to try scanning a rock I’ve seen many times. It’s not an especially exciting rock, but for me it’s a waymark I can relate to, as well as a good excuse to play with 3D scanning on my Android phone. So here’s a photo of the rock.
![](https://parth3d.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/LickeyRock.jpg)
Quick summary of this 3D creation
Overview: A basic photogrammetry scan of a rock by a hiking trail.
Location: Lickey Hills Country Park, central England [map].
Software used: WIDAR Android app.
Intended use: Computer graphics, not suitable for 3D printing without more editing.
Download: Sketchfab page.
As I’ve been playing with the WIDAR Android app lately (e.g. in Monmouth and Bromsgrove) I know it’s excellent for creating lightweight textured 3D scans for computer graphics. I also know that the underlying mesh isn’t necessarily that detailed for 3D printing, but that didn’t worry me as I just want a textured 3D model to view (much like having a 3D photo to look at). So I took around 25 photos in the app and uploaded them. Then, when processed, I opened the model in WIDAR and cropped the surrounding ground to tidy it up. And apart from that, I did no other editing of the model, which you can see below on Sketchfab (click the play button to load the model and view it in 3D).
I think WIDAR did an excellent job of creating a 3D representation for displaying on a webpage, so everyone can see the delights of Lickey Hills Country Park. But in case you’re wondering what the model looks like untextured, here’s a view of the 3D mesh rendered in Meshlab.
![](https://parth3d.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/LickeyRockMeshlab.jpg)
Overall I’m quite happy with the quality of the scan. After all, not all 3D scanning is about 3D printing. And WIDAR does open up a simple way to create 3D representations of scenes for displaying on a computer screen that goes beyond simple 3D photos 🙂