Proceedings 18 th International Symposium CIPA 2001 
Potsdam (Germany), September 18 - 21, 2001 
EXPERIENCES WITH THE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAMMETRIC PROGRAM PACKAGE 
ORPHEUS BASED ON CIPA‘s ’ ZURICH CITY HALL’’ DATASET 
FOR ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAMMETRY 
Franz Rottensteiner*, Pierre Grussenmeyer* and Milena Geneva 
Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 
Vienna University of Technology, 
GuBhausstraBe 27-29, A-1040 Vienna, Austria 
Tel.: +43 1 58801 12217, Fax.: +43 1 58801 12299 
Email: fr@ipf.tuwien.ac.at, milgen_bg@yahoo.com 
**ENSAIS-LERGEC, Polytechnicum of Strasbourg 
Photogrammetry & Geomatics Group 
24, Boulevard de la Victoire, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France 
Phone/fax : +33 388 14 47 33 
Email: Pierre.Grussenmeyer@ensais.u-strasbg.fr 
KEY WORDS: 3D Photo Models, Photogrammetric Plotting, Hybrid Adjustment 
ABSTRACT 
It is the goal of this paper to describe a contribution to CIPA’s Zurich test. The test project has been worked out using the PC-based 
digital photogrammetric program ORPHEUS. In order to show the flexibility and applicability of the program under quite general 
circumstances, several variants of both blocks were computed. After that, 3D photo models of the Zurich city hall were created. The 
results are reported, and the variants are compared to each other. The test blocks were additionally plotted using the widely used 
software package PhotoModeler in order to obtain a reference for comparison. The paper describes the main features of ORPHEUS, 
with emphasis on robust hybrid adjustment, the observation types which can be used and the work flow for the production of 3D 
photo models. Fictitious observations were applied for orientation/self-calibration (e.g., as horizontal and/or plumb lines) and for the 
3D determination of points only being visible in one photograph. ORPHEUS is very flexible with respect to the control information 
which can be used. Another focus of the paper will be the presentation of the results of the Zurich blocks and a comparison of 
different variants of block computation. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
At the XVII th CIPA Symposium in Olinda/Brazil a reference data set for testing and evaluating different software packages and tools 
of digital close-range photogrammetry for the purpose of heritage recording and documentation has been proposed (Streilein et al., 
1999). The city hall of Zurich served as a test object. Two standard cameras were used for image acquisition, a Fuji DS 300 and an 
Olympus C1400L. These cameras record images of 1280 x 1024 pixels (Olympus) and 1280 x 1000 pixels (Fuji). Two sets images 
were taken to record the city hall. According to (Streilein et al., 1999), the focus was fixed during exposure. 21 well-distributed 
control points were measured using an reflectorless theodolite. In (Streilein et al., 2000), first experiences with the Zurich data set 
with four different software packages have already been presented. In this paper, we want to describe the experience gained in 
creating 3D photo models of the Zurich city hall from both the Olympus and Fuji data sets using the digital photogrammetric 
software ORPHEUS, and we want to confirm some of the results by comparing them to those obtained by using the software package 
PhotoModeler. In the following sections, we shall describe the properties of ORPHEUS and the way the Zurich city hall data set was 
handled. In section 4, the comparison to PhotoModeler will be made. Section 5 is dedicated to a conclusion and to an outlook on the 
future development of ORPHEUS. 
2. ORPHEUS / ORIENT 
The program ORIENT has been developed at the Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing at Vienna University of 
Technology (I.P.F.) since the mid-seventies. ORIENT is a specialist software for hybrid photogrammetric adjustment, characterised 
by its flexibility with respect to the observation types and geometric configurations which can be handled as well as by its 
professional presentation of the results of adjustment and by its capability of detecting gross errors in the data (Kager 1989). 
ORPHEUS, another development of the I.P.F., offers a graphical user interface to a part of ORIENT’s functionality as well as a 
digital multi-image monocomparator for simultaneous interactive measurement of points and lines in multiple (terrestrial or aerial) 
digital images. ORPHEUS is especially designed for, but not restricted to, aerial triangulation for the generation of digital 
orthophotos, terrestrial photo triangulation with self-calibration of cameras, and the generation of 3D textured photo models.