See DSM Project Requirements for the basic requirements for project setup.
A DSM project will begin like a standard PhotoModeler project. This involves importing photos, marking points (perhaps using SmartMatch, or using targets or coded targets, for efficiency and accuracy), and processing the project. It is important to ensure the project is high quality and has low residuals. Aim for low maximum point residuals. A properly calibrated camera will be important.
Next for the Paired Photo method, define the DSM area of interest using the DSM Trim tool (see DSM Trims - note MVS usually doesn’t require the extents definition). The region should encompass the area to be modeled with the dense point cloud. The trims can be on one or both of the photos in a pair. You can also choose to use the entire photograph to define the boundary or you can use an approximate Surface. If you use a Surface it should approximate the real surface but does not need to be very accurate. For example you could use a flat rectangular surface to approximate an ancient stone wall (which is anything but flat). You can use surface draw and attach Path Surfaces to it, or use a NURBS surface, or even a cylinder) (see DSM Approximate Surfaces).
Save this project to disk as your starting point (you may wish to return to it as you experiment).
You can now run the DSM process.
Click the Create Cloud/Mesh tool (Cloud/Mesh Tools Tab) to start the process (note if you decided to use a predefined approximate Surface for the DSM extents or depth range, select the Surface first before clicking the Create Dense Surface tool - the Surface can be selected in a Surface Table, a 3D Viewer or on a photo 3D projection).
In the DSM Options Dialog first select whether to use the MVS or Paired Photo method (see MVS vs Paired Photos). By default MVS will be selected.
If using the Paired Photo method, select the pairs of photos to process (we suggest a single pair to start with but you can select one or more pairs or use the Select Best Photo Pairs Dialog tool define a set of photo pairs to process, see also Multiple Photo Projects), choose an Extents type (from DSM Trims, DSM Masks, whole photo boundary, or from selected surface(s)), and change any other parameters you need (we suggest leaving the default values to start with).
When you are satisfied with your selections press Execute.
Open a 3D Viewer and in the 3D Viewer Options Dialog turn on Triangulated Mesh and/or Point Clouds display (in Cloud/Mesh branch). Turning the surface type to textured will display the point clouds using an individual RGB color extracted from the photo making the cloud appear textured. Study your result and then fine tune with changes in DSM method, or parameters or changes in photo pairs. See the DSM Troubleshooting section if you don’t get the result you expect.