Farine Five Roses in 3D

A staple of Montreal's skyline immortalized using photogrammetry

Posted by modernmaker on July 10, 2022 · 2 mins read

Looking for the project files? Find them here!


A fixture on the Montreal skyline since the late 1940s, the Farine Five Roses sign was originally erected to advertise flour made by Ogilvie, the company that owned the mill.

I wanted to immortalize this important staple so I took my DJI Mavic Air to the sky and created a 3D model of it.

Interact with the Farine Five Roses model

If you want to do the same, there is no need for a LiDAR drone, just one with a decent camera. You just need to take a bunch of photos from multiple different angles. Once done, upload them to PolyCam and let it do its magic. It’s pure photogrammetry.

Photogrammetry is the art and science of extracting 3D information from photographs. The process involves taking overlapping photographs of an object, structure, or space, and converting them into 2D or 3D digital models.

There are many other alternatives for photogrammetry too! You can find some of them here.

Project Files

I’ve exported the generated model in an STL (3d Object) and PLY (Point Cloud) format. You are free to use them under the GNU GPLv3 license.

Download them here.

If there’s enough interest, I’ll release the 180-something original pictures and have the model available in additional formats (including some that have the baked-in texture!). Show your interest by tweeting the page and following me on social media!