Photofly 2, a free piece of software from Autodesk, the company behind the ancient and illustrious AutoCAD software, can stitch standard digital photos into accurate 3D models.

Learn more The AI research labs at Facebook, Nvidia, and startups like Threedy.ai have at various points tried their hand at the challenge of 2D-object-to-3D-shape conversion.

One of the works spotlighted is Mesh R-CNN, a method that’s able to predict three-dimensional shapes from images of cluttered and occluded objects. Above: Mesh R-CNN converts 2D objects to 3D ...

This clever new algorithm can make 3D objects from 2D photosResearchers have written an algorithm to derive 3D graphics from 2D data, quickly and at scale Microsoft researchers claim to have devised ...

The software is designed to create 3D objects from scratch using 2D images as the input. It uses AI to evaluate the 2D image and constructs a mesh from the data.

Here's how it works—open the 123D Catch app and hit the plus button in the corner to add a new 3D model. You need to place the object you're scanning on a flat surface, or in front of a smooth wall.

Nvidia on Tuesday is debuting new research into 3D rendering that could one day make it easier for graphic artists, architects, and other creators to quickly build 3D models out of 2D images.

If you embark upon a 2D-to-3D conversion, however, you'll need to use software that makes a guess at exactly how deep each object on screen should appear to be.