Towards building information modelling
for existing structures
Arayici, Y
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02630800810887108
Title Towards building information modelling for existing structures
Authors Arayici, Y
Publication title Structural Survey
Publisher Emerald
Type Article
USIR URL This version is available at: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/11284/
Published Date 2008
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TOWARDS BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING FOR
EXISTING STRUCTURES
Yusuf Arayici,
School of Built Environment,
The University of Salford, UK
y.arayici@salford.ac.uk
Abstract
The transformation of cities from the industrial age (unsustainable) to the knowledge
age (sustainable) is essentially a ‘whole life cycle’ process consisting of; planning,
development, operation, reuse and renewal. During this transformation, a multi-
disciplinary knowledge base, created from studies and research about the built
environment aspects is fundamental: historical, architectural, archeologically,
environmental, social, economic, etc is critical. Although there are a growing number of
applications of 3D VR modelling applications, some built environment applications
such as disaster management, environmental simulations, computer aided architectural
design and planning require more sophisticated models beyond 3D graphical
visualization such as multifunctional, interoperable, intelligent, and multi-
representational.
Advanced digital mapping technologies such as 3D laser scanner technologies can be
are enablers for effective e-planning, consultation and communication of users’ views
during the planning, design, construction and lifecycle process of the built environment.
For example, the 3D laser scanner enables digital documentation of buildings, sites and
physical objects for reconstruction and restoration. It also facilitates the creation of
educational resources within the built environment, as well as the reconstruction of the
built environment. These technologies can be used to drive the productivity gains by
promoting a free-flow of information between departments, divisions, offices, and sites;
and between themselves, their contractors and partners when the data captured via those
technologies are processed and modelled into BIM (Building Information Modelling).
The use of these technologies is key enablers to the creation of new approaches to the
‘Whole Life Cycle’ process within the built and human environment for the 21st
century. The paper describes the research towards Building Information Modelling for
existing structures via the point cloud data captured by the 3D laser scanner technology.
A case study building is elaborated to demonstrate how to produce 3D CAD models and
BIM models of existing structures based on designated techniques.
Keywords: Building Information Modelling, 3D laser scanner, Pattern recognition,
Visualisation, point cloud data,
1 Background
Documentation and plans, in which outstanding characteristics of buildings and
surroundings can be reflected, are critically important for many built environment
applications such as regeneration, construction, transportation, building refurbishment,
cultural heritage etc in order for adequate diagnosis and sustainable developments.
However, this documentation of information currently faces a real challenge (Huber,
2002) due to extreme difficulties to obtain full documentation: Sometimes, the
information in reality exists, but this fact is not known, or it is not at an acceptable
quality, or not easily accessible, leading to unnecessary duplication of efforts and
resources or possible loss (Fryer, 2007, Arayici, et al 2004). For example, inappropriate
restorations in the historic environments can result in irreversible damages due to lack
of documentation and plans. The possibility of counting upon catalogues of goods and
properties and their associated meta-data, where it is possible to ascertain the possible
existence of certain information and to co-ordinate actions between the organizations in
charge is also a key issue (Arayici, 2007). One of the greater limitations that incur at the
moment is the integration of information. It is not only important to have the data, but
also its availability in digital format is critical because the greater part of the present
information remains in paper format. Furthermore, these digital formats should be
compatible with one another and the data should have semantic meaning and they
should be inter-connected for interoperability. As a result, the usual problems of
information incoherence are avoided and the duplicity of efforts in terms of personnel
and economic resources is also avoided (Haist & Coors, 2005).
These circumstances shows that capturing and modelling of the real world data for
various built environment applications is very challenging even though a number of
techniques and technologies are now in use such as EDM (Electronic Distance
Measurement), GPS (Global Positioning System), photogrammetric applications,
remote sensing and building surveying applications (Fryer et al, 2007). This is because
the use of these technologies has not been practical and efficient with regard to time,
cost, accuracy and usefulness. In order to meet the challenges mentioned above, 3D
modelling has an increasing demand by the stakeholders in the built environment field
(Hakim & Beraldin, 2008). This modelling employs geospatial data captured by means
of 3D digital mapping tools and technologies such as photogrammetry, 3D laser
scanning. However, processing the captured data to create 3D virtual models includes a
great deal of laborious work that cause very long time for delivery, high cost, low
accuracy and possible distortion in the 3D models due to manual process.
These drawbacks make 3D modeling limits the uptake of the 3D models in the built
environment even though it is crucially needed for the built environment applications.
Besides, the current 3D modeling attempts have been mainly focused on graphical
representations with limited support of semantic aspects, topology, and interoperability
(Nebiker et al, 2005, Falquet & Metral, 2005, Thiemann and Sester, 2005). However, it
would be immensely useful for a number of applications such as disaster management,
regeneration, environmental simulations, computer aided architectural design (CAAD),
and regional planning if a semantic 3D models of existing structures in a standard such
as IFC (Benner et al 2005, Kolbe &Bacharach, 2006) are automatically produced at a
reasonable cost. It will be more sophisticated model beyond 3D visualization because of
being multifunctional, interoperable, intelligent, and multi-representational.
2 Real World Data Capture and Processing
In this section, 3D laser scanning is introduced for real world data capture and
processing. The 3D Laser scanning technologies have been introduced in the field of
surveying and are able to acquire 3D information about physical objects of various
shapes and sizes in a cost and time effective way. While laser scanning based on the
triangulation principle and high degrees of precision have been widely used since the
80s, `Time of Flight` instruments have only been developed for metric survey
applications in this decade (Bornaz, Rinaudo, 2004). The latter has been optimized for
high speed surveying, and a set of mechanisms that allows the laser beam to be directed
in space in a range that varies according to the instrument that is being used. For each
acquired point, a distance is measured on a known direction: X, Y, and Z coordinates of
a point can be computed for each recorded distance direction. Laser scanners allow
millions of points to be recorded in a few minutes. Because of their practicality and
versatility, these kinds of instruments have the potential to be widely used in the field of
architectural, archaeological and environmental surveying (Valanis & Tsakiri, 2004).
Research studies have been undertaken to investigate the advantages of 3D laser
scanning technology over the current technologies available for natural environment,
cultural heritage documentation, mining, and tunnel bridge construction and as built
survey for defect detection. In addition, 3D prototyping in manufacturing has been
carried out for small objects such as car seats. However, the same concept has not been
applied in the built environment effectively.
Laser scanner is can be airborne or terrestrial. The main difference of airborne 3D laser
scanners from the terrestrial 3D laser scanners is that the scanner is mounted beneath a
plane to scan the earth surface while flying. However, the scanning principles and
output from the scanning, which is point cloud data, are the same. Airborne laser
scanning is an active technique to acquire point clouds describing the earth surface.
While early systems generated datasets with an average point spacing of a few meters,
modern systems are capable of acquiring several points per square meter. In addition,
they offer the capability to record multiple echoes per laser pulse as well as pulse
intensities. Originally being used as a powerful technique for the acquisition of data for
digital terrain models, airborne laser scanning is meanwhile often referred to as a tool
for adding the third dimension to GIS data, and to acquire data for a wide range of 3D
object modelling tasks (Bornaz & Rinaudo, 2004). However, unlike the capturing,
processing the point cloud data is a painful, complex task with intensive manual work to
produce 3D models of the scanned objects. This is required to convert the point cloud
data into simpler forms that can be manipulated by other built environment software
systems such as CAD because the point cloud data occupies huge disk space and
requires very high spec computers (Arayici, et al 2004, Litchi, 2005).
For the case study project, a Riegl LMS-Z210 3D laser scanner (www.riegl.com), was
used in combination with PolyWorks software (www.innovmetric.com) for processed
point data. The LMS-Z210 3D imaging sensor is a rugged and fully portable sensor for
the rapid acquisition of high-quality three-dimensional images
even under highly
demanding environmental conditions. The scanner provides a combination of wide
field-of-view, high accuracy, and fast data acquisition. The scanner is connected to a
12V battery and a ruggedised laptop (www.riegl.com).
Range:
r³
80%
300m
r³
10%
Minimum
2m
Spot size/ beamwidth
25mm @ 100m
Precision
25mm
Max resolution
25mm
Capture
6.000 pts/sec
SCAN
Vertical
0º-80º
angular resolution
0.002º
horizontal
0º-333º
angular resolution
0.025º
Weight
Software
RiSCAN Pro
Table 1: Specification of LMS Z210 scanner used in the case study area
3 Building Information Modelling
Building Information Modelling is the term used to describe a range of discipline-
specific software applications that support all phases of the project lifecycle from
conceptual design and construction documentation, to coordination and construction,
and throughout ongoing facility management, maintenance, and operations. BIM is an
integrated 3D digital description of a building, its site and related geographic
information system (GIS) context. A BIM comprises individual building, site or GIS
objects with attributes that define their detailed description and relationships that
specify the nature of the context with other objects. BIM is called a rich model because
