From Point Cloud to BIM: A New Method Based on Efficient Point Cloud Simplification by Geometric Feature Analysis and Building Parametric Objects in Rhinoceros/Grasshopper Software

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to identify an efficient method for transforming the point cloud into parametric objects in the fields of architecture, engineering and construction by four main steps: 3D survey of the structure under investigation, generation of a new point cloud based on feature extraction and identification of suitable threshold values, geometry reconstruction by semi-automatic process performed in Rhinoceros/Grasshopper and BIM implementation. The developed method made it possible to quickly obtain geometries that were very realistic to the original ones as shown in the case study described in the paper. In particular, the application of ShrinkWrap algorithm on the simplify point cloud allowed us to obtain a polygonal mesh model without errors such as holes, non-manifold surfaces, compenetrating surfaces, etc.

Keywords

• point cloud
• scan-to-BIM
• geometric features
• cloud compare
• AEC
• 3D model