From Point Cloud to Bim: A Survey of Existing Approaches

Abstract. In order to handle more efficiently projects of restoration, documentation and maintenance of historical buildings, it is essential to rely on a 3D enriched model for the building. Today, the concept of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is widely adopted for the semantization of digital mockups and few research focused on the value of this concept in the field of cultural heritage. In addition historical buildings are already built, so it is necessary to develop a performing approach, based on a first step of building survey, to develop a semantically enriched digital model. For these reasons, this paper focuses on this chain starting with a point cloud and leading to the well-structured final BIM; and proposes an analysis and a survey of existing approaches on the topics of: acquisition, segmentation and BIM creation. It also, presents a critical analysis on the application of this chain in the field of cultural heritage.