3D Modeling of Buildings: Outstanding Sites

5

Point Cloud Processing

Surveying methods using photogrammetry or lasergrammetry can therefore produce digital representations of sites of interest in the form of dense 3D point clouds, with a given accuracy and completeness. Although this type of model can then offer spectacular visualizations of the structure almost instantaneously, these point clouds are often difficult to use as they are from an operational point of view. They are objects which contain a large volume of information that has not been interpreted, and from which it is sometimes difficult to extract easily readable data. In practice, it is rare for the digital building specifications to end at this stage, unless subsequent processing steps have already been planned in the company commissioning the project, or if a different service provider is contracted, or if the objective of the project is to create a digital archive of the building. Further operations are usually necessary to be able to effectively use the abundance of information, which enabled the data acquisition.

5.1. Visualization and organization of 3D point clouds

5.1.1. Ways of visualizing point clouds

The visualization of data acquired is a key element for the effective and reliable use of 3D point clouds. Part of the quality evaluation of this data is often carried out by direct visualization in specially designed software. This allows the user to obtain a large amount of information, especially on the completeness of the survey and the errors or ...