3D building reconstruction based on interpretation of architectural drawings

Many existing 3D reconstruction algorithms either assume a perfect setting or focus only on rebuilding a single object. For architectural drawings, which contain many kinds of abstract information, description formats, and a large number of objects, these algorithms cannot reconstruct 3D models of entire buildings efficiently. This paper presents a new method for 3D reconstruction of buildings through interpreting three-view drawings automatically. Firstly, the feature extraction and recognition algorithm are designed for interpreting the drawings and obtaining the contours of building components. Next, special algorithms including reorientation of orthogonal views, regeneration of omitted views, and unification of coordinate systems are designed mainly based on interpretation and domain knowledge. At last, integrated 3D model of a whole building can be reconstructed and easily used in later automatic applications. Experiments showed that the method is especially efficient and appropriate for reconstruction of buildings composed of large number of components appearing in many different drawings.