Textured As-Is BIM via GIS-informed Point Cloud Segmentation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to automate the creation of detailed as-is BIM models from point cloud data by integrating GIS information, significantly reducing manual effort and costs in large-scale railway projects.

Contribution

It presents a novel framework combining GIS data with machine learning for semantic segmentation of point clouds to generate BIM-ready models.

Findings

High potential for cost savings in railway projects

Effective integration of GIS data improves segmentation accuracy

Framework demonstrates feasibility for automation in BIM creation

Abstract

Creating as-is models from scratch is to this day still a time- and money-consuming task due to its high manual effort. Therefore, projects, especially those with a big spatial extent, could profit from automating the process of creating semantically rich 3D geometries from surveying data such as Point Cloud Data (PCD). An automation can be achieved by using Machine and Deep Learning Models for object recognition and semantic segmentation of PCD. As PCDs do not usually include more than the mere position and RGB colour values of points, tapping into semantically enriched Geoinformation System (GIS) data can be used to enhance the process of creating meaningful as-is models. This paper presents a methodology, an implementation framework and a proof of concept for the automated generation of GIS-informed and BIM-ready as-is Building Information Models (BIM) for railway projects. The results show a high potential for cost savings and reveal the unemployed resources of freely accessible GIS data within.