Reverse engineering of scale models using dataflow programming: Application to the fortification of plans-reliefs

Despite the progress in three-dimensional scanning, some architectural artifacts remain a digitizing challenge. Scale models and more especially the plans-reliefs of Louis XIV of France have specific characteristics such as size, scale, number, etc. A knowledge-based modeling approach is developed to address the limitations of digitizing tools. Our study deals with the fortified areas of the scale models. Bastioned fortification works extend over wide areas but they are built according to design rules. Once studied and organized, fortification knowledge has been used to create a library of parametric components. Implemented in Grasshopper, the components were manually adjusted to different practical cases. The library was then validated and we are now focusing on the automation of the adjustments of the components. Thereupon a reverse-engineering approach has been set up. Semantic segmentation algorithms have been defined and implemented in Grasshopper to automatically extract fortification features from 3D surveys based on the knowledge of fortification design rules. Along with the three-dimensional modeling of fortification, an automatic reconstruction of the city parts of the scale models is underway. Both these studies are part of a project aimed at valorizing and diffusing a very unique cultural heritage collection. As such, knowledge models are precious assets both the digitizing and the semantic enhancements of the final application.