Keywords: 3D Laser Scanner, virtual reality, refurbishment, CAD plans, GIS.

The difficulty in visualising 2D plans of building elements and components brings about errors in interpreting design specifications in terms of accuracy, completeness. Besides, accessibility is another major problem encountered by surveyors. A number of strategies have been set out to improve efficiency and quality of design within the built environment. One of them is the new innovation of 3D laser scanning technology, which has come about and can be used to improve the efficiency and quality design. It has enormous potential to benefit for refurbishment process.

The scanner can digitise all the 3D information concerned with a building detail tolerance of as little as a millimetre. A series of scans externally and internally enables an accurate 3D model of the building to be produced. This model can be "sliced" through different planes to produce accurate 2D plans and elevations. This novel technology improves the efficiency and quality of construction projects, such as maintenance of buildings or group of buildings that are going to be renovated for new services.

A key objective is to develop existing systems for use in urban regeneration and integrate them with the laser scanner to attain the benefits of working in a holistic environment. The new integrated system or "Virtual City" will facilitate a holistic approach to problems and thus have a much greater functionality than the individual sub systems [1]. The success of the Virtual City will be validated in terms of its effectiveness in its operation in conjunction with an assessment of the transformations made, within the project, to selected areas of Manchester.

For that, a consortium of researchers and practitioners from 70 different institutions and companies across Europe undertook an EU funded research project called INTELCITIES. Representative systems will be developed to support control and strategic planning improvement and it will be shown how further systems could be produced to form a more widely integrated package.

One of the tasks to achieve the above objective is the building data capture, which is to obtain digital data of existing buildings using the 3D laser scanning technology, i.e to show how this data can be used as an information base to enhance the refurbishment process.

This paper describes the generation of 2D and 3D CAD plans of existing buildings. It explains the generation of interior and exterior 2D and 3D CAD plans of the existing facilities. Furthermore, it presents the use of 3D laser scanner in integration with other VR systems such VR workbenches for visualisation, analysis and interaction with a VR model of existing buildings.

1

Hamilton, A., Trodd, N., Zhang, H., Fernando, T., Watson, K., "Learning through Visual Systems to Enhance the Urban Planning Process", Journal of Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 28(6) 833-845 Pion Ltd. London, 2001.

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