SCAN-TO-MESHBIM FOR ROMAN HERITAGE: APPLICATION TO THE UNESCO-PROTECTED EMONA ROMAN WALL
Synopsis
This article presents a Scan-to-MeshBIM methodology for heritage documentation, applied to the EMONA Roman wall complex in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The workflow pairs mesh geometry, derived via Poisson surface reconstruction and quad-remeshing, with a high Level of Information through domain ontologies stored in a triple store, linked to IFC elements via GlobalID. Unlike conventional HBIM approaches that abstract point clouds into simplified parametric representations, this methodology preserves geometric authenticity at LOA20 accuracy (2σ < 50mm) while enabling rich semantic annotation for material characterization, damage assessment, and chronological conservation cataloguing. A web-based platform built on WebIFC delivers visualization and document management without proprietary software dependencies. We argue this represents the future of IFC collaboration: online, permissionless, and software-agnostic.
