Development of an Open-source Scan+BIM Platform

In the last decade, a significant amount of research and development has been conducted at the intersection of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and reality capture data processing, mainly in the two areas often referred to as ?Scanto- BIM' and ?Scan-vs-BIM'. Interestingly, it appears that all these advances have been made without the availability of any libre, cost-free and ideally open-source software platform that can handle both reality capture data (typically 3D point clouds and images) and Building Information Models. This paper investigates user demands and possible alternative options to develop such a Scan+BIM platform to further stimulate research in the field. A set of requirements for such a platform are first identified by means of a questionnaire sent to researchers and industry practitioners. Different software applications, identified from the literature and online, are then assessed against those requirements. A final ranking of these applications is conducted and one suitable solution is identified and suggested for development. The proposed solution combines the OpenInfra Platform, as a BIM and point cloud engine and viewer, and the xBIM Toolkit to provide complementary tools for the BIM engine. This new piece of software is currently under development and the authors intend to make it available to the Construction Informatics community soon.