3D Tiles-Based High-Efficiency Visualization Method for Complex BIM Models on the Web

Abstract

Geographic data visualization is an important research area of Web Geographic Information System (GIS). Owing to the detailed subassemblies and exhaustive knowledge database, building information modeling (BIM) plays an important role in geospatial research and industries. The integration of BIM and GIS contributes to the smooth visualization, quick construction, and efficient management of geographic data. However, there are very few methods that can yield high-efficiency data transmission and visualization for complex BIM models while maintaining the integrity of the internal subassembly structure and attributes. To overcome this issue, this paper proposes a 3D Tiles-based visualization method for complex BIM models on the Web-based 3D model viewer. This method is adopted to partition the BIM model according to its assembly without simplifying the BIM model, by using a tiling method for 3D models based on a degraded R-tree, which accounts for the size of tiles. Subsequently, we introduce the “Mask Filter,” a level of detail method that is used to layer the BIM model. Conducting a series of contrast experiments, the result indicates that this method is efficient and feasible, which significantly improves visualization performance of complex BIM with mass data in the geospatial scene and facilitates the integration of Building Information Modeling and Geographic Information System.