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Scanning Structures at the University of Arkansas

 

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3D Scanning at the University of Arkansas 

 3D image of front facade of Vol Walker Hall - UofA
To date, CAST researchers have scanned three structures on the UofA campus using the Optech ILRIS-3D scan unit.  Old Main, the oldest building on campus, was the first scanned shortly after acquisition of the Optech in 2003.  Constructed in 1875, Old Main became the first official University building three years after the University’s inception in January of 1872.  In 1970, the structure was the first in Fayetteville to be entered into the National Register of Historic Places and after fairly major renovations in the early 1990’s continues to remain a symbol of the campus and of the greater Fayetteville community. 

Old Main was scanned in a series of three trips, lasting 2-3 hours each, resulting in a total scan time of less than 8 hours. A total of 30 scans were taken from 21 different locations around the building at a resolution of 2-3 centimeters.  A challenge in acquiring data for the model of Old Main was the large number of trees and bushes that surround the building.  Vegetation is largely problematic in laser scanning as it can obstruct the laser from recording information for the feature of interest.  

     Images of Old Main - 3D Scanning

 Efforts were made in the Old Main survey to maneuver around these obstructions however in some cases, particularly with the  small shrubs adjacent to the building, the vegetation could not be accounted for and the results are reflected as “holes” in the final building model.   Also there is little/no scan coverage for the towers and the roof of the building.  Acquiring such data would require mounting the Optech to the Genie TZ lift boom, which has been accomplished in other CAST studies, but not for this project.

Images from Greek Theatre Scanning - UofA
The Greek Theatre was partially scanned in 2004.  The Chi Omega Greek Theatre was built in 1930 and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The theatre was modeled after the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, Greece.  In 2004, two scans at a resolution of 1.5 centimeters were acquired with the Optech from the front of the theatre (from behind the seating area).   Measurements and feature primitives were derived from the column features in the dataset and were compared against field measurements. 


Vol Walker Hall was scanned in 2006 as training project to teach interested CAST personnel (staff and students) how to use the Optech scanner and Polyworks processing suite.  Also a historic structure, Vol Walker was built in 1935 and originally served as the campus library and is currently home to the School of Architecture.  A total of twenty two scans were obtained for Vol Walker including scans of the roof area from adjacent buildings including Old Main and Mullins Library.  

3D Images of Vol Walker Hall - UofA

All data pertaining to the above scan projects is available for download in the InVirMet data repository provided by CAST. Follow the appropriate link for each project:  Old Main Scanning Project, Greek Theater Project, 3D Scanning of Vol Walker Hall.