3D scan for the digital preservation of a historical temple in Taiwan

This study presents the efforts in archiving Chinese architecture using a long-range 3D laser scanner. A historical architecture, the main hall of the Pao-An Temple, was preserved in a digital format with the architectural shapes retrieved more accurate than traditional manual measurements did. The difficulties in measuring as-built free forms and curves up to the size of a building were encountered and solved to enable the display of the hidden inter-relationship between outdoor and indoor profiles through sections. This research identified the most error-prone measurements done by traditional approach by comparing original drawings with the final models which registered 1958 scans and sub-scans. To represent the special characteristics of as-built 3D temple form, the study includes the application of metadata in architecture, the information management of digital data, and the Internet display of large 3D data sets. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.