A perspective on procedural modeling based on structural analysis

Abstract

With  the rise of available  computing  capabilities,  structural  analysis  has  recently  become  a  key  tool  for  building assessment usually  managed  by art  historians,  curators,  and  other  specialist  related to the  study  and  preservation  of ancient  buildings.  On  the  other  hand,  the  flourishing  field  of  procedural  modeling  has  provided  some  exciting breakthroughs for the recreation of lost buildings and urban structures. However, there is a surprising lack of literature to enable  the  production  of  procedural-based  buildings  taking  into  account  structural  analysis,  which  has  proven  to  be  a crucial element for the recreation of faithful masonry structures. In order to perform an in-depth study of the advances in this type of analysis for cultural heritage buildings, we performed a study focused on procedural modeling that make use of structural  analysis methods,  especially  in  its  application  to  historic  masonry buildings  such  as  churches  and cathedrals.  Moreover,  with  the  aim  of  improving  the  knowledge  about  structural  analysis  of  procedurally-recreated historical buildings, we have taken a geometric structure, added a set of procedural walls structured in masonry bricks, and studied its behavior in a generic, freely-available simulation tool, thus showing the feasibility of its analysis with non-specialized tools. This not only has allowed us to understand and learn how the different parameter values of a masonry structure can affect the results of the simulation, but also has proven that this kind of simulations can be easily integrated in  an  off-the-shelf  procedural  modeling  tool,  enabling  this  kind  of  analysis  for  a  wide  variety  of  historical  studies, or restoration and preservation actions.