2000: Photogrammetry and CAD/CAM in Culture and Industry – An ever changing paradigm

For the past ISPRS period 1996-2000, there has been remarkable changes in terms of photogrammetric research and applications in conjunction with CAD/CAM systems. Due to the dynamic nature of both CAD and GIS software as well as due to the ever demanding needs for new and challenging cultural and industrial applications, research has been driven far beyond the initial expectations. Innovative technologies for data acquisition, data processing, and information management, new cultural and industrial products, and their visualization have been developed. Additionally, the advances in technology have driven the evolution of new low-cost and user-friendly systems. Existing CAD/CAM systems have further improved their functionality and portability, giving thus a positive pull to development of new methodologies and tools for the integration of photogrammetric systems with CAD/CAM. New object-oriented measurement procedures support the transfer of photogrammetric technology to the industrial design, engineering and manufacturing sector, as well to architecture and archaeology. As a bottom line, all these changes have remarkably helped the photogrammetric society to pull the attention of many other scientific societies dealing mainly with the visualization of the photogrammetric output. Under the light of these changes, the paradigm has shifted from the pure photogrammetric recording to a holistic approach of recording, processing, archiving, managing, visualizing, and distributing information. This holistic approach builds an added value to the photogrammetric product, much higher than what for many years used to be.