A New Approach for Interactive Procedural Modelling in Cultural Heritage

We present a novel approach for the efficient interactive creation of procedural 3D models for creating synthetic 3D reconstructions in cultural heritage. The benefit for the CH community is a 3D modelling tool that scales better than conventional forward modellers (like SketchUp) but does not require actual coding (like CityEngine). Our tool uses the split grammar approach, but it allows for code-free, direct model manipulation in 3D. To build up the procedural model we propose a modelling by example method that combines the intuitiveness of direct 3D interaction with almost the flexibility of programming. The user can interactively browse through the refinement hierarchy, apply rules and change parameters visually. The tool provides only a small set of well-defined modelling operations. The question is: Are they sufficient for the domain of classical architecture? For our case study we have chosen a prime example of classical architecture, the Louvre