Laser scanner technology for complex surveying structures

Generally, when someone refers to architectural property he inclines to consider only that part of architecture and monuments belonging at remote epochs far since our days. However authors' opinion is that the diffusion and the spreading of the culture cannot leave out from the analysis, the study and the conservation also of architecture and all things realized in more recent times. However, the characteristics of the modern and contemporary architecture with respect to those precedents lead to the development of a definition for new approaches and adequate representation forms because of the presence both of materials and innovative technologies like the tubular or trellis structures, that show then different difficulty in the interpretation and definition of the acquired data. In such direction, the new digital technologies allow, from a part, a rationalization and rapidity of the relief operations, from the other they allow to create some new representations which can easily fit to the scholars and operators (architects, engineers, restorers, historians, etc) demands, or to be used to produce faithful copies through quick prototype techniques, but also, more simply, to give back enjoyable such information easily by town councils or web users. The developed and described, in this article, experiences have the aim of verify the potentialities of laser scanner in surveying of structures, for whom traditional techniques of relief could result disadvantageous in terms of realization's times, costs and precision. A particular attention has addressed to elaboration phase, data filtering and 3D modeling through the use of specific and opportune algorithms of best-fitting, useful for individualization and extraction of forms.