An Innovative Solution Set Of Algorithm For Converting Architectural Drawings To Vector-based Computer Graphics

Appraisal Floor Plan Sketch (AFPS) as a simplified architectural floor plan shows the bird's eye view of a building's spatial arrangement. An efficient automated vectorization system of AFPS not only fulfills AFPS's preservation and dissemination purposes but also helps extract the building's geometric information, which can be used to create 3D models of the building and improve building energy efficiency. The purpose of this study is to develop an automated system for converting scanned AFPS into vector based computer graphics. Text/graphic separation and corner detection are two essential components in this vectorization system. Text/graphic separation ensures that only graphic data is processed. Corner detection locates the dominant points to help extract vectors from image data. Image processing and analysis techniques were applied and an innovative set of algorithms was developed to extract digitized information from AFPS. Two hundred AFPS images, sampled from a large local online database containing more than 150,000 houses, were converted with fast processing speed (25 seconds on average), high confidence and accuracy level (95%), and minimal fault warning (1%).