Topological Consistency Checking and Refinement of Network-based Space Layouts

Network-based space layouts are fine-grained models of architectural spaces. They include rich spatial relationships between layout elements. Such information tends to be limited in existing space representations in building information modeling (BIM) systems. Network-based space layouts could be useful in the space planning and building automation domains. Their main feature is a geometric network of spatial topological relationships between layout elements, which is useful for spatial analysis. A schema for network-based space layouts has been proposed recently. However, the schema does not sufficiently address the issue of topological consistency. Operations on inconsistent layouts may fail or lead to misleading results. This paper examines two topological consistency problems. The first is to check the topological consistency of a layout, and the second to refine a layout, that is, to transform an inconsistent layout into a consistent one.