Patent ID: 8605093

Claim:
A computer implemented method for reconstructing a pipe from point cloud data, comprising: (a) obtaining, in a computer, point cloud data; (b) detecting, in the computer, two or more primitive geometric shapes in the point cloud data, wherein: (1) the detecting comprises determining if a content database is available; (2) when a content database is available, content-based pipe extraction is performed such that the two or more primitive geometric shapes are detected and compared with content in the content database; and (3) when a content database is not available, automatic quadric surface segmentation is used to detect the two or more primitive geometric shapes; (c) determining, in the computer, a pipeline by determining predecessor and successor primitive geometric shapes for each of the two or more primitive geometric shapes; (d) correcting, in the computer, one or more diameters of the two or more primitive geometric shapes in the pipeline; (e) correcting, in the computer, a coplanarity of the two or more primitive geometric shapes; (f) correcting, in the computer, one or more angles between the two or more primitive geometric shapes; (g) connecting, in the computer, the two or more primitive geometric shapes, wherein the connecting comprises: (1) examining the coplanarity of two primitive geometric shapes; (2) examining center lines of the two primitive geometric shapes; and (3) connecting the two primitive geometric shapes when the two primitive geometric shapes are on a same plane and the center lines are on a same line; and (h) outputting, in the computer, the connected primitive geometric shapes.