Patent Document ID: 9224244
Application ID: 13672288
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of generating a three-dimensional (3D) graphical representation of a first building and of a second building, the method comprising for each one of the first and second buildings: establishing building-specific appearance control data comprising information on parameterized architectural features of the respective building and on building blocks which are fragments of the respective building; retrieving template data from a database based on references in the appearance control data, wherein the template data relates to a prefabricated graphical representation of the building blocks; for each building block, calculating a 3D graphical representation of the building block based on the respective template data and the appearance control data; and combining the 3D graphical representations of the building blocks based on the appearance control data to generate the 3D graphical representation of the respective building; wherein the appearance control data comprises information indicative of number of building blocks used for the 3D graphical representation and type information for the building blocks referencing the template data, wherein the template data is selected from the group comprising two-dimensional shapes and 3D models, wherein the step of combining the 3D graphical representations of the building blocks comprises arranging and attaching the 3D models of the building blocks to each other based on the appearance control data, wherein at least some of the building blocks are the same for the first building and the second building, wherein the template data stores a single copy of the graphical representations of the at least some of the building blocks that are the same for the first building and the second building.