3DVeniceBridges

Introduction

Venice is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. Venice is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The Bridge plays such an important part in Venice that studying the bridge can help us understand better the history and structure of Venice. Our project is mainly based on the book Catalogo Veneziano – Ponti Santa Croce and Catalogo Veneziano – Ponti San Polo, to build specific 3D models for these bridges and to create specific additional layers on the geographical information system.

The bridges of Venice

Motivation

With more than 400 bridges, Venice is known as the “city of bridges”. In fact, the evidence of the first stone bridges dates back to 1170, and before that time people only used boats to go from one of the 121 islands to another island. Because of technological progress, population growth, and the city’s increase in trade it became necessary to build routes that would connect the various areas. That is how the bridges of Venice were born.

Bridges are an integral part of Venice. The bridge connected Venice from a number of scattered islands into a whole, facilitating economic and cultural exchanges and development within the city, while the economic and cultural development also contributed to the construction of the bridges. The construction of bridges’ 3D models allows us to understand more about the structure and history of the city. What’s more, digitalizing this information allows the researchers to carry out further analyses.

Our project is based on the materials (Catalog Venezia), combined with today's bridge photo, to upgrade the Napoleonic cadaster with bridge information. Given the huge number of bridges in Venice, it would take a long time to build each bridge manually. We have found that the majority of the bridges mentioned in the materials are composed of 4 parts: arc, plane, stairs, and railings. And different parts have different types. So we want to create a bridge generator in which we can specify the type and data of each component based on the materials to build the 3D model for bridges of Venice.

Project Plan and MileStones

Main steps of the project:

Date	Task	Completion
By Week 3	Brainstorm projects ideas Prepare slides for initial project idea presentation.	✓
By Week 4 - 5	Discuss the implementation of 3D bridges modeling with TA, and figure out specific steps to achieve Learn about classification and the basic structure of Venice bridges. Learn to use Rhino and Grasshopper	✓
By Week 6	Learn to use Rhino and grasshopper Digitalize the material "CATALOGO VENEZIANO-PONTI" Find the parameters that are needed for modeling and build the framework of the database	✓
By Week 7	build a simple and standard bridge model	✓
By Week 8	build the arc and bridge body model find out a method to measure the length of bridges on the materials	✓
By Week 9	get the information from the material using OCR build the step model get the length data from the plan using Rhino	✓
By Week 10	build the railing model write the introduction, motivation, and project plan on wiki Prepare slides for midterm presentation.
By Week 11	complete different railing model add texture mapping to the bridge according to its material finish the 3D bridge model
By Week 12	input the data and types of bridges to the 3D bridge model, and generate the 3D models of bridges.
By Week 13	Complete the wiki on motivation, methods, results, and limitations. Build and refine some special bridge models
By Week 14	final presentation