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The Use of Interactive Virtual BIM to Boost Virtual Tourism in Heritage Sites, Historic Jeddah

ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10(9), 577; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi10090577

by Ahmad Baik

Reviewer 1: Anonymous

Reviewer 2: Anonymous

Reviewer 3: Anonymous

ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2021, 10(9), 577; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi10090577

Submission received: 19 July 2021 / Revised: 13 August 2021 / Accepted: 20 August 2021 / Published: 26 August 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Resolution Data Fusion for Heritage Building Information Modeling (HBIM) and CityGML Organization)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

It is necessary to present more clearly legible images, very frequently they are not clear and correct. The order of the images is random. Do not write in the text .... see figures ... just fig. 1 etc. is enough. The bibliographical references are also random. I would also ask you to read the following papers:

Massimiliano P., Domenica C., V. S. Alfio, A. Garofalo Restuccia, N. M. Papalino,
Scan to BIM for the digital management and representation in 3D GIS environment of cultural heritage site, Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2021;
C. Dore, M. Murphy
Integration of historic building information modeling (HBIM) and 3D GIS for recording and managing cultural heritage sites
2012 18th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia, IEEE (2012), pp. 369-376;
I.J. Ewart, V. Zuecco
Heritage building information modelling (HBIM): a review of published case studies
Advances in Informatics and Computing in Civil and Construction Engineering, Springer, Cham (2019), pp. 35-41.

Author Response

Author's Reply to the Review Report (Reviewer 1)

It is necessary to present more clearly legible images, very frequently they are not clear and correct. The order of the images is random.

Reordered

Do not write in the text .... see figures ... just fig. 1 etc. is enough.

Done

The bibliographical references are also random.

Fixed

I would also ask you to read the following papers:

Done

Reviewer 2 Report

The article has improved on the previous version in terms of quality and presentation of the research carried out. However, several changes to the paper are still needed, as outlined below point by point.

Line 67 I suggest to write the caption of figure 2 as: “Figure 2: historic buildings: Baeshen House (a) and Zainal House (b)”

line 77 Please change the title in "Research aim"

line 126 Please rewrite the following sentence adding some references "This phase is generally known as Scan to BIM ( https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.17863/CAM.66930) or in heritage cases, i.e. Scan to HBIM" (https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1007/s12518-021-00359-2; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi10050316). In this way, it is possible to identify the context of the research taking into account the works already present in the literature.

Line 317 it is necessary to refer to figure 6 in the text.

Line 428-436 it is necessary to write the text not in italic way

Line 447 Please enter figure 10 first and then figure 11; is it possible to obtain a more clear picture of the figure 10?

Line 480 it is necessary to refer to figure 13 in the text.

Line 486 it is necessary to refer to figure 14 in the text.

Line 506 I suggest to separate the results from Discussion/Conclusions

Line 535 The references must be formatted according the guideline of the Journal (even in the text)

Author Response

Line 67 I suggest to write the caption of figure 2 as: “Figure 2: historic buildings: Baeshen House (a) and Zainal House (b)”

Done

line 77 Please change the title in "Research aim"

Done

Done

Line 317 it is necessary to refer to figure 6 in the text.

Done

Line 428-436 it is necessary to write the text not in italic way

Done

Line 447 Please enter figure 10 first and then figure 11; is it possible to obtain a more clear picture of the figure 10?

Done

Line 480 it is necessary to refer to figure 13 in the text.

Done

Line 486 it is necessary to refer to figure 14 in the text.

Done

Line 506 I suggest separating the results from Discussion/Conclusions

Done

Line 535 The references must be formatted according the guideline of the Journal (even in the text)

Done

Reviewer 3 Report

Current topic of great interest in touristic domain as the study show benefits in using VR+HBIM.
The abstract presents too much information about BIM that is currently well know. The author must short it, and the abstract should present more directly the propose of linking VR to HBIM.
Change “Virtual and augmented reality technology (VAR)” to “Virtual and augmented reality technology (VR&VA)”. VAR is never used. What is “Virtual Design and Construction (VDC)”? concept, software or what?
“Through walking in the 3D BIM with schedule model; 218 which describes as (4D-BIM) in a VR environment,” the use of 4D-BIM is wrong, as it is used in the simulation and control of new constructions. The concept here is “as-built” as it show the historic evolution of the construction of old buildings. Please see: by Alcinia Zita Sampaio, Augusto Martins Gomes, Alberto Sánchez-Lite, Patricia Zulueta, Cristina González-Gaya, Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3129, https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13063129- 12 Mar 2021.
The item “E-Documentation” should be nore exploded as it is a relevant topic of HBIM as a support to a posterior analyses to be made by divers experts (archeology, architecture, history, engineer, …)
The item “Reality Capture: 3-D environment” is very interesting and useful to preservation professionals.
All study is very interesting and explores in a historic & touristic context the great potentiality of BIM.

Author Response

Current topic of great interest in touristic domain as the study show benefits in using VR+HBIM.

Glad to hear.

The abstract presents too much information about BIM that is currently well know. The author must short it, and the abstract should present more directly the propose of linking VR to HBIM.

Done and Removed some extra information.

Change “Virtual and augmented reality technology (VAR)” to “Virtual and augmented reality technology (VR&VA)”. VAR is never used. What is “Virtual Design and Construction (VDC)”? concept, software or what?

Done. And (VAR) is referred to as the virtual design and construction field.

“Through walking in the 3D BIM with schedule model; 218 which describes as (4D-BIM) in a VR environment,” the use of 4D-BIM is wrong, as it is used in the simulation and control of new constructions. The concept here is “as-built” as it show the historic evolution of the construction of old buildings. Please see: by Alcinia Zita Sampaio, Augusto Martins Gomes, Alberto Sánchez-Lite, Patricia Zulueta, Cristina González-Gaya, Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3129, https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13063129- 12 Mar 2021.

Done. And I used it here just to give an overview about (literature review).

The item “E-Documentation” should be more exploded as it is a relevant topic of HBIM as a support to a posterior analysis to be made by divers experts (archeology, architecture, history, engineer, …)

Added more information and references.

The item “Reality Capture: 3-D environment” is very interesting and useful to preservation professionals.

Glad to hear.

All study is very interesting and explores in a historic & touristic context the great potentiality of BIM.

Glad to hear.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The latest version of the manuscript is an improvement on the previous one. The authors answered some of my doubts or clarifications. I suggest some other changes to be made in the paper in order to increase the quality of the manuscript. Therefore, a final effort by the authors is needed. Following, it is possible to find, line by line, the parts of the manuscript that need revision.

Line 28 I suggest to call the section only “Introduction” (please check if it is possible according the guideline of the Journal)

Line 33 I suggest to remove a parenthesis.

Line 34 I suggest to remove the acronym (VR) because already mentioned.

Line 58-62 Please check the sentence.

Line 112 Ii is necessary to rewritten better the sentence. I suggest to write in this (or similar) way: “This new technique is termed as Heritage BIM where the flow diagram of the different processes and professional figures involved in the project can be summarised as shown in Figure 3”.

Line 123 In order to increase the quality of the paper, the authors can be added at the end of the sentence “Almost all of these studies used point cloud data, which was generated from close‐range photogrammetry (CRP) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS).”, the references suggest from the reviewer 1.

Line 483 In order to increase the readability of the paper, I suggest writing the acronym only and directly (VR, AR, AEC).

Line 511 It is necessary to remove from the capture of figure 13 some strange characters (“, #)

Line 526 I suggest to increase and improve the quality of the image (Figure 14).

Line 527 I suggest to change the title “Conclusion” to “Conclusions”

Line 558 It is necessary to follow the guideline of the Journal; for example, the year of the research article must be reported in bold.

Author Response

Reply to the Review Report (Reviewer 2)_II

Line 28 I suggest to call the section only “Introduction” (please check if it is possible according the guideline of the Journal)

Done.

Line 33 I suggest to remove a parenthesis.

Done.

Line 34 I suggest to remove the acronym (VR) because already mentioned.

Done.

Line 58-62 Please check the sentence.

Removed as it is extra information.

Done as the suggestion.

And added the references suggest by reviewer 1.

Line 483 In order to increase the readability of the paper, I suggest writing the acronym only and directly (VR, AR, AEC).

Done.

Line 511 It is necessary to remove from the capture of figure 13 some strange characters (“, #)

I did not find any

Line 526 I suggest to increase and improve the quality of the image (Figure 14).

Done.

Line 527 I suggest to change the title “Conclusion” to “Conclusions”

Done.

Line 558 It is necessary to follow the guideline of the Journal; for example, the year of the research article must be reported in bold.

Done.

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This contribution describes the integration of an HBIM model with A/V/MR, applied to a specific Saudi Arabia case study. The topic could be interesting for readers, however:

The paper is not properly organized and clear for the reader.
There is confusion (especially in the first part) between terms and concepts. A specification of some terms (e.g. HBIM) is advisable.
Some parts are too specific (e.g. name of Saudi CH sites without descriptions), while others are too general (see Section 4).
Some basic concepts are continuously reported through the text, making the overall contribution too repetitive.
It is not clear why Historic Jeddah is described in the first part of the article, while the case study is the Zainal House. If it is a part of the Historic Jeddah, it is enough a short reference, not a whole paragraph (1.1)
It lacks a clear description of the followed methodology and paper subdivision to help the reader. Moreover, the literature review is dispersive and, in this section, the relation between the HBIM and V/A/MR is not well expressed and detailed.
Section 4 is too general: specific information on the accuracy of the data processing phases, on the errors of the HBIM model, on the modelling phases, etc. are not provided.
It is not clear why the final model is named HBIM, since there is no reference to the addition of external data that would differentiate it from a mere 3D model.
I personally think that the title is a bit misleading since point clouds cover a very small part of the overall contribution

I'd suggest the author to review the article by shortening the initial state of the art part; specifying the connection between the HBIM model and V/A/MR and detailing the work done, without getting lost in the description of data useless for the reader (see attached file). Finally, I'd recommend highlighting the innovative side of the research, as what emerges is only a well-established workflow.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript describes the process of integration a point cloud into an interactive 3D virtual model, applied to the field of HBIM. In particular, the paper analyzes a case study of the historical Jeddah that focuses on the Zainal Historical House (Byt Zainal). This house is described as one of the significant historical buildings in the historic district.

The topics in the paper are of new interest, but a more in-depth study is needed.

In particular:

The articles in the bibliography are not recent. Please revisit the “2. Literature review” with more recent articles. I recommend you:
Andriasyan, M., Moyano, J., Nieto-Julián, J. E., & Antón, D. (2020). From point cloud data to building information modelling: An automatic parametric workflow for heritage. Remote Sensing, 12(7), 1094.
Pepe, M., Costantino, D., & Restuccia Garofalo, A. (2020). An efficient pipeline to obtain 3D model for HBIM and structural analysis purposes from 3D point clouds. Applied Sciences, 10(4), 1235.
Brilakis, I., Pan, Y., Braun, A., & Borrmann, A. Void-Growing: A Novel Scan-to-BIM Method For Manhattan World Buildings From Point Cloud. European Conference on Computing in Construction.
The accuracies and precisions related to the point cloud registration phase have not been shown. These should be included.
The processing conducted to develop from the BIM model to augmented reality or to virtual reality, must be described in more detail.

Minor revision

Please check the formatting of the paper in according to the Journal manuscript guidelines.
I suggest to merge Figures 7 and 8 and relocating them near the text where they are mentioned.
Figure 10 is not mentioned in the article. Please verify.
Figure 12 is not mentioned in the article. Please check.
Figures 15, 16 and 17 are repetitive and unreadable. I would suggest to insert a single image where it is clear the point cloud model obtained.
Page 14 the figures are not arranged in an orderly manner. Please verify.
Many figures are not mentioned in the article. Please check.
Format the bibliography in according to the Journal manuscript guidelines.

Reviewer 3 Report

Overall comments
The authors describe how to integrate the point cloud to interactive virtual Heritage BIM. The topic is interesting, topical and covers one of the themes of the Journal. However, the paper first needs a formal restructuring according to the guidelines provided by the Journal and, subsequently, some parts of the paper should be better clarified and deepened. In addition, I suggest to consider more recent references.

Minor comments
line 94 Please change the title in "Research aim"
line 140 Plese rewrite the following sentence "This phase is generally known as Scan to BIM ( https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.17863/CAM.66930) or in heritage cases, i.e. Scan to HBIM" (https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1007/s12518-021-00359-2, https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijgi10050316).
line 298 please leave the word "Method" alone
line 352 please sort the figures in the text by increasing number
line 400 I suggest to delete the table 1; the value reported in the table should be reported in the text
line 471 I suggest to change the tiel of the capture in "Total station used for the survey of the GCPs"
line 416 In order to make the paper more readable, I suggest to merge figure 7 and 8 into one figure (a and b)
line 513 I suggest to delete the figure since it is repeated in the next figure
line 548 I suggest to delete the figure 15 because it is unclear
line 548 I suggest to delete the figure 16 because it is too generic
line 615 I suggest to delete the figure 22 because it does not add quality to the paper
line 615 The figure 23, 24, and 25 can be merged (a, b and c) in a unique figure
line 731 The figure 29 it is not mentioned in the text

Reviewer 4 Report

“Today, moving from a two-dimensional environment to a more advanced interactive third-dimensional (3-D) environment in the industries of architecture, engineering, and construction has become one of the most significant topics of interest. This is due to several primary ad vantages that the 3-D environment can offer” Too much overstated and antique in a BIM wold

“Building information modelling (BIM) can be used as a highly advanced system to present a desired ‘reality’ in a 3-D interactive environment. Moreover, one of the bases of BIM is to integrate several types of datasets into a common interactive platform, which subsequently can be provided in 3-D modelling environments” too basic.

Several times is mentioned “Virtual reality and augmented reality” or just “Virtual and augmented reality” but it necessarily must be followed by the word “technology”, and normally it is referred as VR&AR.

HBIM is a current BIM topic concerning the preservation activity of old building and VR touristic guide is another topic, that has been applied along the last decades. The objectives of each other is completely different. HBIM used is touristic task is too superficial. It is not possible to included HBIM in tourism. The possibility of attaching information to the model (as-built model) concerns a deep analysis not just of history but also architecture conservation, engineering retrofitting and inspections. The use of the HBIM concept in the study is abusive in a tourist context. The title and context must be changed and referred only the type of presentation of the historic information as hierarchic layers.

In addition the caption of the geometry of the old building using 3D scanner technology is currently a very know technology. This is ok, but the inclusion of all this in HBIM, is wrong. And, the description of managing a cloud of points is currently trivial, as, for instances, the Revit software can easily do that.

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