Best practise of re-modeling a building The organization I am working for plans to pull down and rebuild our office building. As some people are a bit sentimental about the old building, we think about making a 3D model of the old building.

The old house was built in the 60s or 70s, when everything was done by hand. So we have some really detailed hand-drawn plans of the building. We also have a nice and detailed (physical) 3D model of the house. However, what we don't have yet is any material that can be processed in modern 3D modeling software.

So this is what my question is about:
What is the best (easiest, with reasonable degree of details) way to make a 3D model of the old building?

At the moment I think of two different paths:


Transferring the hand drawn plans to a 3D modeling software. I think, Sketchup might be suitable, but I am open for suggestions. It should be something easy to start with as I would like to motivate some colleagues to join the project.
Using some kind of photogrammetry software to transfer the (hand crafted) 3D model of the building to an "electronic" 3D model. I have no experience with this method, however if it works it might be much easier to do.


Can you help me to decide which path to choose and give me some tips on how to do it exactly?
That are certainly trade-offs between the two options.

I think main trade-off between the two options you described would be visual details vs. configurability.  

With a scanned design you have the ability to capture all the visual details that are in your hand crafted model.  Those same details might require more effort than you are willing to put into a CAD design (like window and door detail and other architectural accents).

The big disadvantage of a scanned model it that it would not be parametric so you can't fiddle with design details - like adjusting the width or spacing of the windows, the position of a door or external approach (stairs, etc).  Also you could play with the external skins/finishes and play with how wood looked as compared to concrete of brick. 

Another advantage of a CAD model would be that you would not be able to break out components and print them separately because of print volume issues or to be able to print in different colors. 

My personal preference would be to create a 3D Model using a CAD package.  The limitation on this would be that it might not have the same level of detail; but it would be much more flexible.  You could probably create the base design pretty easily either from the architectural drawings or by deconstructing the hand crafted model.  The model was probably built from pieces much the same way a 3D CAD model is created.

Here is a good example of how to do that.  In the example, they create a pretty detailed house design in Sketchup in 35 min by starting with scans of the architectural drawings.


There are quite a few other similar videos so you should look for the one that fits you best.