Challenges from building information modeling to finite element analysis of existing buildings

The use of Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS), Digital Photogrammetry, powerful computers and advanced software has made possible the creation of complex and complete 3D models of buildings. Today much of the research is focused in the multidisciplinary use of this big amount of data. This paper presents the considerations that were made during the research for integration of building information modelling and some of the main finite element analysis software for creating a structural model through different exporting formats. Furthermore, it compares and evaluates the effectiveness of different export formats within the interoperability with some of main finite element software.A proposal is made in order to use the BIM for the documentation of the crack pattern in the existing buildings and to develop a procedure to export these cracks in the automatically generated structural model. The study also considers the difficulties during the implementation of the procedures in BIM and the future possibilities of this technology.