Abstract

The BiGAr project aims to innovate archaeological research by developing a digital application that integrates Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This application documents the 4D nature of archaeological evidence alongside traditional data such as text and photography. By offering a faster and more comprehensive approach than current methods, BiGAr enhances collaboration through web platforms and provides new opportunities for spatial analysis and cultural landscape management. Traditionally, BIM has been employed solely for architectural analysis in archaeology, without integration with GIS. BiGAr introduces an innovative geospatial environment by creating a new digital workflow that merges GIS and BIM, facilitating the management of archaeological data from fieldwork, including excavations and surveys. The project involves the development of a dedicated application using open-source software and custom programming scripts. The provided .zip folder contains the preliminary version (V. 1.0) of the BiGAr applications, including: a Dynamo project (MeshToSolid.dyn) that transforms a mesh into a BIM solid in Dynamo Sandbox (https://dynamobim.org/download/) and four BiGAr Boolean Subtraction Scripts (Blender1_import_mesh.py, Blender2_extrude_meshes_y_axis.py, Blender3_meshes_boolean_subtraction.py, Blender4_custum_scale_voxelization_mesh.py). These scripts perform a Boolean subtraction between two meshes in Blender (https://www.blender.org/download/) and voxelise the result. BiGAr project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 10102901 (https://site.unibo.it/bim-gis-integration-for-archaeology/en ).