thanks, plus more info

[Seth Teller <seth@graphics.lcs.mit.edu>]

greg,

thanks for your help to andreas.  these guys are 
*really* starting to get some traction -- we will
soon have the capability to generate a rudimentary
model of the whole campus (base map + floorplans 
+ heights), totally automatically from the 2D data.

andreas forwarded me some of your mail, and it
seems that there is lots of data which is available
at your end, or extractable at your end into
spreadsheets.  you asked if you should send them
along: 

> 1a. At this time, there isn't a script or report on
> the space accounting web page that returns distinct
> floors for each or every building.  I ran a custom 
> query/report against the db to retrieve this 
> information. I'm attaching a spreadsheet...

i'm writing to say emphatically *yes*, in all cases,
with the following clarification and emphasis.

as we've discussed, our long-term goal is to make the 
entire 3D model compile automatically, solely from
information found at your site (and of course a set
of rules that we apply to interpret the 2D data).
this way, the dataset will be truly "live" -- if
you update your web site, our 3D model will get
updated.

sending us individual data pieces is very useful in the
short term, as it gets my guys the data they need.  but
in the longer term -- and i acknowledge this requires
some design/thought at both ends -- we are aiming for a
way to make those queries happen entirely automatically,
from our server to yours, with no human in the loop.

so, for example if we could get remote access to the
query engine you used, we can invoke it from here, and
interpret the results (say, floor heights), without the
manual step (and without having to bug you).

is this technically possible?  (i imagine yes, but i
don't know what's in place at your end.)  can we have 
a discussion about what else you maintain there, but
is not (currently) visible or accessible through the
web interface you provide?  can i send my guys over
to get a guided tour of what data you have in-house
that might be of great use at this end?  examples:
building angles, topomaps, etc.  we want to put/get 
all of this on-line so we can integrate it.

best,

seth.

Andreas F Wehowsky wrote:
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 13:22:35 -0500
> From: Greg Knight <GKnight@PLANT.MIT.EDU>
> To: 'Andreas F Wehowsky' <andreasw@mit.edu>
> Cc: Maryla Walters <MWalters@PLANT.MIT.EDU>
> Subject: RE: building information
> 
> Andreas,
> 
> Here are the answers to your questions.
> 
> 1a. At this time, there isn't a script or report on the space accounting web
> page that returns distinct floors for each or every building.  I ran a
> custom query/report against the db to retrieve this information. I'm
> attaching a spreadsheet with that information here.
> 
> 1b. Building height from grade is available on the space accounting website.
> (http://insite.mit.edu/cgi-bin/cgi-bin-db-mit/wdbmitindexscript?ibdb+MIT).
> This may not be convenient for your work however.  If it would be easier for
> me to send you a single spreadsheet with this information let me know - its
> readily done.  You'll also note that some buildings don't have heights.  In
> those cases, you'll have to refer to our archives of record construction
> documents.  Maryla Walters (our archivist - cc'd here for info) can help you
> with this. We should take advantage of this data collection effort and make
> note of these missing heights and record them in the database for use in the
> future.
> 
> 1c./2. Building floor elevations (height above sea level) are not recorded
> in our database. Some of this information is captured in topographical
> surveys that we have of campus.  Not all areas of campus have been surveyed,
> so again, the information here is not complete.
> 
> 3. In the course of developing composite floorplans of campus we have
> captured building insertion and rotation parameters.  At this point, the
> information isn't in the database, but stored a spreadsheet.  I can make
> this available to you as well if you'd like.
> 
> Hope this helps. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
> 
> Greg
> 
> ------------------------------------
> Greg Knight
> Manager, Drawing Information Systems
> MIT,  Department of Facilities
> 77 Massachusetts Avenue,  NE20-277
> Cambridge, MA 02139
> 617.253.7094
> http://web.mit.edu/facilities/www/it/dis/
> mailto:gknight@plant.mit.edu
> ------------------------------------
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andreas F Wehowsky [mailto:andreasw@MIT.EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 5:07 PM
> To: gknight@MIT.EDU
> Subject: building information
> 
> Hello Greg,
> I'm Andreas Wehowsky, a computer science student, working for Seth Teller
> at the computer graphics lab.
> We are working on how to generate a 3d model of the MIT Campus.
> 
> I have some questions,
> 
> how do we for each building the easiest and safest (reliable) way find
> 1. number of floors, height and height/floor for the building
> 2. the elevation (z coordinate - e.g. above sea level)
> 3. the right orientation for the building: we have the base map of MIT and
> we can obtain floorplans for each building, but how do we find out how to
> rotate the floorplans, so it matches the right base map orientation? E.g.
> one could link information between floorplans and the base map and
> describe what corner is the most south-east.
> 
> I hope you can help us or tell where to find more information.
> Thanks,
> Andreas
> 
>   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                             Name: Insite_Bldg_Floor.xls
>    Insite_Bldg_Floor.xls    Type: Microsoft Excel Worksheet (application/vnd.ms-excel)
>                         Encoding: BASE64