Scan-to-BIM, photogrammetry and Gaussian splatting in architecture
All the free papers (open access) on reality capture applied to the built environment — scan-to-BIM, photogrammetry, laser scanning, point clouds, NeRF and Gaussian splatting — indexed by OpenAlex since 2015. The colour measures the intensity of each theme in its own history; the number is the total of papers in the year (a paper can count in several themes).
papers analysed4,353 since 2015
in 2026796 so far
themes16
#1 themePhotogrammetry
Heatmap — theme × year
▲ gaining weight · ▼ losing weight · ★ emerging — change in the theme's share of corpus papers, 2024–2026 vs the 2019–2023 average. Click a cell, a theme name or the cards to open the papers (links to the full text).
theme
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026*
total
Photogrammetry▼
98
185
194
173
292
296
278
309
369
376
568
539
3677
HBIM & heritage▼
85
153
180
134
263
247
246
280
343
327
539
551
3348
Laser scanning & LiDAR▼
59
120
130
86
162
164
155
166
216
186
329
326
2099
Point clouds & processing·
32
49
48
26
84
72
70
98
105
99
191
216
1090
3D reconstruction & meshing▲
26
45
49
29
66
60
44
63
101
112
224
271
1090
UAV & drones·
14
34
26
29
64
69
75
83
103
115
192
205
1009
Urban, GIS & 3D cities▲
14
47
39
31
47
46
65
65
98
95
201
244
992
Dimensional verification / QA-QC / as-built·
30
43
42
40
93
72
64
85
88
89
149
183
978
Semantic segmentation & AI▲
8
9
15
19
32
44
37
51
51
90
148
172
676
Low-cost equipment & depth cameras▼
14
28
29
14
38
27
33
29
57
36
59
71
435
Monitoring & deformation▲
9
13
18
18
27
34
16
27
40
41
75
82
400
Gaussian splatting★
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
26
121
200
347
Scan-to-BIM & automatic modelling▼
·
·
7
3
25
14
20
24
40
24
44
56
257
NeRF & radiance fields▲
·
·
·
·
·
·
3
5
13
47
78
104
250
SLAM & navigation▲
1
·
1
3
7
4
7
5
12
15
31
40
126
Other / general·
1
·
1
3
1
·
·
1
·
1
1
2
11
papers / year
99
189
205
185
315
322
299
337
415
446
745
796
4,353
lessmore (theme max)* 2026 partial (up to 9 months)
▸ click a cell, a theme name or the cards to open the papers (links to the full text)
Rising — growing share
NeRF & radiance fields▲ share +826% · 229 papers 2024–2026 · click to open
SLAM & navigation▲ share +109% · 86 papers 2024–2026 · click to open
Semantic segmentation & AI▲ share +62% · 410 papers 2024–2026 · click to open
3D reconstruction & meshing▲ share +54% · 607 papers 2024–2026 · click to open
Urban, GIS & 3D cities▲ share +43% · 540 papers 2024–2026 · click to open
Monitoring & deformation▲ share +17% · 198 papers 2024–2026 · click to open
Losing weight
HBIM & heritage▼ share -13% · 1417 papers 2024–2026 · click to open
Scan-to-BIM & automatic modelling▼ share -14% · 124 papers 2024–2026 · click to open
Laser scanning & LiDAR▼ share -17% · 841 papers 2024–2026 · click to open
Photogrammetry▼ share -18% · 1483 papers 2024–2026 · click to open
Low-cost equipment & depth cameras▼ share -23% · 166 papers 2024–2026 · click to open
The most cited papers of the last 3 years (open access)