Digital replica preparation

End-to-end recipes for preparing a Digital Replica — a multi-LOD, uniform-density photogrammetric model ready for stratigraphic annotation and game-engine publication.

The workflow is organised in six phases plus two advisory pages (best-practices and troubleshooting). Each phase produces the input for the next; you can also use the phase pages as standalone recipes when only one step needs revisiting.

For the rationale behind the workflow (why constant polygon density, why tiled texturing, why a linked Reality-Based file), see Why the Digital Replica workflow.

Workflow phases

• Phase 1 — High-Resolution Mesh Preparation (Metashape)
• Phase 2 — Mesh Segmentation (Blender + 3DSC)
• Phase 3 — High-Resolution Texturing (Metashape + 3DSC Scripts)
• Phase 4 — LOD Generation (Blender + 3DSC)
• Phase 5 — Final Reality-Based File
• Phase 6 — Integration with Stratigraphic Annotation

Advisory

• Digital replica — best practices and QC
• Digital replica — troubleshooting common issues

Further Resources

• 3D Survey Collection Documentation: https://3d-survey-collection.readthedocs.io

• Extended Matrix: https://www.extendedmatrix.org

• Extended Matrix Documentation: https://extendedmatrix.readthedocs.io

• Extended Matrix GitHub: https://github.com/zalmoxes-laran/ExtendedMatrix

• PyArchInit: https://pyarchinit.github.io

• Agisoft Metashape Manual: https://www.agisoft.com/pdf/metashape-pro_1_8_en.pdf

• Blender Manual: https://docs.blender.org

Dataset Publication

Once your Digital Replica is complete, you can prepare it for scientific publication:

1. The 09_Dataset_Publication/ folder in the EM structure is designed for Zenodo publication

2. Each dataset gets:

   • Unique DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

   • ZIP archives of model data

   • Standardized Excel metadata files

   • Documentation of processing steps

3. Datasets can reference each other, creating a traceable data chain:

   • Example: Link the Digital Replica dataset to the reconstruction model dataset

   • Create collections (e.g., “Basilica Julia Collection”)

4. Follow metadata specifications published on Zenodo and in scientific journals

See also

For dataset publication guidelines, refer to the Extended Matrix Documentation section on Data Publication.

Support and Community

For questions and support:

• 3DSC GitHub Issues: https://github.com/zalmoxes-laran/3D-survey-collection/issues

• Extended Matrix Forum: https://t.me/UserGroupEM

• Email: emanuel.demetrescu at cnr.it