Proceedings 18 th International Symposium CIPA 2001 
Potsdam (Germany), September 18 - 21, 2001 
STRUCTURED AND INTEGRATED TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION 
ON CULTURAL HERITAGE - APPROACH IN SLOVENIA 
Mojca Kosmatin Fras 
Geodetic Institute of Slovenia 
Jamova cesta 2, SI - 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia 
Phone: +386 1 200 29 08, E-mail: mojca.fras@geod-is.si 
KEY WORDS: Cultural Heritage, Technical Documentation, Photogrammetry, 3D Models, Internet, Slovenia 
ABSTRACT 
Technical documentation on cultural heritage including buildings, monuments and sites, is usually composed of different kind of 
data, which are acquired with variety of methods, accuracy and reliability. In order to achieve clear information about the existing 
documentation, the documentation should be well structured and integrated in an information system. In the paper, we are presenting 
the Slovenian approach in the field which is the result of thorough work in the last years, accomplished with cooperation of Geodetic 
Institute of Slovenia, Cultural Heritage Office of Slovenia, Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for the Protection of Cultural 
Heritage, Restoration Centre of the Republic of Slovenia and DFG Consulting. Modem technologies have been implemented with 
emphasis given on digital products, 3D models, use of Internet technology and visualization of the results. However, not only new, 
sophisticated and accurate technical documentation is of value. Existing old documentation, acquired with analogue techniques, hand 
measurements and other simple methods, could and should be integrated into a system as well. The quality level of technical 
documentation greatly depends on the importance of the monument. For the pieces of national importance, the most exacting 
technical documentation must be produced. Our considerations are demonstrated on selected examples of Slovenian historic 
buildings and sites. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Photogrammetry provides reliable methods for producing technical documentation on cultural heritage including buildings, 
monuments and sites. Traditional methods, which are still widely used, have been rapidly replacing with modem methods. Today, it 
is not only a question of a method or technique to use for data acquisition, but presentation and visualization of the results is of great 
importance, too. 
Photogrammetry gives a kind of service to other disciplines and professional people that use technical documentation on monuments, 
which is produced for different reasons. It’s usefulness should be placed at the top of the aims. Photos of a monument are the very 
basic and invaluable source for production of metric documentation. A variety of data and results are produced during 
photogrammetric survey, it is therefore necessary to structure it. Results are produced in different levels of detail, and it is possible to 
integrate data in the existing documentation. 
In this paper, an approach to structured and integrated technical documentation on monuments that was developed at the Geodetic 
Institute of Slovenia in the framework of application national research (financed by Ministry of Science and Technology and 
Ministry of Culture - Cultural Heritage Office, project number L2-0940-0246-01) is presented. Geodetic Institute of Slovenia has 
been intensively implementing modem apporaches for producing metrical documentation of monuments and is the only institution in 
Slovenia that has been active in both developmental and practical work in the field for the last few years. Development and 
researches have been focused on optimization of field measurements, development of effective technological line, production of 3D 
models of buildings and sites and visualization of the models. Examples from some projects that are presented in the paper were 
accomplished in cooperation with Cultural Heritage Office, Institute for Protection of Cultural Heritage in Slovenia, Restoration 
Centre of Slovenia and the DFG Consulting. 
2. LEVELS OF TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION 
Before starting a photogrammetric survey some investigations on the monument must be done first. In addition to inspection of the 
site and preparation for the field work it is advisable to check up if any technical documentation of the surveying object already 
exists. If documentation archives are organized and maintained well, this is a routine task, but in the practice this is not always the 
case. It is very important to collect, analyse and evaluate the existing documentation, and to transform analogue materials into digital 
form (scanning, microfilming, etc.) for further use and protection. 
Photogrammetrists would like to produce very quality and detailed technical documentation, but money available for the task usually 
dictate the scope. On the other hand the quality level of technical documentation that is requested greatly depends on the importance 
of the monument. For the pieces of national importance, the most exacting technical documentation should be produced. Different 
levels of details are therefore produced, not necessarily always by technicians. The very basic documentation are all kind of photos. 
Using 3x3 rules (Waldhaeusl, 2001) conservators can document monuments in simple way just when doing their everyday work in 
the field and thus enlarge the scope of useful technical documentation significantly. The next step is so called preventive survey, 
which was introduced in Slovenia by Ministry of Culture - Cultural Heritage Office in the scope of national project “Measurements”.