We propose an approach for automatic generation of building models by assembling a
set of boxes using a Manhattan-world assumption. The method first aligns the point
cloud with a per-building local coordinate system, and then ts axis-aligned planes to
the point cloud through an iterative regularization process. The refined planes partition
the space of the data into a series of compact cubic cells (candidate boxes) spanning the
entire 3D space of the input data. We then choose to approximate the target building
by the assembly of a subset of these candidate boxes using a binary linear programming
formulation. The objective function is designed to maximize the point cloud coverage
and the compactness of the final model. Finally, all selected boxes are merged into
a lightweight polygonal mesh model, which is suitable for interactive visualization of
large scale urban scenes. Experimental results and a comparison with state-of-the-art
methods demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.