# Gaussian Building Mesh (GBM): Extract a Building's 3D Mesh with Google Earth and Gaussian Splatting

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.00625 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.00625/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 33 of its 62 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 31 Dec 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [Grounding DINO: Marrying DINO with Grounded Pre-Training for Open-Set Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.05499/) (2023)
- [SAM 2: Segment Anything in Images and Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00714/) (2024)
- [Mip-NeRF 360: Unbounded Anti-Aliased Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12077/) (2021)
- [Mip-NeRF: A Multiscale Representation for Anti-Aliasing Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.13415/) (2021)
- [NeuS: Learning Neural Implicit Surfaces by Volume Rendering for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10689/) (2021)
- [2D Gaussian Splatting for Geometrically Accurate Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17888/) (2024)
- [Grounded SAM: Assembling Open-World Models for Diverse Visual Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.14159/) (2024)
- [Block-NeRF: Scalable Large Scene Neural View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.05263/) (2022)
- [Open3D: A Modern Library for 3D Data Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.09847/) (2018)
- [UNISURF: Unifying Neural Implicit Surfaces and Radiance Fields for Multi-View Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10078/) (2021)
- [SuGaR: Surface-Aligned Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Mesh Reconstruction and High-Quality Mesh Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12775/) (2023)
- [NeuS2: Fast Learning of Neural Implicit Surfaces for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.05231/) (2022)
- [Urban Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.14643/) (2021)
- [Gaussian Opacity Fields: Efficient Adaptive Surface Reconstruction in Unbounded Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.10772/) (2024)
- [BungeeNeRF: Progressive Neural Radiance Field for Extreme Multi-scale Scene Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05504/) (2021)
- [A Survey on 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.03890/) (2024)
- [Taming 3DGS: High-Quality Radiance Fields with Limited Resources](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.15643/) (2024)
- [GaussianPro: 3D Gaussian Splatting with Progressive Propagation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14650/) (2024)
- [NeRF: Neural Radiance Field in 3D Vision: A Comprehensive Review (Updated Post-Gaussian Splatting)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.00379/) (2022)
- [HUGS: Holistic Urban 3D Scene Understanding via Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.12722/) (2024)
- [Pixel-GS: Density Control with Pixel-aware Gradient for 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.15530/) (2024)
- [GS2Mesh: Surface Reconstruction from Gaussian Splatting via Novel Stereo Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.01810/) (2024)
- [Sat-NeRF: Learning Multi-View Satellite Photogrammetry With Transient Objects and Shadow Modeling Using RPC Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.08896/) (2022)
- [Shadow Neural Radiance Fields for Multi-view Satellite Photogrammetry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09877/) (2021)
- [Trim 3D Gaussian Splatting for Accurate Geometry Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07499/) (2024)
- [AtomGS: Atomizing Gaussian Splatting for High-Fidelity Radiance Field](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.12369/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Instructor-Worker Large Language Model System for Policy Recommendation: a Case Study on Air Quality Analysis of the January 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.00566/) (2025)
- [GS4Buildings: Prior-Guided Gaussian Splatting for 3D Building Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.07355/) (2025)
- [Digital Twin Buildings: 3D Modeling, GIS Integration, and Visual Descriptions Using Gaussian Splatting, ChatGPT/Deepseek, and Google Maps Platform](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.05769/) (2025)
- [Rapid Forest Fuel Load Estimation via Virtual Remote Sensing and Metric-Scale Feed-Forward 3D Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.10789/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recently released open-source pre-trained foundational image segmentation and object detection models (SAM2+GroundingDINO) allow for geometrically consistent segmentation of objects of interest in multi-view 2D images. Users can use text-based or click-based prompts to segment objects of interest without requiring labeled training datasets. Gaussian Splatting allows for the learning of the 3D representation of a scene's geometry and radiance based on 2D images. Combining Google Earth Studio, SAM2+GroundingDINO, 2D Gaussian Splatting, and our improvements in mask refinement based on morphological operations and contour simplification, we created a pipeline to extract the 3D mesh of any building based on its name, address, or geographic coordinates.