LIVERMORE — Peter Washburn Kelsey’s eyes had welled up three times since he began work Monday with a team to create a photo-realistic, 3-D-accurate computer model of his ancesters’ homestead.

Kelsey, a strategic projects executive for software company Autodesk, is the great-great-great-grandson of Cadwallader C. Washburn. Cadwallader was born in 1818 to Israel and Martha Washburn at the family homestead, now known as the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center.

Kelsey said that on Tuesday night he sat in a chair in the library surrounded by his family.

“I’ve been all over the world doing this and this is the first point-cloud I’ve seen with a soul,” he said. “This is my ancestors’ home. When you are scanning all these rooms, they are everywhere.”

They are on the walls in paintings, in the displayed statues and in the clothing they wore.

“As I am working, I’m hoping they’re pleased,” he said. “We are working really hard to keep this place intact.”

Kelsey worked with Terry Bennett, a senior industry manager for Autodesk, and David Heath, a laser scanning expert with Bath Iron Works, to make a “reality capture” comprehensive survey of Norlands using a laser scanner, also known as LiDAR, and drone-based photo-mapping technology. The computer model and aerial video will be used by Norlands for historic preservation, operations and maintenance, public outreach and education.

Norlands is a nonprofit living museum, dedicated to the preservation of 19th-century rural Maine heritage and the history of the Washburn family.

Autodesk is headquartered in California and is a global leader in 3-D design, engineering and entertainment software, Kelsey said. The company created the AutoCad software program.

Kelsey gave a presentation of the project and data Wednesday at the Meeting House at Norlands.

The team created a virtual tour of Norlands’ properties, except the schoolhouse, because of weather conditions.

Kelsey showed the aerial still photos that were taken using a drone. He also showed the 3-D survey-grade computer model that allowed them to see through the walls to the framework. They also saw aerial video taken of the grounds and structures.

Some of the information will be used on Norlands’ website.

Kelsey demonstrated how he could home in and see the precise dimensions of certain areas, including the roof and the fascia boards on the mansion’s porch.

The data “is extremely accurate,” he said, and can be repurposed in many ways.

The team also made a digital record of the post-and-beam framework of the barn. The barn and farmer’s cottage were destroyed in a fire in April 2008. The cottage was rebuilt and opened in 2011.

Norlands launched a campaign in 2013 to raise the remaining $250,000 of the $500,000 needed to complete the barn, which is being rebuilt. The roof rafters will go on next. Norlands had enough for the framework but must raise another $180,000 to complete the interior and exterior, Norlands Director Sheri Leahan said.

As Kelsey was giving the presentation, Heath came in and said he had scanned all of the rooms in the mansion.

“This is a perfect record of the existing condition in late July 2015,” Kelsey said.

  dperry@sunmediagroup.net

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