Hi,
[quote user="quasi_modo"]Does anyone have an idea how to get this done?[/quote]
Under your quite simple and clear question very complex and not fully solved digital cartography problem is hidden :-(
Usually this problem is called "Building simplification" and is a part of Cartography Generalization, but more or less similar topics can be found in many "computer graphics applied" areas.
There is no one correct way how to simplify the shape, so it's good to specify as much as possible conditions and requirements to limit number of candidates. The condition can be e.g. the shape area is constant or outer shape/plan shoud be maintained etc. Also if you know typical shape, it can help a lot: Convex Hull mentioned by Jon works fine for the shape you posted, but will not work if the shape will be like "L".
There are some links you can study to obtain overal ideas about this topic:
- Some pictures found by Google, can be often used as links to interesting pages.
- Automated building simpli cation using a recursive approach elaboration (I know its author personally ;-)
- OPTIMAL SIMPLIFICATION OF BUILDING GROUND PLANS elaboration, another view and ideas about the same topic
And you can find many more on Internet, because it's very common problem.
And I apologize for making simple question more complex, it's just because I met this problem several times in the past and always it was a pain.
With regards,
Jan