In 1990, I joined Dassault Systemes and Thibaud Colas was already designing the Tower with CATIA V3.In fact the design was done in 1989.
The level of detail was very good but the braces (the trellis) were not detailed and the floors were not fully designed. You can find the full image of the 1989 Design here.
All this time ,I wanted to rebuild the Eiffel Tower with CATIA V5 but I could not get any valid Blue-Prints that I could use. In 2005, I contacted the Eiffel Tower Company and I tried to propose them a collaboration if they could deliver the original Blue-Prints.
They never responded to my request.
In late 2005 , I found on the internet some scans of the Original Planches (Drawings in French) and I managed to design my first 3D Wire frame Eiffel Tower. But without details , the effort was useless and I have never used this 3d Model. It is still very accurate to the original and most of the global Bracing is crafted. But I needed the exact drawings to be able to design entirely the Tower...
But in late 2006, I was traveling to Paris when I came across a commercial for a new Edition of the Original Planches of Mr. Eiffel . The book was named "La Tour de 300 metres" ,the tower of 300 Meters from Editor TASCHEN. The finesse of the book and the large Blue-Prints were finally making possible the total reconstruction. Check the Historical Drawings slideshow to see the quality of the drawings.
On December 27th ( I got the book for Christmas), I started to plunge into the design...