  We present detailed three-dimensional modelling of the stellar luminosity
distribution for the disks of 31 relatively nearby (<= 110 Mpc) edge-on spiral
galaxies. In contrast to most of the standard methods available in the
literature we take into account the full three-dimensional information of the
disk. We minimize the difference between the observed 2D-image and an image of
our 3D-disk model integrated along the line of sight. Thereby we specify the
inclination, the fitting function for the z-distribution of the disk, and the
best values for the structural parameters such as scalelength, scaleheight,
central surface brightness, and a disk cut-off radius. From a comparison of two
independently developed methods we conclude, that the discrepancies e.g. for
the scaleheights and scalelengths are of the order of ~10%. These differences
are not due to the individual method itself, but rather to the selected fitting
region, which masks the bulge component, the dust lane, or present foreground
stars. Other serious limitations are small but appreciable intrinsic deviations
of real disks compared to the simple input model. In this paper we describe the
methods and present contour plots as well as radial profiles for all galaxies
without previously published surface photometry. Resulting parameters are given
for the complete sample.
