Object‐Oriented Finite Element and Graphics Data‐Translation Facility

Abstract

Object‐oriented approaches have emerged as one of the most promising paradigms for developing software. The approach has gained popularity in a number of fields in computer science, such as programming languages, data bases, artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, office automation, and computer‐aided design (CAD). Recently, object‐oriented approaches have been applied to develop integrated computer‐aided civil engineering systems. This paper describes our experience developing software using an object‐oriented approach to integrate finite element and graphics application programs, which are to become parts of an integrated civil engineering system. The short‐term objective of the project is to develop a general‐purpose data‐translation facility for finite element and graphics‐based programs. The long‐term objective of the project is to investigate the effectiveness and viability of object‐oriented approaches to integrate programs from various activities in engineering of a constructed facility. Our experiences have resulted in several practical ideas and revealed some points that are difficult to comprehend without actually going through the entire software development process.