Integrating CAD with Construction‐Schedule Generation

Abstract

Generating and maintaining construction schedules from architectural drawings is vital to design and construction professionals for constructability review and project planning. Automating these tasks requires combining a computer‐aided design (CAD) system with knowledge‐based programming and data‐base techniques. A prototype system—called Builder—is presented for the domain of routine interior design and construction. The principal features of Builder are: (1) Its use of a semantic network of objects as a common language for representing and communicating an architecture‐engineering‐construction (AEC) problem state; and (2) a modular and practical approach to knowledge‐based construction planning, where each building‐component data type contains the rules and procedures required to design and schedule it. Integration may well be the key to the effective use of computer technology in the construction industry. It depends on the compatibility of computer systems across traditional professional boundaries. Compatibility, or the ability to communicate shared representations, is the foundation of systems that facilitate cooperative problem solving. Builder is an initial attempt at the development of a representation language for cooperative engineering design and construction.