Retrieval method for technical documents using logical inverted file

Abstract

Architects and construction engineers use a wide variety of technical documents including the building codes and their in-house specifications. It is a laborious process, or is almost impossible, to search completely all the relevant documents for their projects. This report proposes a new methodology to retrieve technical documents using an index called the logical inverted file. In this method, a technical document is written as a document tree, the nodes of which have conditions as well as technical contents. The prototype scans a building information model and searches the document nodes of the conditions that the model satisfies.