Versioned objects as a basis for engineering cooperation

Abstract

Projects in civil and building engineering are to a large degree dependent upon an effective communication and cooperation between separate engineering teams. Traditionally, this is managed on the basis of Technical Documents. Advances in hardware and software technologies have made it possible to reconsider this approach towards a digital model-based environment in computer networks. So far, concepts developed for model-based approaches in construction projects have had very limited success in construction industry. This is believed to be due to a missing focus on the specific needs and requirements of the construction industry. It is not a software problem but rather a problem of process orientation in construction projects. Therefore, specific care was taken to take into account process requirements in the construction industry. Considering technological advances and new developments in software and hardware, a proposal is made for a versioned object model for engineering cooperation. The approach is based upon persistent identification of information in the scope of a project, managed interdependencies between information, versioning of information and a central repository interconnected via a network with local workspaces. An implementation concept for the solution proposed is developed and verified for a specific engineering application. The open source project CADEMIA serves as an ideal basis for these purposes. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.