OSCONCAD: A model-based CAD System integrated with computer applications

摘要

This paper presents OSCONCAD, an interactive system for integrating CAD and construction related applications to address the problems of design fragmentation and the gap that exists between construction and design processes. It provides a vehicle for storing architectural design information in an integrated construction object-oriented database that can be shared by a range of computer applications. The OSCONCAD model is characterised by several new features. It uses the object-oriented modelling approach to establish standard models for architectural design that comply with Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) for common interpretation of construction design objects and with CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) for distribution of the objects amongst the construction applications. It aims to achieve independence from the display environment by providing a set of Abstract Factory and Abstract Design Classes, which provide abstractions that the design model classes can use to draw and render themselves in any display environments. More importantly, graphical and textual information about the building design components is directly saved as instances in an object-oriented database without passing through the existing CAD databases. To demonstrate the independence from the display environment, two applications using OSCONCAD models are implemented. The first is an interactive AutoCAD application, which creates instances of the OSCONCAD design model and stores them directly in the distributed object database. The second A web-based application using VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language) for remotely interrogating information stored within the integrated database, visualising and manipulating the design components in 3D environment. Also, to demonstrate the feasibility and practicability of the OSCON (Open Systems for Construction) object-oriented product model, three OSCON construction applications that access and share the OSCONCAD building design instances are presented.