Integration of design and construction through shared objects in the CO-CIS project

This paper presents an Integrated Building Project Model (IBPM) which provides the basis on which software applications can share objects and shows how integration is achieved at the conceptual level. It is used to develop a pure object-oriented database server which acts as a central object repository, and facilitates the sharing of objects between multiple applications. The IBPM provided the basis for the development of the COllaborative Construction Integrated System (CO-CIS) based on the principles of client/server computing and utilising dynamic common object sharing in real-time between CAD and  project management packages. The work demonstrates the capabilities of pure object technologies and should encourage industry to adopt the approach and facilitate the development of the common information standards

Information Modelling and Sharing in the CO-CIS Project

Complex information structures are generated and exchanged during the life cycle of large projects. The key to realising improved collaboration amongst the several disciplines involved is in the integration of such structures. Object-orientation has emerged as an appropriate approach for handling the complexity inherent in construction domains. This paper presents a pure object-oriented Integrated Building Project Model (IBPM). The model is a definition of objects and relationships that pertain to the three different construction-related disciplines of architecture, structural engineering and project management. It provides the basis by which software applications can share objects and a means of achieving integration. From the IBPM, the notion of Intelligent Object Classes (IOCs) is introduced, leading to the COllaborative Construction Integrated System (CO-CIS), the development of which is described in terms of its generic conceptual architecture. The exploitation of the architecture in a prototype implementation of the IBPM and IOCs is demonstrated by the generation of construction schedules through the integration of CAD and project management packages.