The architecture-engineering-construction industry is highly fragmented, both vertically (between project phases, e.g., planning, design, and construction) and horizontally (between specialists at a given project phase, e.g., design). The industry needs an integrated computing environment that will support concurrent design with fast data exchange and powerful change management capabilities. The long-term potential benefits are improved designs, reduced construction time, fewer design errors and omissions, minimization of costly rework, and better life-cycle facility management. The key contributions of this research project are methods to (1) translate and communicate project data dynamically, overcoming both logical barriers (differing views of overlapping data) and physical barriers (data distribution); and (2) detect, analyze, and manage changes efficiently during concurrent design processes. These contributions are demonstrated in prototype software that integrates systems for CAD, drafting, analysis, and simulation along with relational and object-oriented databases. The first software component is an integrated set of object-oriented, multi-machine utilities to provide fast, flexible, intelligent data translation and transfer. The second component is a set of constraint handling and change management utilities that will support declarative definition of data dependencies, constraints, and conflict resolution strategies. The project will take advantage of industry links through Stanford University's Center for Integrated Facility Engineering to develop a test bed of industrial-strength databases to demonstrate the software.
