AUTOMATING COMMUNICATION IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

Currently building companies are focusing many development efforts on improving information transformation processes. However, daily-life pr actice is characterized by islands of information. Budding information normally resides in diverse and distinct sources, such as the heads o f experienced engineers, literature, building codes, computer applicat ions, drawings, and databases. Connecting these islands, e.g., by auto mating communication, is a major challenge. This paper presents an app roach to open, high-level, computer-interpretable communication betwee n project participants. ''Open'' means independent of the participants and their computer systems, ''high-level'' means that no human interp retation is required for handling information and knowledge, and ''com puter-interpretable'' means that no human interaction is needed for da ta transfer. The (STEP) product-modeling approach provides a basis for this kind of communication. The writers extended this approach to pro ject modeling and more scope layers. They applied their approach to th e integration of design and construction of precast concrete structure s.