Application of knowledge-based system techniques to standards representation and usage

Abstract

Most design activity is performed subject to the satisfaction of some collection of standardized performance or functional requirements, usually called design standards or codes. Designers of buildings must satisfy several different building codes and standards. Computer-aided engineering systems are most commonly developed by interpreting and reforming design standard requirements into assignment statements and then hard-coding them into the system. When the standard changes, the program is invalidated. This paper discusses a design standard usage strategy in which objects are designed by applying three types of knowledge: the design standard, which contains knowledge about limitations of behaviour; “textbook” knowledge of objects and relationships not usually found, but referred to, in design standards; and design expertise for selecting an appropriate focus of behaviour. Because the design focusing knowledge is based on general structural behaviour, not on specific expressions of that behaviour found in standards, it can be used to focus design tasks for a wider range of design standards. Also, because the standards are represented as knowledge sources themselves, they can be updated without causing invalidation of the rest of the design system.