Management of complex structural engineering objects in a relational framework

Abstract

To structure the development of an integrated building design environment, the global representation of the design data may best be organized in terms of hierarchies of objects. In structural engineering design we deal with large sets of independent but interrelated objects. These objects are specified by data. For an engineering design data base the system must be able to model the objects composing the design as well as to manage effectively the design data. The data base management system therefore needs to have some knowledge of the intended use of the data, and must provide an abstraction mechanism to represent and manipulate objects. Much recent research in engineering data bases focuses on object management for specific tasks but gives little attention to the shareability of the underlying information. This paper describes an architecture for the management of complex engineering objects in a sharable, relational framework. Potential application of this approach to object management for structural engineering analysis and design is discussed.