Use Of Computer-aided Design Systems Research Articles

Architectural CAD: a ten year assessment of the state of the art

This paper is an assessment of the status and use of computer-aided design systems in architectural practice in the United States. The orientation is not so much towards an assessment of usage in numbers of users as a review of the technology, its potential, its shortcomings and where it is likely to go. The frame of reference is twenty years: a review of ten years into the past and a projection of ten years into the future. On this anniversary of Computer-Aided Design, a view is offered of where the field stood ten years ago, to give a perspective to what has been accomplished. An assessment is also given of where we are today and a scenario of ten years into the future is proposed. This projection is both a prediction, with regard to the evolution of technology, and the definition of a set of achievable goals for the next decade.

CAD and Management of Construction Projects

The increasing interest in computer‐aided design (CAD) has prompted research that is aimed at identifying the opportunities for construction managers and building contractors. It has been found that the use of CAD systems in the U.K. is mainly confined to the production of detailed drawings. Indeed, most of the systems used are 2‐D drafting tools and incapable of supporting the integration of even modest amounts of nongraphical (construction) data. On the other hand, many 3‐D modeling systems have the potential to integrate construction data, although they appear to be almost ignored. The use of 3‐D modeling systems is considered to be the most suitable vehicle for successfully integrating these data. However, this is likely to necessitate the introduction of separate databases, preferably of the relational type. The use of 3‐D modeling systems in assessing the construction implications of outline designs also presents interesting possibilities and is discussed.