A System Architecture For Net-Distributed Applications In Civil Engineering
Daniel Beer, Berthold Firmenich, Karl E. Beucke · Proceedings of the Joint CIB W78, W102, ICCCBE, ICCC, and DMUCE International Conference on Computing and Decision Making in Civil and Building Engineering, Montreal, Canada, 14-16 June · 2006
The planning process in civil engineering can be characterized by three iterative phases: the phase of distribution of tasks, the phase of parallel working with cooperation among the planners and the phase of merging the results. Available planning software does only support the second phase and the exchange of data via documents. This paper presents a software design that supports the three phases and all types of cooperation (asynchronous, parallel and reciprocal) in principle and integrates existing engineering applications. The common planning material is abstracted as a set of object versions, element versions and their relationships. Elements extend objects with application independent properties, called features. Subsets on the base of features are calculated for the execution of tasks. Therefore, new versions of elements and objects are derived and copied into the planner's private workspace. Already stored versions remain unchanged and can be referred to. Modifications base on operations that ensure consistency of the versioned model. The system architecture is formally described. Available information technology is analyzed and used for an implementation concept. A pilot that is based on the programming language Java, a version control system and a relational database proves the implementation concept.