SEED-Config: a tool for conceptual structural design in a collaborative building design environment

Abstract

SEED-Config is a design environment intended to assist structural designers in collaboratively exploring and extending the design buildings. Its purpose is to help designers in rapidly synthesizing alternative structural design solutions at the conceptual level to the point where the structural concept is supportive of the overall design and possible conflicts are explored and resolved. The SEED-Config prototype consists of four subsystems. The Design Information Repository is built upon an information model that exploits the hierarchical nature of building descriptions to represent design information. It can save an overall design or parts of a design to a case library, thus supporting case-based reasoning. The Design Knowledge Manager allows for the browsing, editing, selecting and applying of technology nodes which encapsulate structural design knowledge. The Classification Reference Manager allows for the definition, management, inference and querying of classifications which are used to classify and index design solutions as they are generated. The Geometric Modeler reasons about topology and geometry.