Conceptual modeling and application integration in CAD: the essential elements

A research focus in design research has been the exchange of information between different participants in the design process. While information system automation has occurred in various areas, known as islands of informafion, significant software integration has yet to emerge. A current belief among researchers in this area is that support for information sharing will require shared resources, and more specifically, shared descriptions of the information to be exchanged. If buildings are viewed as a product, the notion of a product and process modelling system ought to support the electronic exchange of information between various design process participants. While significant research has been done, no consensus has emerged as to a satisfactory solution to design information exchange. Many important contributions have been discovered, however, no overall strategy has emerged that embraces both the research issues as well as the practical issues surrounding information exchange. To address the above issues in a specific context, a series of experiments were conducted utilizing a prototype modelling framework that supports product modelling via the Object Model Language (Om). The results of these experiments along with a literature survey allowed for a comprehensive set of product/process modelling requirements. The resulting requirements were then formalized into a product /process modelling environment that includes a modelling language called SPROUT (supported by a compiler) and an associated software architecture that can be targeted toward many different hardware and software platforms. A particularly unique capability supported in this environment is formal support for integrating existing software systems. Given a schematic description in SPROUT, a formal specification can be used to generate computer programs that provably map data to and from the application program