Cumincad : CUMINCAD Papers : Search Results

CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
supported by the sibling associations ACADIA, CAADRIA, eCAADe, SIGraDi, ASCAAD and CAAD futures

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_id	0a6e
authors	Walters, Roger
year	1986
title	CAAD: Shorter-term Gains; Longerterm Costs?
source	Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [CAAD Futures Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-408-05300-3] Delft (The Netherlands), 18-19 September 1985, pp. 185-196
summary	Assessment of CAAD systems in use is complex: it needs careful qualifications and is often contradictory. It is suggested that little progress has been made in making sense of the impacts of computing on design and design organizations. Impacts are more diverse and complicated than has been assumed. Assessments tend to be either overtly optimistic or pessimistic, yet the need is to be realistic. Moreover, impacts have been the subject of speculation and marketing rather than systematic study. Carefully documented case studies of projects or longitudinal studies of organizational impacts remain the exception. This chapter draws upon recorded user experience reported elsewhere (Walters, 1983)' and presents an assessment of the performance in use of current production systems. It presents an end-user view and also identifies a number of outstanding design research topics It is suggested that different systems in different organizations in different settings will give rise to new impacts. A wide variety of outcomes is possible. It seems unlikely that any simple set of relationships can account for all the data that inquiry reveals. The task becomes one of identifying variables that lead to differential outcomes, as the same cause may lead to different effects (Attewell and Rule, 1984). This becomes a long-term task. Each optimistic impact may be countered by some other more pessimistic impact. Moreover, the changes brought about on design by computing are significant because both beneficial and non- beneficial impacts are present together. Impacts are held in a dynamic balance that is subject to constant evolution. This viewpoint accounts for otherwise conflicting conclusions. It is unlikely that the full range of impacts is yet known, and a wide range of impacts and outcomes already need to be taken into account. It seems that CAD alone cannot either guarantee improved design or that it inevitably leads to some diminished role for the designer. CAD can lead to either possible outcome, depending upon the particular combination of impacts present. Careful matching of systems to design organization and work environment is therefore needed. The design management role becomes crucial.
series	CAAD Futures
last changed	1999/04/03 17:58

_id	644f
authors	Bijl, Aart
year	1986
title	Designing with Words and Pictures in a Logic Modelling Environment
source	Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [CAAD Futures Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-408-05300-3] Delft (The Netherlands), 18-19 September 1985, pp. 128-145
summary	At EdCAAD we are interested in design as something people do. Designed artefacts, the products of designing, are interesting only in so far as they tell us something about design. An extreme expression of this position is to say that the world of design is the thoughts in the heads of designers, plus the skills of designers in externalizing their thoughts; design artifacts, once perceived and accepted in the worlds of other people, are no longer part of the world of design. We can describe design, briefly, as a process of synthesis. Design has to achieve a fusion between parts to create new parts, so that the products are recognized, as having a right and proper place in the world of people. Parts should be understood as referring to anything - physical objects, abstract ideas, aspirations. These parts occur in some design environment from which parts are extracted, designed upon and results replaced; in the example of buildings, the environment is people and results have to be judged by reference to that environment. It is characteristic of design that both the process and the product are not subject to explicit and complete criteria. This view of design differs sharply from the more orthodox understanding of scientific and technological endeavours which rely predominantly on a process of analysis. In the latter case, the approach is to decompose a problem into parts until individual parts are recognized as being amenable to known operations and results are reassembled into a solution. This process has a peripheral role in design when evaluating selected aspects of tentative design proposals, but the absence of well-defined and widely recognized criteria for design excludes it from the main stream of analytical developments.
series	CAAD Futures
last changed	2003/11/21 15:16

_id	c5af
authors	Bobrow, Daniel G. and Stefik, Mark J.
year	1986
title	Perspective on Artificial Intelligence Programming
source	Science. February, 1986. vol. 231: pp. 951-956
summary	Programming systems for artificial intelligence application use specialized languages, environments, and knowledge-based tools to reduce the complexity of the programming task. Language style based on procedure, objects logic rules, and constraints reflect different models for organizing programs and facilitate program evaluation and understandability. To make programming easier, multiple styles can be integrated as sublanguages in programming environment. Programming environments provide tools that analyze programs and create informative displays of their structure. Programs can be modified by direct interaction with these displays. These tools and languages are helping computer scientists to regain a sense of control over systems that have become increasingly complex
keywords	programming, AI
series	CADline
last changed	2003/06/02 13:58

_id	c52d
authors	Gero, John S.
year	1986
title	An Overview of Knowledge Engineering and its Relevance to CAAD
source	Guildford: Butterworth, 1986. pp. 107-119
summary	This paper introduces the concepts of knowledge engineering, a subset of artificial intelligence. It describes means of representing and manipulating non-numeric design knowledge using symbolic inference mechanisms. It then describes a subset of knowledge engineering--expert systems. Knowledge- based systems in computer-aided architectural design are presented as a new direction for CAAD which expands the role of the computer in design. Expert systems within a CAAD environment are discussed
keywords	AI, knowledge base, design, architecture, CAD, representation, expert systems
series	CADline
email
last changed	2003/06/02 13:58

_id	896b
authors	Haider, Jawaid
year	1986
title	A Conceptual Framework for Communication -Instruction in Architectural Design
source	Pennsylvania State University
summary	Existing design models, it is generally acknowledged, are inadequate to deal with the complexity of contemporary situations; and an assessment of self-conscious design manifests a slow development in the power and scope of conceptualizing. The quality of knowledge and conceptual tools available to the designer largely determine his ability to conceive and accomplish; conversely, the limitations of method are reflected in design solutions. Some emerging social problem-solving paradigms, which seek to construct a cognitive psychology of problem solving, have a direct relevance to architectural design. Notwithstanding the traditional criticism and scepticism, problem solving is predicated by task environment and problem space as these have a significant impact on design synthesis. Despite a rigorous search for theoretical perspectives and methods, the concern for the quality of the physical environment persists unabated. Historically, architecture has depended on other disciplines for its theoretical insight; but the application of borrowed theories without a viable framework for translation has often resulted in misinterpretation. Aggravating the problem is the art-science controversy which has consequences for architectural practice and education. What is required is a unified approach encompassing the scientific and artistic modes of inquiry. But a unified perspective, involving vast and disparate areas of human knowledge, demands a conceptual framework for integrative learning. The proposed model of this study provides such a framework and calls for a re-examination of the conventional boundaries of design disciplines. It advocates an interdisciplinary approach and recognizes the design process as inherently a learning process; this shifts the emphasis from product to process and allows students to plan and assess their own design/learning experience. While the study focuses on substantive issues, it identifies a strategy for integrative learning applicable within the existing context of design education. Despite its untested nature, the proposed model can become a vehicle for stimulating coordination of all facets of human knowledge and experience toward creative design synthesis. It inculcates a sense of critical assessment of generative ideas by presenting a conceptually clearer picture of the design process to elicit a response to and a better understanding of the task environment of architecture.
series	thesis:PhD
email
last changed	2003/02/12 22:37

_id	7f64
authors	Harfmann, A.C., Swerdloff, L.M. and Kalay, Y.E.
year	1986
title	The Terminal Crit
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1986.079
source	ACADIA Workshop ‘86 Proceedings - Houston (Texas - USA) 24-26 October 1986, pp. 79-87
summary	Numerous attempts have been made to develop formal design methods with -the purpose of increasing the predictability, consistency and dissemination of the design process and improving the quality of the objects produced. The ill- structured nature of design, and the perception of design activities as intuitive and experience dependent have frustrated many of the efforts to structure these process. The growing complexity of the built environment and advances in technology have led to a more rigorous effort to understand and externalize creative activities. Computer aided design tools have recently been playing an important role in the evolution of the design process as a rationally defined activity. The use of- computers for drafting, analysis, and 2 or 3 dimensional modeling is rapidly becoming an accepted method in many design schools and practitioners. A next logical step in the externalization of the design process is to endow the computer with the ability to manipulate and critique parts of the design. Under this scenario, the "terminal crit" is redefined to mean critiques that are carried out by both the designer and the computer. The paper presents the rationalization of the design process as a continuum into which CAD has been introduced. The effects of computers on the design process are studied through a specific incorporation of CAD tools into a conventional design studio, and a research project intended to advance the role of CAD in design.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:49

_id	5509
authors	Koutamanis, Alexandros
year	1990
title	Development of a computerized handbook of architectural plans
source	Delft University of Technology
summary	The dissertation investigates an approach to the development of visual / spatial computer representations for architectural purposes through the development of the computerized handbook of architectural plans (chap), a knowledge-based computer system capable of recognizing the metric properties of architectural plans. This investigation can be summarized as an introduction of computer vision to the computerization of architectural representations: chap represents an attempt to automate recognition of the most essential among conventional architectural drawings, floor plans. The system accepts as input digitized images of architectural plans and recognizes their spatial primitives (locations) and their spatial articulation on a variety of abstraction levels. The final output of chap is a description of the plan in terms of the grouping formations detected in its spatial articulation. The overall structure of the description is based on an analysis of its conformity to the formal rules of its “stylistic” context (which in the initial version of chap is classical architecture). Chapter 1 suggests that the poor performance of computerized architectural drawing and design systems is among others evidence of the necessity to computerize visual / spatial architectural representations. A recognition system such as chap offers comprehensive means for the investigation of a methodology for the development and use of such representations. Chapter 2 describes a fundamental task of chap: recognition of the position and shape of locations, the atomic parts of the description of an architectural plan in chap. This operation represents the final and most significant part of the first stage in processing an image input in machine environment. Chapter 3 moves to the next significant problem, recognition of the spatial arrangement of locations in an architectural plan, that is, recognition of grouping relationships that determine the subdivision of a plan into parts. In the absence of systematic and exhaustive typologic studies of classical architecture that would allow us to define a repertory of the location group types possible in classical architectural plans, Chapter 3 follows a bottom-up approach based on grouping relationships derived from elementary architectural knowledge and formalized with assistance from Gestalt theory and its antecedents. The grouping process described in Chapter 3 corresponds both in purpose and in structure to the derivation of a description of an image in computer vision [Marr 1982]. Chapter 4 investigates the well-formedness of the description of a classical architectural plan in an analytical manner: each relevant level (or sublevel) of the classical canon according to Tzonis & Lefaivre [1986] is transformed into a single group of criteria of well-formedness which is investigated independently. The hierarchical structure of the classical canon determines the coordination of these criteria into a sequence of cognitive filters which progressively analyses the correspondence of the descriptions derived as in Chapter 3 to the constraints of the canon. The methodology and techniques presented in the dissertation are primarily considered with respect to chap, a specific recognition system. The resulting specification of chap gives a measure of the use of such a system within the context of a computerized collection of architectural precedents and also presents several extensions to other areas of architecture. Although these extensions are not considered as verifiable claims, Chapter 5 describes some of their implications, including on the role of architectural drawing in computerized design systems, on architectural typologies, and on the nature and structure of generative systems in architecture.
series	thesis:PhD
email
last changed	2003/02/12 22:37

_id	c7e9
authors	Maver, T.W.
year	2002
title	Predicting the Past, Remembering the Future
source	SIGraDi 2002 - [Proceedings of the 6th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] Caracas (Venezuela) 27-29 november 2002, pp. 2-3
summary	Charlas Magistrales 2There never has been such an exciting moment in time in the extraordinary 30 year history of our subject area, as NOW,when the philosophical theoretical and practical issues of virtuality are taking centre stage.The PastThere have, of course, been other defining moments during these exciting 30 years:• the first algorithms for generating building layouts (circa 1965).• the first use of Computer graphics for building appraisal (circa 1966).• the first integrated package for building performance appraisal (circa 1972).• the first computer generated perspective drawings (circa 1973).• the first robust drafting systems (circa 1975).• the first dynamic energy models (circa 1982).• the first photorealistic colour imaging (circa 1986).• the first animations (circa 1988)• the first multimedia systems (circa 1995), and• the first convincing demonstrations of virtual reality (circa 1996).Whereas the CAAD community has been hugely inventive in the development of ICT applications to building design, it hasbeen woefully remiss in its attempts to evaluate the contribution of those developments to the quality of the built environmentor to the efficiency of the design process. In the absence of any real evidence, one can only conjecture regarding the realbenefits which fall, it is suggested, under the following headings:• Verisimilitude: The extraordinary quality of still and animated images of the formal qualities of the interiors and exteriorsof individual buildings and of whole neighborhoods must surely give great comfort to practitioners and their clients thatwhat is intended, formally, is what will be delivered, i.e. WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get.• Sustainability: The power of «first-principle» models of the dynamic energetic behaviour of buildings in response tochanging diurnal and seasonal conditions has the potential to save millions of dollars and dramatically to reduce thedamaging environmental pollution created by badly designed and managed buildings.• Productivity: CAD is now a multi-billion dollar business which offers design decision support systems which operate,effectively, across continents, time-zones, professions and companies.• Communication: Multi-media technology - cheap to deliver but high in value - is changing the way in which we canexplain and understand the past and, envisage and anticipate the future; virtual past and virtual future!MacromyopiaThe late John Lansdown offered the view, in his wonderfully prophetic way, that ...”the future will be just like the past, onlymore so...”So what can we expect the extraordinary trajectory of our subject area to be?To have any chance of being accurate we have to have an understanding of the phenomenon of macromyopia: thephenomenon exhibitted by society of greatly exaggerating the immediate short-term impact of new technologies (particularlythe information technologies) but, more importantly, seriously underestimating their sustained long-term impacts - socially,economically and intellectually . Examples of flawed predictions regarding the the future application of information technologiesinclude:• The British Government in 1880 declined to support the idea of a national telephonic system, backed by the argumentthat there were sufficient small boys in the countryside to run with messages.• Alexander Bell was modest enough to say that: «I am not boasting or exaggerating but I believe, one day, there will bea telephone in every American city».• Tom Watson, in 1943 said: «I think there is a world market for about 5 computers».• In 1977, Ken Olssop of Digital said: «There is no reason for any individuals to have a computer in their home».The FutureJust as the ascent of woman/man-kind can be attributed to her/his capacity to discover amplifiers of the modest humancapability, so we shall discover how best to exploit our most important amplifier - that of the intellect. The more we know themore we can figure; the more we can figure the more we understand; the more we understand the more we can appraise;the more we can appraise the more we can decide; the more we can decide the more we can act; the more we can act themore we can shape; and the more we can shape, the better the chance that we can leave for future generations a trulysustainable built environment which is fit-for-purpose, cost-beneficial, environmentally friendly and culturally significactCentral to this aspiration will be our understanding of the relationship between real and virtual worlds and how to moveeffortlessly between them. We need to be able to design, from within the virtual world, environments which may be real ormay remain virtual or, perhaps, be part real and part virtual.What is certain is that the next 30 years will be every bit as exciting and challenging as the first 30 years.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:55

_id	20a8
authors	Ruffle, Simon
year	1986
title	How Can CAD Provide for the Changing Role of the Architect?
source	Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [CAAD Futures Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-408-05300-3] Delft (The Netherlands), 18-19 September 1985, pp. 197-199
summary	At the RIBA Conference of 1981 entitled 'New Opportunities', and more recently at the 1984 ACA Annual Conference on 'Architects in Competition' there has been talk of marketing, new areas of practice, recapturing areas of practice lost to other professions, more accountability to client and public 'the decline of the mystique of the professional'. It is these issues, rather than technical advances in software and hardware, that will be the prime movers in getting computers into widespread practice in the future. In this chapter we will examine how changing attitudes in the profession might affect three practical issues in computing with which the author has been preoccupied in the past year. We will conclude by considering how, in future, early design stage computing may need to be linked to architectural theory, and, as this is a conference where we are encouraged to be outspoken, we will raise the issue of a computer-based theory of architecture.
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2003/05/16 20:58

_id	ed51
authors	Bergeron, Philippe
year	1986
title	A General Version of Crow's Shadow Volumes
source	IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications September, 1986. vol. 6: pp. 17-28 : col. ill. includes bibliography.
summary	In 1977 Frank Crow introduced a new class of algorithms for the generation of shadows. His technique, based on the concept of shadow volumes, assumes a polygonal database and a constrained environment. For example, polyhedrons must be closed, and polygons must be planar. This article presents a new version of Crow's algorithm, developed at the Universite de Montreal, which attempts a less constrained environment. The method has allowed the handling of both open and closed models and nonplanar polygons with the viewpoint anywhere, including any shadow volume. It does not, however, sacrifice the essential features of Crow's original version: penetration between polygons is allowed, and any number of light sources can be defined anywhere in 3D space, including the view volume and any shadow volume. The method has been used successfully in the film Tony de Peltrie and is easily incorporated into an existing scan-line, hidden-surface algorithm
keywords	algorithms, shadowing, polygons, computer graphics
series	CADline
last changed	1999/02/12 15:07

_id	a7de
authors	Bic, Lubomir and Jonathan P. Gilbert
year	1986
title	Learning from AI : New Trends in Database Technology
source	IEEE Computer. March, 1986. vol. 19: pp. 44-54. includes bibliography
summary	With the steadily increasing demand for user-oriented systems, new trends in database technology have evolved outside of the scope of the traditional data models. The authors are concentrated in this article on two closely related efforts: The incorporation of more semantic modeling capabilities into database models, and the development of better user environment, which include user friendly interfaces and support different user views of the content and organization of the data
keywords	AI, user interface, database, relational database
series	CADline
last changed	1999/02/12 15:07

_id	e43b
authors	Blasi, D. and Scudo, G.
year	1986
title	Experience of Output Visualisation in Thermal Performance Analysis and Design.
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1986.186
source	Teaching and Research Experience with CAAD [4th eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Rome (Italy) 11-13 September 1986, pp. 186-191
summary	GKS didactic application in output visualisation of thermal behaviour simulation in building analysis and design. Energy analysis is performed by BEETA (Built Environment Energy Test and Analysis) code. It is a numerical simulation code which allows to simulate the building multizone thermal behaviour with different passive devices (Direct Gain, Greenhouse, Solar Chimney, Trompe, Convective and Radiative Cooling etc.). The code is based on thermal network theory and methods; the set of thermal equation is normally solved every hour or less by the coefficient matrix inversion method. An interactive loop is provide for dealing with non- linear thermal conductance problems with continuous or step variation (i.e. air mixing through an opening between two spaces, Trompe wall convective loop, etc.) The code allows to take into account urban obstructions and shading devices.
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 07:52

_id	2eb1
authors	Bridges, Alan H.
year	1986
title	Alternative Approaches Towards the Teaching of Computer Aided Architectural Design
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1986.331
source	Teaching and Research Experience with CAAD [4th eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Rome (Italy) 11-13 September 1986, pp. 331-340
summary	The problems of architectural education in general and CAD education in particular are discussed. The paper suggests that the computing requirements of architectural practice are different to those of architectural education and that much of the software used in schools of architecture is not used in an educationally structured way. A number of proposals for the educational use of computers are made, together with recommendations for a common computing environment.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	f5db
authors	Brooks, F.P.
year	1986
title	Walkthrough - A Dynamic Graphics System for Simulating Virtual Buildings
source	Proceedings 1986 Workshop on Interactive 3D Graphics. ACM: 9-22
summary	As part of our graphics research into virtual worlds, we are building a tool for an architect and his client to use for rapid prototyping of buildings by visually "walking through" them in order to refine specifications. Our first prototype simulated the new UNC Computer Science building with some 8000 polygons. BSP-tree software on the Adage Ikonas gave a colored, shaded perspective view every 3-5 seconds while the user moved a cursor in real-time over floorplans shown on the Vector-General 3300. The current (third) version uses Pixel-Planes to generate 9 updates/second, view images shown 4' x 6' by projector. Active short- and long-term research questions include speed-up, stereo, a 6-DoF interface with eye-level defaults, and an interactive model-building, model-changing system.
series	other
last changed	2003/11/21 15:16

_id	8e02
authors	Brown, A.G.P. and Coenen, F.P.
year	2000
title	Spatial reasoning: improving computational efficiency
source	Automation in Construction 9 (4) (2000) pp. 361-367
summary	When spatial data is analysed the result is often very computer intensive: even by the standards of contemporary technologies, the machine power needed is great and the processing times significant. This is particularly so in 3-D and 4-D scenarios. What we describe here is a technique, which tackles this and associated problems. The technique is founded in the idea of quad-tesseral addressing; a technique, which was originally applied to the analysis of atomic structures. It is based on ideas concerning Hierarchical clustering developed in the 1960s and 1970s to improve data access time [G.M. Morton, A computer oriented geodetic database and a new technique on file sequencing, IBM Canada, 1996.], and on atomic isohedral (same shape) tiling strategies developed in the 1970s and 1980s concerned with group theory [B. Grunbaum, G.C. Shephard, Tilings and Patterns, Freeman, New York, 1987.]. The technique was first suggested as a suitable representation for GIS in the early 1980s when the two strands were brought together and a tesseral arithmetic applied [F.C. Holdroyd, The Geometry of Tiling Hierarchies, Ars Combanitoria 16B (1983) 211–244.; S.B.M. Bell, B.M. Diaz, F.C. Holroyd, M.J.J. Jackson, Spatially referenced methods of processing raster and vector data, Image and Vision Computing 1 (4) (1983) 211–220.; Diaz, S.B.M. Bell, Spatial Data Processing Using Tesseral Methods, Natural Environment Research Council, Swindon, 1986.]. Here, we describe how that technique can equally be applied to the analysis of environmental interaction with built forms. The way in which the technique deals with the problems described is first to linearise the three-dimensional (3-D) space being investigated. Then, the reasoning applied to that space is applied within the same environment as the definition of the problem data. We show, with an illustrative example, how the technique can be applied. The problem then remains of how to visualise the results of the analysis so undertaken. We show how this has been accomplished so that the 3-D space and the results are represented in a way which facilitates rapid interpretation of the analysis, which has been carried out.
series	journal paper
more	http://www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
last changed	2003/05/15 21:22

_id	c211
authors	Brown, A.G.P.
year	1986
title	A Year's Experience with CATIA and CADAM
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1986.007
source	Teaching and Research Experience with CAAD [4th eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Rome (Italy) 11-13 September 1986, pp. 7-16
summary	In June 1985 Liverpool University obtained the CAD packages CATIA and CADAM to run on its IBM 4341 mainframe. The following is a brief description of the investigations which have taken place in the first year of their implementation to gauge the usefulness of these packages, principalLy as CAAD teaching aids. Neither CATIA nor CADAM were initially developed as architectural design aids so a matter of initial concern was their appropriateness for teaching (and possibly research) in an architectural environment.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	45ac
authors	Capitanio, L., Nasoni, M., Piroddi, E., Scandurra, E. and Schiavoni, U.
year	1986
title	Programs for the Representation of the Territorial DataPrograms for the Representation of the Territorial DataPrograms for the Representation of the Territorial Data
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1986.039
source	Teaching and Research Experience with CAAD [4th eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Rome (Italy) 11-13 September 1986, pp. 39-44
summary	The programs afterwards briefly described, were used during the courses of Urban Planning of the Department of Building Techniques and Environment Control of Engineering Faculty of Rome. Those programs are chiefly directed to didactic use and to optimization of the graphic representation of regional and urban phenomena. Both those programs make use of censual data from ISTAT stored, by Urban Planning courses teachers, on Univac/ 1100 computer in Interdepartmental Center for Scientific Calculus of Rome First University.
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	63d0
authors	Carrara, Gianfranco and Novembri, Gabriele
year	1986
title	Constraint-bounded design search
source	Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures [CAAD Futures Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-408-05300-3] Delft (The Netherlands), 18-19 September 1985, pp. 146-157
summary	The design process requires continual checking of the consistency of design choices against given sets of goals that have been fulfilled. Such a check is generally performed by comparing abstract representations of design goals with these of the sought real building objects (RBO) resulting from complex intellectual activities closely related to the designer's culture and to the environment in which he operates. In this chapter we define a possible formalization of such representations concerning the goals and the RBO that are usually considered in the architectural design process by our culture in our environment. The representation of design goals is performed by expressing their objective aspects (requirements) and by defining their allowable values (performance specifications). The resulting system of requirements defines the set of allowable solutions and infers an abstract representation of the sought building objects (BO) that consists of the set of characteristics (attributes and relations) which are considered relevant to represent the particular kind of RBO with respect to the consistency check with design goals. The values related to such characteristics define the performances of the RBO while their set establishes its behaviour. Generally speaking, there is no single real object corresponding to an abstract representation but the whole class of the RBO that are equivalent with respect to the values assumed by the considered characteristics. The more we increase the number of these, as well as their specifications, the smaller the class becomes until it coincides with a single real object - given that the assessed specifications be fully consistent. On the other hand, the corresponding representation evolves to the total prefiguration of the RBO. It is not therefore possible to completely define a BO representation in advance since this is inferred by the considered goals and is itself a result of the design process. What can only be established in advance is that any set of characteristics assumed to represent any RBO consists of hierarchic, topological, geometrical and functional relations among the parts of the object at any level of aggregation (from components to space units, to building units, to the whole building) that we define representation structure (RS). Consequently the RS may be thought as the elementary structures that, by superposition and interaction, set up the abstract representation that best fit with design goals.
series	CAAD Futures
last changed	1999/04/03 17:58

_id	a9b1
authors	Cohen, M.F., Greenberg, D.P. and Immel, D.S. (et al)
year	1986
title	An Efficient Radiosity Approach for Realistic Image Synthesis
source	IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications March, 1986. vol. 6: pp. 26-35 : col. ill. includes bibliography.
summary	The radiosity method models the interaction of light between diffusely reflecting surfaces and accurately predicts the global illumination effects. Procedures are now available to simulate complex environments including occluded and textured surfaces. For accurate rendering, the environment must be discretized into a fine mesh, particularly in areas of high intensity gradients. The interdependence between surfaces implies solution techniques which are computationally intractable. This article describes new procedures to predict the global illumination function without excessive computational expense. Statistics indicate the enormous potential of this approach for realistic image synthesis, particularly for dynamic images of static environments
keywords	computer graphics, radiosity, rendering, algorithms
series	CADline
last changed	2003/06/02 14:42

_id	31d5
authors	Delisle, N. and Schwartz, M.
year	1986
title	Neptune: A Hypertext System for CAD Applications
source	Proceedings ofACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data, (Washington D.C., May 28-30 1986) pp. 132-143
summary	Even though many of the essential notions of hypertext were first contained in the description of a "memex," written by Vannevar Bush in 1945, there are today only a few scattered implementatlons of hypertext, let alone any serious use of it in a CAD environment. In what follows, we describe what hypertext is all about We describe a prototype hypertext system, named Neptune, that we have built.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

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