ITcon Vol. 12, pg. 1-18, http://www.itcon.org/2007/1

Knowledge reuse in the design of steel connections using 2D-CAD drawings

submitted:December 2005
revised:August 2006
published:January 2007
editor(s):Björk B-C
authors:Peter Johansson, Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, Jönköping University, Sweden
email: peter.johansson@ing.hj.se

Robert Kliger, Professor
Department of Structural Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
email: robert.kliger@chalmers.se
summary:Design knowledge reuse is the most common design method in structural engineering and dominates completely in the design of steel connections. This paper describes a case study and a prototype with the objective of gaining knowledge on how to create computer support for knowledge reuse in the design of steel connections. The case study identified the key characteristics of the design knowledge reuse process in the form of subprocesses. It also showed that the most commonly used documents in these processes are drawings and that these contain most of the information needed for reuse. The prototype was implemented using the Case-Based Design approach. Evaluation of this prototype confirmed the findings of the case study and suggested that information about the geometry and topology of the members connected was sufficient for indexing previous steel connections. The prototype significantly facilitated the process of finding the documentation of recalled previous connections and thus most of the information necessary for reuse. A method of capturing the required information automatically during the process of the designer creating the drawings was implemented and evaluated.
keywords:knowledge reuse, case-based design, structural engineering, live capture.
full text: (PDF file, 0.673 MB)
citation:Johansson P and Kliger R (2007). Knowledge reuse in the design of steel connections using 2D-CAD drawings, ITcon Vol. 12, pg. 1-18, https://www.itcon.org/2007/1