Combining Different Project Modeling Approaches for Effective Support of Multi-Disciplinary Engineering Tasks

Project models are increasingly used for a wide range of engineering tasks like life cycle assessment, project management, and meeting support. This paper presents three approaches for the use of project models to support such tasks for capital facilities. The three approaches are: 1. Directly integrating an application with a project modeling tool (e.g., the prototype of a life cycle assessment software developed at the Lehrstuhl für Bauinformatik at the Technical University of Munich integrated with Autodesk’s Architectural Desktop (ADT)). 2. Directly importing project model data into a stand-alone software (e.g., Common Point Technologies’ 4D modeling (CP4D) software linked to ADT and to project management software like Microsoft Project (MSP) or Primavera’s P3 to support project management tasks). 3. Linking applications via an XML data repository and message passing (e.g., the CIFE iRoom environment linking ADT, MSP, CP4D to support multi-disciplinary meetings). On the basis of a concrete project example, we will discuss the use and benefits of these three approaches for the exchange of project model data to support discipline-specific engineering tasks and to facilitate multi-disciplinary meetings. We also present the underlying software architectures and explain the tradeoffs between implementation cost and ease of use. The paper shows that each approach has advantages and shortcomings in supporting the wide range of discipline-specific and multi-disciplinary engineering tasks that exist on a project. Fortunately, these three approaches complement each other well. Their appropriate combination appears to make the use of project models more effective and practical.     «

Project models are increasingly used for a wide range of engineering tasks like life cycle assessment, project management, and meeting support. This paper presents three approaches for the use of project models to support such tasks for capital facilities. The three approaches are: 1. Directly integrating an application with a project modeling tool (e.g., the prototype of a life cycle assessment software developed at the Lehrstuhl für Bauinformatik at the Technical University of Munich integrate...     »