Versions, Configurations, and Constraints in CEDB

The architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) industry is highly fragmented, both vertically (between project phases, e.g., planning, design, and construction) and horizontally (between specialists for the various disciplines at a given project phase, e.g., design). We need software that detects, analyzes, and manages changes efficiently during concurrent distributed design processes. In the CEDB (Collaborative Environment for the Design of Buildings) project, we have developed a model of a combination of versions, configurations, and constraints. Versions are organized into hierarchies of alternatives within a single discipline (e.g., architecture, structural engineering). A configuration is a set of versions, one from each of a number of disciplines, combined with a set of cross-disciplinary constraints to check for violations. Our objective in this integrated model of versions, configurations, and constraints is to assist designers by informing them of the changes by others that affect them and their changes that affect others, in particular, the changes that result in constraint violations. To accomplish this objective, we aim to find those violations as efficiently as possible. We have substantially implemented our model using multiple ORACLE databases.