Design of an Object Oriented Environment for Planning Mobile Crane Lifts

This paper describes the work done towards designing a c;omputer aided system for planning crane operations on a construction site using object-oriented programming concepts. The use ofobject-oriented programming concepts [or design is important as it faciiities robust design, distributed development, modularity. reusabilitv and easy extension of features. Based on the planning and representation requirements,an object-oriented analysis and design was done usingthe Booch method. The platform selected for implementation was AutoCAD Rel.14 with the AutoCAD Runtime Extension (ObjectARX) in the Windows 95/NT operating system. This platform was found to support all important object-oriented constructs as well as the component object model (COM) which ensures plug-in Capability and independent extensibility for various modules of the system. A detailed architecture of the system components within this environment has been developed and potential usage of this system is illustrated.