A Topology Deduction System for the Design and Construction of Buildings

Constructed facilities or buildings are comprised of many components, each of which is usually represented in product data models by their spatial information including three dimensional (3-D) geometry and topology. Geometrical data describes the facility components? dimensions and locations, whereas topological data represents information about spatial relationships (e.g. connectivity, adjacency, containment, etc.) between the facility components. In A/E/C (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) area, information about topological relations are essential. This paper describes a computerized building data framework being developed in a solid modeling environment, which is capable of automatically extracting topological information of building components to support various aspects in building design such as constructability analysis, construction planning, and building code compliance checking.