Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
working drawings at the site. They find obtaining building information from
construction drawings in this manner cumbersome.
There are three main drawbacks of using 2D drawings to explore building
information in current construction practice:
(1)
Poor portability and improper handling of the drawings:
2D drawings usually
contain large volumes of information from various construction disciplines,
so the size of the 2D drawings needs to be large enough to accommodate
optimal amounts of information. This makes drawings inconvenient to
carry around in complex and risky construction environments. It is also
difficult for the users to find the information they need from a large number
of references.
(2)
Display problems:
Information from 2D drawings is presented two dimen-
sionally (on flat paper), which makes it particularly difficult to present spatial
relationships between building elements in a real-world 3D environment.
People are therefore required to transfer the information from a two
dimensional representation to an imaginary three dimensional representation
by themselves, in order to match the actual environment.
(3)
Browsing and readability problems:
2D drawings usually include many pre-
defined symbols for different construction components, and this impedes users'
abilities to clearly understand the meanings behind the drawings. Users need to
study 2D drawings multiple times in order to understand the meaning behind
the various symbols. This is usually inconvenient and inefficient for the users.
Technology exploiting 3D models for exploring building information has
recently gained in popularity as desktop computers are able to support more
sophisticated graphics. However, the on-site use of desktop computers is not
particularly feasible, due to their poor portability.
8.1.2 Literature review
Many studies, using a variety of approaches, have attempted to solve the browsing
and display problems. The following surveys related work on information inte-
gration, information display, and mobile devices.
Information Integration
Previous research has attempted to improve efficiency in browsing building
information by developing better ways of integrating the information. It has
used model-centric information methods such as four dimensional modeling
(4D modeling), n-dimensional modeling (nD modeling), and BIM modeling to
integrate the data and provide information based on a 3D model.
*
4D modeling and nDmodeling:
Both four dimensional technology (a 3Dmodel
plus a schedule) and n-dimensional technology are viewed as successful means
of integrating building information. McKinney and Fischer (1998) have
indicated that 4D models can reduce the abstract quality of models by linking
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