Virtual prototyping in built environments || Design automation

Code checking

The initial scoping study assessed the capacity of object-based CAD systems to support automated checking of designs for compliance against the Building Codes of Australia (BCA) and to test the comparative strengths and suitability of two different rule-checking engines.

The objective of the second stage of this project was to produce an automated code checking system that checks a wide range of buildings for compliance against the new version of the standard Design for access and mobility and the relevant provisions in the Building Code of Australia (BCA).

The resultant DesignCheck system is an automated rule checking engine capable of checking building designs for compliance against the BCA. DesignCheck is based on the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) developed by the BuildingSmart International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI). Using IFC technology, object-oriented building models in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) domain is capable of describing the objects and properties of building entities as well as how these entities are related to each other. This kind of information is required by the DesignCheck engine and can be made available if the appropriate mappings to IFC compliant objects, properties and relationships are specified by the vendors of the chosen Object Oriented (O-O) CAD system.

DesignCheckcan be run as stand-alone software or an add-on to O-O CAD systems. A user interface has been developed in order to provide the user the control of information flows. This software tool will reduce the cost to designers and building owners of checking for compliance and will reduce the risk of non-compliance, with its associated rectification costs and can be applied in other potential areas ― including checking a building design against errors, checking a building model against the information required for project management and cost estimating.