Automated deduction of topological information in a computer-based building design system

Constructed facilities or buildings are comprised of many components whose physical properties are usually represented in product data models by their spatial information including three dimensional (3D) geometric and topological information. Geometric data describes the building components' dimensions and locations, whereas topological data represents information about spatial relationships (e.g. connectivity, adjacency, containment, etc.) between the building components. Conventionally, the spatial information is modeled directly in product building data models to support all various aspects in building design. Due to the increasingly huge amount of building information to be modeled and the large variety of data representations needed to suit requirements of different professionals involved, the explicit modeling of topological information becomes an important challenge and is usually subject to data inconsistency, incompleteness, and prone to error. Recently, the emergence of advanced Computer-Aided Design (CAD) systems such as 3D solid modelers has offered possibilities to deduce the topological information from the positioning of geometrical solids, which are inherently available in the 3D CAD systems for representation of physical building components. This dissertation presents a computer-based building design framework with emphasis on the engine capable of automatically deducing topological information of building components to support various aspects in building design such as constructability analysis, construction planning, and building code compliance checking. This framework employs the concept of boundary representation (B-rep) in solid modeling for representing 3D building components enabling extraction of geometric and topological data necessary for deduction of spatial relationships between the building components.