Information management for building structural design on the commercial CAD system

Most conventional CAD systems have caused a lot of problems in exchanging their information with other systems due to their unique data formats. Resolving these kinds of problems, international organizations such as ISO and IAI are making efforts on standardization of neutral data format of product data. Few applications, however, are available in engineering practice. This study presents an information management system for structural design of steel buildings by using STEP methodology. In order to save efforts and development time, this system was developed on the basis of a commercial CAD program, AutoCAD. The structural information can be saved into and retrieved from STEP physical files according to AP203 and AP209 information model of STEP. Structural engineers can, thus, share and exchange structural design information on the shape and components' properties of structures, which are needed in structural design process of buildings, and also the current project.