Using simulation and visualization technologies to strengthen the design/construction interface

The design and construction of a building, heavy civil or industrial project requires input from a wide range of members of the project team. Throughout the different phases of the facility development process, different members of the project team need to interact with each other, with one party generating information that needs to be used by the other party for their own tasks. The interface between the design team and the construction team is particularly important, especially since the quality of construction for the facility many times is a function of the quality of the information generated during the planning and design phases, and especially of the degree of construction input to the design process. The paper describes a new methodology for simulating construction operations, which strengthens the design/construction interface. This methodology provides a way of running interactive and real-time simulation of construction operations in a virtual environment that brings the user closer to the real world than ever before. Within this environment, a user can identify problems visually during the planning or design phases of a project, and solve them prior to actual construction of the facility.