Parametric Building Development During Early Design [Crawford, CSIRO] 2002-060-B

Many of the important environmental factors may also be implicitly considered as relationships or combinations of parameters normally represented across these traditional descriptions of architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical systems. Beginning with a relatively simple rectangular building, and with architecture and engineering knowledge of various rules of thumb already in use by industry partners, the research team will work with parametric descriptions of building projects during the early sketch design stage to determine how a wide range of user requirements can be assessed from this simple outline. It will examine the methods for defining parametric models within the three major architecture, engineering and construction CAD systems (AutoCAD Architectural Desktop – ADT, ArchiCAD and Microstation Triforma) plus Catia (a leading parametric modeller), and a popular category of mixed use commercial/residential multi-storey developments has been chosen for analysis and implementation.