Building Information Database

Hello Everyone,

I am research student and working on research topic related to "Single Story Residential Building". I have one question ----

Can we develop a one "Building Information Database" in which i can store buildling components for all models of single story house ?

As all are single story houses, more or less they will have same building components while some entities of database will remain blank for one particular model based upon features of house. I know Autodesk Revit have also used very similiar concept of building information model, but it is on large scale.

If yes, please provide me direction for that.

Thanks

 

I think you a talking about a block library.
You can create individual drawings for your components and build a slide driven / icon menu to insert/xref them into your plans.

Dean

 

Kumar,
If I read your post correctly, you are looking for a way to 'list' the materials used in the house. If that is the case, there are several ways to 'extract' information from the drawing, and populate a Excel spread-sheet with Quantity, Descriptions, etc. First, you need a 'hook' in the drawing to search for. That hook could be a 'block' insert (with a given name - such as brick), or a generic inserted block that just has information stored in attributes - such as color, type, description, etc. Once the 'hook' is in the drawings, you will need a process to extract the data and pass it along to the spread-sheet. All of these operations have been done (and re-done) many times.

Could you expand on the post a bit - as to what you are trying to accomplish ?

Bob

 

Thanks for Reply--
You aboslutely right Sir,
First i need to hook the data in the drawing, then extract and store it.Yeah I am doing that thing. But I am thinking in more advanced way--
I want to develop a General building model databse in Microsoft Access, so that if I extract data from model drawing (Models can be different type, with distict features) , ,store it in database.Database should be capable to store building components for all models .

Thanks for reply

 

Kumar,
In this discussion group, there are several 'models' of interface between AutoCAD and MicroSoft Excel. Excellent reading. I have not seen (might be there..but I didn't see any) of interface to MicroSoft Access. I had a process developed a long time ago that used Access (as data source), with VB, could select a given 'part' - by Part Type, then, Manufacturer, then by Description & Part Number (3 picks). The program would then 'insert' an attributed block and populate the 'data' from Access into the attributes. Later, I scan the drawings, and pull the data back out, quantitize and sort, then make a .csv file that is a double-click away from Excel. All this to make a 'material' list - based on parts used in the drawings.

It seems to me that creating a 'model' in Access would be the 'reverse' operation. In AutoCAD, the 'model' is laid out, then, scan the dwg's, pull out the 'data' desired, Mount Access, and populate the tables..simple, right ?
You would only need a VB program produced, to first select the drawings, open them in ACAD, pull the 'data' with Lisp call, produce files.txt (stacked data). Next, the VB could pull in the 'data' from files.txt, manipulate it, and Mount Access, and place the data in given 'tables'.
What do you think ?

Bob Shaw
Control Systems & Services, Inc.
bobscadshop.com

 

Thanks ECAD
First I would like to mention here that I have made a program that can extract data from CAd and can stote it Access and its reverse can be done. I am doing job using Data Access Objects.

My question is not related to data transfer, nor with customization of CAD.
Say we have 50 diffenrent model of house. As all are house model, basic components of model will be same but with little variation in all models.My question is --

can we create a comprehensive model in Microsoft access so building components of all 50 models can be stored in one data base????

 

Kumar,
I don't know much about Access - but couldn't you have a 'base' table with 90% content, and add 'Model1', 'Model2' .. tables for unique items. Select all in base, and select model' by number ?

Bob

 

Kumar;

What you are talking about doing is basically this:

After the house "model house" or "prototype house" has been engineered
(designed, drawn, checked, etc...) and is most likely already been built at
least once you want to store that "model house"'s drawing data into a
database. Once the drawing is "warehoused" in the database you want to be
able to make "standard" modification to the house data based on pre-designed
options (most likely options that have already been designed and pumped into
the database already). You would also want this program to be able to allow
you to pump the data to CAD for design "tweeking" and then pump it back into
the database (because we all know that the model house needs to be built
once or twice to get the "bugs" out).

Why is this good? Well lets see....

From a salesmans level, you can create a client profile based on a
particular model in the database and as you work with the client you can
select from standard design options and even create "case" senarios were the
client can see realtime the shape and cost of there selections

From a draftsman/designer's point of view once the sales order is finalized,
there sent a work order to generate job #1212334 and they pull up the
clients profile, select the approved design and hit a button. The data (the
"model house" data and any "optional design elements" which may have been
added) is pumped to AutoCAD (or ADT - a much better choice for this kind of
work, both drafting and database driven prototyping of buildings) to
generate the clients construction documents.

From the estimator/ordering/project manager they can get realtime cost data
because you add a nice little materials component to the database and they
get actual quantities from the database (since the house has already been
built we have historical data plus you have the ability to link drawing
elements to construction assemblies).

If you might have guessed, I've done this before and not just once and not
this simple. It's a good approach especially for residential "cookie
cutter" construction (I'm not slighting your company, I use this expression
because it's the best way to describe the process).

I will give you a couple words of advice, use MSDE not Access. Access is a
good program but MSDE is the baby brother of MSSQL and you cant create
stored procedures in Access (pre-compiled database functions to calculate,
manipulate, copy, etc... database data) and MSDE is quite a bit faster than
Access. There is alot to what you want to do. It's not simple but plan
your buns off because you dont want to dive into this without a set plan in
place.

If you need any help, let me know, I would be more than happy to help.

Good luck

--
Dean McCarns
Enterprise Solutions Pioneers, Inc.

804-675-2377

it.Yeah I am doing that thing. But I am thinking in more advanced way--

so that if I extract data from model drawing (Models can be different type,
with distict features) , ,store it in database.Database should be capable to
store building components for all models .