A prototype for activity modelling in CAD-programs for building design

Transcription

1 A prototype for activity modelling in CAD-programs for building design Final report Anders Ekholm Architectural and Building Design Methods

2 2 Preface Abstract In the early stages of the building design process, during the programming and the proposal stages, both user activities and the building are in focus for the designer. In spite of this, today s CAD programs give no support for management of information about activities in the building. This report presents a prototype software for modelling user activities in the context of building design. The prototype is developed as an add-on to the architectural design software ArchiCAD, through its API, Application Programmer Interface. The purpose of the prototype is to present the concept of a separate user activity model, and to stimulate the development of new ideas for future applications. The results may hopefully interest both users and developers of these kinds of software. Project organisation Initiator, project leader and main author of this report is Anders Ekholm, professor of Architectural and Building Design Methods, Lund Institute of Technology/Lund University. Stefan Larsson and Bengt Larsson of Lasercad ab, a Swedish software developer, have been active in realising this project. Balàzs Piri and László Hatvani of Cadprojekt, Budapest, a subsidiary company of Lasercad, have carried out programming work for the add-on and are responsible for the section about technical documentation in this report. The project was financed by the Swedish research programme IT Construction and Real Estate Management 2002, project no 99414, together with Lasercad and Lund University. This report This report starts with an introduction, an executive summary of two pages which gives a quick introduction to the project. The second part consists of a paper written as a report to a research seminar organised by IT Construction and Real Estate 2002, September 21, The final part is a technical documentation of the Activity add-on. In the CD-version of this report a PowerPoint-presentation of the project is included. Contents Activity Objects in CAD Programs for Building Design...3 A prototype for activity modelling in CAD-programs for building design...5 Documentation of the Activity Add-On...19

3 3 Activity Objects in CAD Programs for Building Design Today, model-oriented CAD-programs for building design do not support handling of information about user activities in the building. In this project a prototype for such a program has been developed. The prototype works as an add-on to ArchiCAD, an internationally well-known CAD-programs for architects. From drafting to modelling The development of computer aided building design systems is currently shifting focus from drafting to modelling. With a model oriented CAD-program it is possible to develop an object based product model of the building. Building product models constitute a basis for achieving computer integrated construction and facility management, CIC/FM, processes. The shift from drafting oriented CAD to object oriented CAD enables new ways of managing and structuring design information Lacking support for user activity information During the earliest stages of the design process, during the programming and the proposal stages, not only the building, but also the user activities are objects of design, at least to the extent that they depend on the building. However, user activity information is seldom explicit but left to the imagination of the participants, e.g. during the interpretation of a plan drawing. Today s model-oriented CAD programs, e.g. ArchiCAD or Architectural Desktop, have objects that represent elements and spaces of the building. They enable design and documentation of the building s properties. However, these programs give no support for management of information about activities in the building, they have no activity objects to which one can attribute a user activity description. Model-oriented programs give better support to the designer to handle information about organisations and activities. A drawing is a static medium poorly suited to represent the dynamic user activities. Aim of this project The aim of this project has been to develop a prototype software that can model user activities in the context of a CAD program for building design. This prototype will serve as a test bench to analyse whether these kinds of programs may be useful in the design and facility management processes. Hopefully, it may also generate not anticipated ideas of possible applications to those experimenting with it. Activity add-on for ArchiCAD ArchiCAD, a well-known CAD-program for architects, was chosen as a platform for the development work. It may be enhanced through a so called add-on. An add-on is a software that expands the functionality and functions together with the program. It accessible from the interface of ArchiCAD but has its own menus, dialogues, floating palettes etc. The Activity add-on in the current implementation enables the user to determine and edit an Activity System. The main functions to configure the Activity System are handled from the Activity Settings palette, available as a dialogue box placed in the ArchiCAD window. The main functions are Activity Tree, Activity Links and Activity Properties.

4 4 An Activity System is made up of activities in a hierarchy of different levels. Activities in each level are composed of Persons and Equipment. The first level of the hierarchy must be an Activity. The relations between activities can be determined in the Activity Links dialogue box. The relations are: Visibility, No Visibility, Sound contact, No Sound contact, Connection, No Connection, Adjacency, and Distance. The links can be set at direction and certain grades of importance. The links are shown in a relation stamp on the screen. The user can control the time point and duration of activities and the related objects through the Time Settings dialogue box. The user of the Activity add-on may start the activity design work by defining a hatched area developed through some of the ArchiCAD geometry tools. Then, when the designer wants, it is possible to define the hatched area as an Activity Space using the Activity Space transformation tool. The Activity Add-on has been applied to model the activities in a small school during a school-day. Lessons and pauses are represented as sub-activities in the Activity system. The figure below shows Group-work in class A with the Floor Plan, Activity Tree and the Time Settings dialogue box. Figure: Design of school activities Applications The news with this prototype is the possibility to manage activities as objects. It allows people and equipment to be kept together as systems instead of being separate entities. Future applications can include development of user activity descriptions, space function programs, and documentation of building requirements like air quality, sound reduction, lighting, hygiene etc. Activities in the building can be presented at different points of time. The program can be used for development of methods for spatial layout design and analysis of versatility and flexibility. Applications can be developed to create adjacency matrices, flow charts, area and volume diagrams, analyses of degree of use, evacuation studies, etc.

5 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september A prototype for activity modelling in CAD-programs for building design Anders Ekholm, div. of Architectural and Building Design Methods, dept. of Construction and Architecture, LTH, Lund Abstract In the early stages of the building design process, during the programming and the proposal stages, both user activities and the building are in focus for the designer. In spite of this, today s CAD programs give no support for management of information about activities in the building. This paper presents a prototype software for modelling of user activities in the context of building design. The prototype is developed as an add-on to the architectural design software ArchiCAD, through its API, Application Programmer Interface. The paper describes the research problem and background for the development work. It gives a short summary of the theoretical background for the implementation, followed by a presentation of the prototype, and finally reflects over the possible applications and future development needs. Aspects on CAD From drafting to modelling The development of computer aided building design systems is currently shifting focus from drafting to modelling. With a model oriented CAD-program it is possible to develop an object based product model of the building. Building product models constitute a basis for achieving computer integrated construction and facility management, CIC/FM, processes. The shift from drafting oriented CAD to object oriented CAD enables new ways of managing and structuring design information (Eastman 1999). CAD, computer aided design, has mainly been used during the later stages of the design process where the building and its detailed design are in focus. In the early stages, CAD has been less used. One reason is that both user activities and building are in focus for the designer at the earliest stages of the design process, during the programming and the proposal stages. A drawing is a static medium poorly suited to represent the dynamic user activities. Another reason is the rigor that both drafting oriented and object oriented CAD imposes on the designer, as opposed to the quick and intuitive response of manual drafting. Lacking support for user activity information Today s object oriented CAD programs, e.g. ArchiCAD or Architectural Desktop, have objects that represent elements and spaces of the building. They enable design and documentation of the building s properties, both for a new building and rebuilding of an existing one. However, these programs give no support for management of information about activities in the building, they have no activity objects to which one can attribute a user activity description. User activity information is used throughout the construction and facility management processes. For example, it may be less well known, other than to those directly involved, that the earliest stages of the building design process also handles user activity information.

6 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september However, user activity information is seldom explicit but mostly left to the imagination of the participants, e.g. during the interpretation of a plan drawing. A short account of the initial stages of the building acquisition process clearly shows the importance of explicit user activity information. When an organisation is formed or changed, it may need a new or renewed building for accommodation. The process of acquiring a suitable building starts with a description of the organisation and its activities. The activity description is used as a basis for developing a space program which defines requirements on the building s spaces. The first step in a construction process, includes development of a building program. The building program defines the requirements on the building, and is based among others on the activity description and space program. The building program together with the activity description and the space program can be used for building performance analysis during the facility management stage (Svensson et al 1999). The idea of a FM organisation is to support the facility user s core business. For this reason it is necessary to have access to information about the core organisation, its activities and its building requirements. Information system for user activity information are necessary for the FM organisation. Other research Prototype information system development with explicit representation of activities has to the present authors knowledge only been done by Eastman and Siabiris (1995). They identify activity units composed of furniture, equipment and activity area with the emphasis on spatial properties. Other approaches identify functional units (Flemming and Chien 1995) or space units (Carrara, Kalay and Novembri 1994). These represent functional requirements and generic spatial properties of the buildings spaces, and in that way only indirectly represent the organisation units. The present author has discussed user activity modelling in earlier papers, see e.g. (Ekholm and Fridqvist 1996). A later example is the work by Hendricx (2000). None of these have been realised as working CAD-prototypes. Aim of this project Modelling of activities and processes is an area in strong development, but has so far not been developed to suit the needs of building design and facility management. The aim of this project has been to develop a prototype software that can model user activities in the context of a CAD program for building design. This prototype will serve as a test bench to analyse whether these kinds of programs may be useful in the design and facility management processes. Hopefully, it may also generate not anticipated ideas of possible applications to those experimenting with it. Modelling of user activity systems Organisations as systems The concepts used in this section have been presented in earlier writings by the author. The interested reader is recommended e.g. (Ekholm 1987 and 1994, and Ekholm and Fridqvist 1998 and 2000).

7 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september Design and ontology Design as well as science means to determine the properties of an object, existing or possible. Both a design and an investigation process may start by imagining a most generic conceptual object which is successively specialised as the determination of attributes continues. In order to develop theories and methods within the field of design, it is necessary with a well structured most generic theoretical framework. This must include a generic property theory as well as concepts like thing and system. The theoretical framework used in this development project is based on Mario Bunge s Treatise on Basic Philosophy, specifically the parts on ontology (Bunge 1977 and 1979). Systems, activities and views A basic concept in ontology is that of system. A system is a complex thing with bonding relations among its parts, it has composition, environment and structure, both intrinsic and extrinsic (Bunge 1979:8). See Figure 1. A sociosystem has a composition of human individuals, its structure is the social behaviour repertoire, i.e. interaction among human individuals. Human social behaviour can be creative and goal-directed (Bunge 1979). A process is a sequence of events in a system. The term process may also be used to designate the system itself since it is a characteristic feature of the system. An activity is a sequence of goal-directed actions with intention to transform the state of a thing. Analogous to process, such a system may be called an activity or activity system. An artefact is a manmade or man-controlled system; it is made with a purpose to make certain activities possible. An activity that involves the use of artefacts is a property of the composite socio-tool system also called a sociotechnical system. A human activity system is composed of persons and equipment, i.e. the latter are things that are used during the performance of the activity. Work is a specific kind of activity, it is a useful activity (Bunge 1979:197). A sociosystem engaged in some work activity is in management science called an organisation (Child 1984), human activity system (Checkland 1981), or enterprise (Bubenko 1993). To adopt a view, or aspect, on a system is to observe a specific set of properties. Of specific interest to design are the functional and compositional views. A functional view focuses on the system s relations to the environment and on parts that contribute to the system s function. A compositional view of a system identifies the compositional parts from which it is assembled (Ekholm and Fridqvist 2000). See Figure 1. Figure 1: Functional and compositional views on systems Organisation levels Functional parts and wholes constitute a level order where the functions of the parts are fundamental to the functions of the whole. Compositional parts and wholes constitute another

8 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september level order where the parts precede the whole, i.e. a compositional part has a separate existence before it is assembled into the whole. Functional parts need not have such existence, they may emerge as a result of the assembly process. For example, during a construction process functional parts like slab or wall may emerge as a result of in-situ concrete work. The organisations of modern society are complex sociotechnical systems organised in functional units composed of human individuals and equipment, including tools and machinery. The functional units, or subsystems, contribute with their activities to the functions of the organisation as a whole. A job may be considered the basic functional unit in a work organisation, it is performed by a human individual or a machine. Even a household or a family may be seen as a work organisation, with certain jobs that have to be performed. A level order of an organisation or enterprise has at its lowest level the single job, see Figure 2. Single jobs are combined into work groups, sections or teams. Work groups are composed into departments, which in their turn compose into functions or divisions, the highest compositional level below the organisation or enterprise as a whole (Child 1984:85). The terminology may vary, and is not generally agreed. Organisation Division Department Work unit Job composition S[1:?] composition S[1:?] composition S[1:?] composition S[1:?] Figure 2: Example of a level structure of organisation units Activity space An organisation has a spatial extension traditionally called activity space. The activity spaces are of different scale from the smallest, defined by the human body and the used tools, to the space determined by the organisation as a whole. In human activities, e.g. an individual s job, the body and reach characteristics belong to the key determining factors. The spatial extension of a work unit, composed of individuals with their tools and equipment, also depends on the material used in the process and the resulting products. Persons, equipment and material may change position and dimension over time which makes the activity space time-dependent. Information about the user organisation in building design A system for handling information about an organisation in the context of building design and facility management must fulfil certain requirements. Below is listed the information needed in spatial layout planning according to Hales (1984:17), see also (Ekholm and Fridqvist 1996): 1. Personnel data: numbers, skills, attitudes, working hours, physical needs etc. 2. Product and material data: quantities, activity cycles, size, weight, composition, etc. 3. Routings or manufacturing sequence data: data for products and material in a production process; procedures for the work process in administrative or institutional facilities. 4. Furniture, machinery and equipment data: quantities, activity cycles, size, weight, required installations etc.

9 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september Building (and process) support: mechanical and electrical systems, HVAC-systems, plumbing, lighting, maintenance, waste disposal, pollution control, fire control, etc. 6. Personnel support: food services, break and recreational facilities, parking, first aid, etc. 7. Activity areas: Activity areas are organisational units based on functional or product/process based grouping of activities. All project data on flow, communications, space, equipment, personnel, etc. are collected and reported by activity area. 8. Material flow: Data on material flow between activity areas; by estimates; by work sampling or other formal survey; by extraction from production control reports; etc. 9. Communications: Data on personnel communication based on surveys which display both the overall communication pattern and the aggregate relationships between workers. 10. Activity relationships: Communications and flow are the chief bases of relationships between people and departments; other issues are shared supervision, shared equipment, shared records, shared utilities, etc. Hales categories are based on a process view on the organisation and include information on resources and results of the activities. Of the other categories, all except building support are organisational information. The list above can be structured in information concerning: Activities, Activity Relations, Resources and results, Persons, Equipment and Buildings: Activity information Activity areas Personnel support Activity relationship information Communications Material flow Activity relationships Resource and result information Product and material data Routings or manufacturing sequence data Person information Personnel data Equipment information Furniture, machinery and equipment data Building information Building (and process) support Similar categories are listed in so called space function programs commonly used to document user activities and space requirements in a construction project. A space function program contains information about the activity and its requirements on the building spaces. A typical example from university facility planning contains the following activity information, building requirements excluded (Akademiska Hus 2000): Activity description, focusing on factors determining spaces and installations Number and kind of work spaces

10 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september Estimated area Dimensioning measures Placement/Connections to other activities Chemicals and flammable liquids/gases Sound conditions, noise generating/silence requiring Security demands Light conditions, daylight/black-out Atmospheric pressure, balanced/over/under Climate conditions Personnel permanent/temporary: hours daily Equipment It has not been possible in this prototype development work to implement functions to manage all the information listed in these descriptions. However, the principles have been studied and future development is both possible and desirable. The prototype Activity Add-on Add-ons for ArchiCAD An ArchiCAD Add-On is a separate program that expands the functionality of ArchiCAD. An Add-on can only be run within ArchiCAD. It has its own user interface accessible from the interface of ArchiCAD (e.g.: new menus, dialogues, floating palettes, etc.). The API, Application Programmer Interface, for development of Add-ons enables access to the inner processes and database of ArchiCAD. With these capabilities it is possible to enhance the basic ArchiCAD elements, but it is also possible to use ArchiCAD independent tools and techniques and integrate them into the ArchiCAD environment. Conceptual schema of the Activity Add-on Entities The basic entity of the Activity Add-on is the Activity. It is based on a functional view on an organisation or part of an organisation. An Activity may have other activities as functional parts or itself be a functional part of other activities. Activities are composed of Person and Equipment. The constituent Person and Equipment may be determined for an Activity at any level in the hierarchy. Activities have Name, Description, Duration, and Relations. There are four Relations that can be specifically shown: Visibility, Sound, Distance, and Adjacency. These may have values. However, the values can only be described, functionality is not implemented. A Person has Name and Description, it can only exist within an Activity. Equipment may be composed of other Equipment. It may have Name and Description. An Equipment element can exist independently during the time period between the Activities in which it appear. Between Activities it has the same state as in the last Activity. The entities and their relations are shown in the schema in Figure 3. The schema is presented in EXPRESS-G, a framework for graphical product model representation, based on the EXPRESS modelling language (Schenk and Wilson 1994).

11 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september Figure 3: Conceptual schema of the Activity Add-on The Object entity in ArchiCAD The Activity Add-On can link Activity entities with Object entities in ArchiCAD. An Object entity is a library part within ArchiCAD, it can represent different things, e.g. people, furniture, specific building parts like kitchen fit-outs etc. However, the link can only be active if the Object entity has the visible variable within its parameters. These can be edited by an advanced ArchiCAD user. Person and Equipment objects in the Activity Add-on are such edited ArchiCAD Objects. Two new ArchiCAD Object entities have been developed for the Activity Add-on: The Activity Space Object shows the spatial extension of the activity. It can be created, with the Fill Activity Space transformation tool within the Activity Palette. The Activity Relation Object, which is handled by the Add-On itself. Functions of the Activity Add-on Activity Space definition The user of the Activity Add-on may start the activity design work by defining a hatched area developed through some of the ArchiCAD geometry tools. Then, when the designer wants, it is possible to define the hatched area as an Activity Space using the Activity Space transformation tool. A similar function works for other ArchiCAD objects like Wall or Slab. This means that a designer initially can work with a geometrical representation, and at will determine whether the object shall be, for example, an activity, or a slab. Activity Menu The user of the Activity Add-on manages an Activity System through the Activity menu in ArchiCAD. The Activity menu contains: Activity Settings; to switch on or off the Activity Settings palette Time Observation; to switch on or off the Time Observation palette Activity palette Save Report file The Activity Add-on in the current implementation enables the user to determine and edit an Activity System. The main functions to configure the Activity System are handled from the

12 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september Activity Settings palette, available as a dialogue box placed in the ArchiCAD window. The main functions are Activity Tree, Activity Links and Activity Properties. Activity Tree An Activity System is made up of activities in a hierarchy of different levels. See Figure 4. Activities in each level are composed of Persons and Equipment. The first level of the hierarchy must be an Activity. The same Activity may only occur once within the Activity System, but Persons and Equipment can occur many times. An Activity defined in the Activity Tree can be saved as an AGM, Activity Group Module. This module consists of the Activity and its Activity parts as well as its composition of Persons and Equipment. An AGM can be saved in a library and be reused. Figure 4: The Activity Tree dialogue box Activity Links The relations between activities can be determined in the Activity Links dialogue box. See Figure 5. The relations are: Visibility, No Visibility, Sound contact, No Sound contact, Connection, No Connection, Adjacency, and Distance. The links can be set at direction and certain grades of importance. The links are shown in a relation stamp on the screen.

13 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september Figure 5: The Activity Links dialogue box Duration The user can observe the appearance of Activities and the related objects in time through the Time Settings dialogue box. The time settings are controlled through a specific dialogue box. An Activity can be set to be either periodical or happen once. See Figure 6. Figure 6: The Time Settings dialogue box Output files The Activity Add-on has the following output files: Activity file, *.acty type file, which contains the data about the Activity System. AGM, Activity Group Module, *.agm type file, which contains an AGM with activities, relations, and objects. It also contains the linked ArchiCAD elements.

14 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september Report file *.txt, which contains the structure of the Activity System, with all related information in text format. The School Test Case The Activity Add-on has been applied to model a small school and its lessons. The different tools in the program have been used to define the School Activity System. An example of the design tool in use in the Edit Mode is shown in Figure 8, where the Floor Plan and Activity Tree shows Groupwork in class A. The Time Settings dialogue box shows that Groupwork A starts every Monday at Another example is shown in Figure 9 where the design tool, set in Live Mode, shows Art in class A, and Computer in class B. The activities are observed at 09.39:13 on Monday morning, September 11, In Figure 10 the same activities are shown in a 3D view. Also the extension in 3D of the Activity Spaces is visible. Figure 8: Design of the School Activity System

15 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september Figure 9: Art in class A, and Computer in class B, observed on a Monday morning Figure 10: In the 3D mode also the extension in 3D of the Activity Spaces is visible

16 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september Future development possibilities Applications Presentation of user activities Buildings are built to enable activities of different kind. It seems natural to be able to illustrate how activities are accommodated in the building. Traditional software for building design allows illustrating activities, but not in the modelling sense as objects with attributes. For example, software for activity modelling makes it possible to represent equipment, e.g. furniture in a more realistic manner since it in reality may be considered part of activities. Today s software represents furniture as if it were building components only. A major application of software for Activity modelling in the context of building design would be to illustrate, in 2D and 3D, the use of a building during the design stage or in facility management. This functionality may be extended towards animated representations by development of increasingly sophisticated software and hardware. Spatial lay-out methods In organisational design the spatial allocation of activities is of major importance. Systematic methods for spatial lay-out of activities in the context of industry design have been developed by Child (1983) and Muther (1973). Methods for spatial allocation of an organisation can be supported by graphical representation tools like: adjacency matrices, affinity diagrams, flow-charts, blocking and stacking diagrams, graphic and net area displays, spatiotemporal diagrams etc., see e.g. Hales (1984) and Kumlin (1995). Such tools are computer implementable and could be part of computer aided organisational design programs. Versatility analysis Methods for analysing the versatility of a building and its spaces for a certain category of users are important both during building design and facility management. As a background for methods development it would be of specific interest to analyse the SAR-methods, a pioneering work developed in the 1970 s by John Habraken and his colleagues at SAR, Stichting Architecten Research, in Eindhoven, Holland (Habraken et al 1974). Building flexibility can be illustrated, for example a partition may be removable which can be shown by representing it as Equipment part of an Activity System. When the activities are changed also the building will change. Space function program development Normally, the building and its spaces are part of the environment of the activity. In order for the organisation to perform its activities the environment must have certain properties. A software for activity modelling should enable the user to record the required building properties as part of the modelling work. Examples of such properties are air quality, background noise level, light qualities, hygiene etc. Information about activities and required building properties are stated in the space function program, which is used both as a starting point for the building design process, and as a background for performance studies during facility management.

17 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september Activity libraries The Activity Group Modules, AGMs, of the Activity Add-on are examples of activity systems suited for storing in a reusable form. Activity library objects, like the AGMs, can be determined by an organisation and put together to be used for different purpose, e.g. activity analyses and space function program development. One source of inspiration for developing and structuring AGMs would be the Pattern Language methodology, developed around the 1970 s by Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Centre for Environmental Structure at Berkeley, California (Alexander 1975). Process modelling A process is a sequence of events, i.e. changes of state of a system. An activity is a goal directed process, it has a purpose to transform a system from one state to another. The schema developed for the Activity Add-on could easily be extended to represent input and output of processes. The Time Settings function of the software also seems useful for process modelling. A process modelling function is not implemented in this prototype, since it is a functionality to be used in other contexts than intended here. However it is relevant to mention as a possible extension of the program. Terms and definitions ArchiCAD Object, a library part of ArchiCAD Activity, a sequence of goal-directed actions with intention to transform the state of a thing Activity, an entity in the Activity Add-on that represents an Activity System Activity Components, compositional parts of an activity system, e.g. person and equipment Activity Equipment, an entity in the Activity Add-on that represents an artefact Activity Group Module, AGM, a complex entity in the Activity Add-on, representing an activity system including its parts, relations, and linked ArchiCAD elements. An AGM can be saved as a *.agm file Activity Hierarchy, a level order of activity systems, where systems in lower levels are functional parts of systems in higher levels Activity Person, an entity in the Activity Add-on that represents a human being Activity Relation Stamp, represents the relation among activity systems Activity Space, represents the spatial extension of an activity system Activity System, a system that performs an activity Activity Relations, relations among activities Acknowledgements The programming work for the Add-on has been carried out by Balàzs Piri and László Hatvani of Cadprojekt, Budapest, a subsidiary company of the Swedish software developer Lasercad AB. Stefan Larsson and Bengt Larsson of Lasercad have been active in realising this project, which was financed by the Swedish research programme IT Construction and Real Estate Management 2002, together with Lasercad and Lund University. I have had stimulating discussions with my colleague Jonas af Klercker on the subject of user activity modelling in building design.

18 IT Bygg och Fastighet 2002, Forskningsseminarium 21 september References Akademiska Hus (2000). Personal communication with representatives from the company in Lund. Alexander C. (1975) A Timeless Way of Building. New York: Oxford University Press. Bubenko jr J. A. (1993). Extending the scope of information modelling. Report Nr. DSV Stockholm: Department of Computer and Systems Science, Royal Institute of Technology. Bunge M. (1977). Ontology I: The Furniture of the World, Vol. 3 of Treatise on Basic Philosophy. Dordrecht and Boston: Reidel. Bunge M. (1979). Ontology II: A World of Systems, Vol. 4 of Treatise on Basic Philosophy Dordrecht-Boston: Reidel. Carrara G., Kalay Y. E. and Novembri G. (1994), Knowledge based computational support for architectural design. Automation in Construction, vol. 3, no. 2-3, pp Checkland P. (1981). Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Child J. (1984). Organization: A guide to problems and practice. London: Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd. Eastman C. (1999) Building Product Modelling. Eastman C. M. and Siabiris A. (1995). A generic building product model incorporating building type information. Automation in Construction, vol. 3, no. 4, pp Flemming U. and Chien S.-F. (1985). Schematic lay-out design in SEED environment. Journal of Architectural Engineering, vol. 1, no. 4, pp Ekholm A. (1994) A systemic approach to building modelling analysis of some objectoriented building product models. CIB W78 Workshop, Aug , Esbo, Finland. Ekholm A. (1987) Systemet Människa-Byggnadsverk. Ett ontologiskt perspektiv. Stockholm: Statens råd för byggnadsforskning R22:1987. Ekholm A. and Fridqvist S. (2000) A concept of space for building classification, product modelling, and design. Automation in Construction, vol. 9, pp Elsevier. Ekholm A. and Fridqvist S. (1998). A dynamic information system for design applied to the construction context. In The Life-Cycle of IT Innovations (Eds. Bo-Christer Björk and Adina Jägbeck). Proceedings of the CIB W78 Conference, June 3-5, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. Ekholm A. and Fridqvist S. (1996). Modelling of user organisations, buildings and spaces for the design process. In Construction on the Information Highway. (Ed. Ziga Turk). Proceedings from the CIB W78 Workshop, June 1996, Bled, Slovenia. Habraken J., Boekholt J., Thyssen A. and Dinjens P. (1974) Variations, The Systematic Design of Supports. Cambridge, USA: MIT Press. Hales H. L. (1984) Computer-aided facilities planning. In Industrial engineering Vol. 9. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. Hendricx A. (2000) A core object model for architectural design. Leuven: Departement Architectuur, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven,. Kumlin R. R. (1995). Architectural Programming. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. Muther R. (1973). Systematic Layout Planning (SLP). 2nd ed. Boston: Cahners Books. Schenck D. A., and Wilson P. R. (1994). Information modelling: The EXPRESS Way. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Svensson K., Yngve H., and Bergenudd C. (1999) Förvaltningshandlingar Slutrapport. Stockholm: Byggstandardiseringen.

19 19 Documentation of the Activity Add-On Technical documentation Add-On for ArchiCAD An Add-On is a separate program, in close relation with ArchiCAD. It can be run only within ArchiCAD. The Add-On has an interface for the user through the interface of ArchiCAD (e.g.: new menus, dialogs, floating palettes, etc.). An Add-on expands the functionality of ArchiCAD. The API for development of Add-ons enables access to the inner processes and inner database of ArchiCAD. With these capabilities it is possible to enhance the basic ArchiCAD elements, but it is also possible to use ArchiCAD independent tools and techniques and integrate them into the ArchiCAD environment. Activity System The Activity System is a functional hierarchy in different levels of activities. Activities are composed of persons and equipment. The first level of the hierarchy must be an activity, and an activity may only occur once within the activity system. Persons and Equipment can occur many times in the activity system. In the Activity Add-On the activity system can be edited, and relations can be defined between the elements in the system and Object type elements in the ArchiCAD plan file. Elements within the Activity System: - Activity - Participates in Activity = Person - Applied in activity = Equipment Activity Activity Relation = 0 + child parent Person Equipment Figure 1: Main objects and their relations

20 20 Properties of the Activity Object: - Name - Description - Duration Properties of the Person Object: (A person can only exist within an activity) - Name - Description Properties of the Equipment Object: (An equipment may exist independent of an activity) - Name - Description The program stores most of the information into two lists: - the list of objects (activity, person, equipment, ArchiCAD element related objects) - the list of relations (part-whole relations between activities, persons and equipments. Relations between activities. Relation with ArchiCAD element related objects). - Object type element in ArchiCAD The Activity Add-On can link the Activity elements with Object type elements in ArchiCAD. An ArchiCAD Object element can be linked with an Activity element, if it has the visible variable within its parameters. Every Activity element occurrence can be linked with one or more ArchiCAD Object element. The same ArchiCAD Object element can only be linked with same Activity element. There are two special ArchiCAD Object element. These are library parts, and to work properly, these should be loaded in ArchiCAD: - The Activity Space Object ( Activity space.gsm ) It shows the spatial extension of the activity. It can be created, with the Fill Activity Space Transformation tool within the Activity Palette. In order to create an Activity Space object the user must select a fill, and a hotspot, and then activate the transformation tool. (The name of the activity will occur at the hotspot s coordinates, which will be the base coordinate of the object). A new Activity space object is created, and the hotspot and the fill will be deleted. - The Activity Relation Object ( acty_relation_stamp.gsm ) The Add-On handles this kind of object itself. Outputs: - Activity file ( *.acty type file beside the plan file ( *.pla )) This is a binary file which contains the data of the Activity System.

21 21 - AGM (Activity Group Module) file. ( *.agm type file) It is a binary file, which contains Activities with all relations and objects under and between them. It also contains the ArchiCAD elements which are linked to them. - Report file (*.txt) It contains the structure of the Activity System, with all related information in a text format. - Time Observation The user can observe the appearance of the activities and the related objects in time. Time management There are for every Activity a list of time settings, which describe the appearance of the Activity in Time. These time list elements have two main settings, periodical and point of time. The point of time type time description consists of a starting time and an ending time, the Activity exists between these two times. In the periodical setting the existence of the Activity depends on: - the boundary times (excluding criteria) - the given years - the given months - the given weeks - the given weekdays - the given dates (the day of a month) - the start time (in hour, minute, second) - the duration (in days, hours, minutes, seconds) The Activity starts on every possible day at the given start time and lasts for the given duration. The time interval follows these rules: 20:00:00 21:00:00 19:59:59 is not part of the interval 20:00:00 is part of the interval 20:59:59 is part of the interval 21:00:00 is not part of the interval Does the activity appear at X (point of time)? The program chooses the start time from the time list of the Activity, which is the nearest after (or equal) to X. (e.g.: X = 2000/01/12, 20:58:12 found time = 2000/01/07, 14:00:00) If the found time plus the duration of the time setting is greater than X, than the Activity appears, otherwise not. Does the activity appear between X and Y? (X<Y)

22 22 The program chooses a start time from the time list of the Activity, which is the nearest before (or equal) to X ( sx) and a start time which is the nearest before (or equal) to Y ( sy). If (sy X ) it appears If (sx+sduration X) it appears (otherwise not) Which state has an equipment (which is part of the Activity System) at X? If there exists an Activity, which exists at X, and the equipment appears in this Activity, then the state of the equipment is the state of this equipment in the Activity. If the equipment still remains, if there exists no Activity at X, which contains the equipment, then the state of the equipment is the state of this equipment from the closest Activity below X.

23 23 Functions of the Activity Add-On Overview The Activity menu within the ArchiCAD menu contains: - Activity Settings switch on or off the Activity Settings palette - Time Observation switch on or off the Time Observation palette - Activity palette - Save Report file The Activity Settings Palette The main functions to configure the Activity System are handled from the Activity Settings palette available as a dialog box placed on the ArchiCAD window, see figure 2. The main functions are Activity Tree, Activity Links and Activity Properties, see figure 3. Figure 2: The Activity Settings palette Activity Tree Tab The Activity Tree Tab handles the composition of the Activity System through a set of buttons. It allows saving and loading AGM s, Activity Group Modules.

24 24 Figure 3: The Activity Tree dialogue window o o o o o The Add New button and the pop-up menu next to it Adds a new Activity, Person or Equipment to the hierarchy The Add button and the pop-up menu next to it Places the same Person or Equipment at additional positions within the hierarchy. The Delete button Deletes an element. A Person or Equipment that is only deleted locally, and will continue to exist in other parts of the hierarchy The Show in Tree button If an Activity element is selected in the ArchiCAD plan window, it is shown in the hierarchy AGM (Activity Group Module) related buttons The Save AGM button Saves the selected Activities, with all elements under them, and all related links. It also saves the linked ArchiCAD elements relative to the origo.

25 25 The Load AGM button Loads a saved AGM file. The Activity System elements will be placed under the selected Activity (or the selected Root), and the ArchiCAD elements at the given coordinates. The Property Tab o General controls The Apply Changes button Applies the changes in the name and description edit field The Link Selected Objects/Cut Link button Links a selected ArchiCAD object to the selected Activity System Element. (The link is possible if the ArchiCAD object is defined as an Activity Object, in the GDL script). The Show in ArchiCAD button Exist if there is a link between an ArchiCAD element and an Activity System element. It selects the linked ArchiCAD elements. o Equipment controls The Exists Between Activities Check Box An Equipment element exists during the time period between Activities in which it appear. Between Activities it has the same state as in the last Activity. o Activity controls Duration group It Contains the list of time settings in which the Activity exists. The Time List pop-up menu The Add New Button Adds a new time element to the time list. The Change Button Edits the selected time element The Delete Button Deletes the selected time element from the list The Time Settings dialog box In this dialog box, you can specialize the time settings shown in figure 4.

26 26 Figure 4: The time settings window Activity Links Tab In this dialogue box links between Activities are edited. See figure 5. Figure 5: The Activity links window

27 27 Possible Links: Visibility, No Visibility, Sound contact, No Sound contact, Distance, Connection, No Connection, Adjacency. Link properties: The link properties can be be set at certain degrees for visibility, sound contact, etc o o The Add button with the link type pop-up and the activity pop-up Creates a link between the Activity selected in the tree view, and the Activity in the popup control. The Delete Link button Deletes the selected link. The Time Observation palette Figure 6: The time observation dialogue box The Time Observation palette makes it possible to observe Activities at certain points of time or a certain period of time, see figure 6. o The Refresh button is used after changing the time settings to Update the ArchiCAD plan window Observe a Point of Time Observe a Period This shows the state of the ArchiCAD Elements between two Activities. The Activity palette The Activity palette enables the designer to define an activity space, and to switch between live and edit modes. See figure 7. Figure 7: The Activity palette

28 28 o The Hatch Activity Space Object Transformation Button It converts the selected hatch into an Activity Space Object. The local origo of the Activity Space will be the selected hotspot, if there is any. A hatch can be made both by the o Live Mode Switch to the Time Observation palette o Edit Mode Switch to the Activity Settings palette. Save Report file Saves a Report file, in text format, on the Activity System.