Object-oriented integration of construction and simulation models

The engineering process is highly interactive and iterative. A common product model to reflect all the necessary facets and stages of the process does still not exist. The partial model approach is a feasible alternative. A practical approach to the complete integration of the partial models by an object-oriented method using the persistent storage management system of ObjectStore and the visualization and manipulation capabilities of AutoCAD is presented. This approach is the foundation for the architecture of integrated, distributed and collaborative construction and simulation tools for structural analysis.