Integration of building design tools in dutch practice

Since two years, the Dutch building consultancy practice has been supported by an integrated design environment to base its advices on. This environment, called the Uniform Environment or UO in Dutch abbreviated form, has been developed by the Association for Computerisation in the Building and Installation Technology (VABI) and TNO Building and Construction Research. The basic principle of the UO is that all data, associated with a building project, is stored in one database, irrespective of the design tools being used in the project. In this way, design tools can share information which is commonly needed by several tools. Each design tool has its own input forms, which have a strong resemblance with the input forms of the other tools. Known information from the input or the calculation of  another tool is automatically supplied; the user only needs to input information, specific to the design tool. Currently, several design tools have been incorporated into the UO, mainly in the area of HVAC, lighting and acoustics. Future improvements of the UO include, beside new design tools, a coupling to tools for cost estimation and specification generation. The integration of the tools in the UO will be improved by structuring the output of the UO as well as is currently the input. In the end, the user will be   able   to   work   problem-oriented   instead   of plication-oriented.