“Computational Civil Engineering - "Intersections" International Journal

“Computational Civil Engineering 2005”, International Symposium 473. THE AIC INFO INFORMATION SYSTEMBack in 1997, Dan Turda had the idea to make a first step by creating an electronicinformation system in Romania, available not just for AEC professionals but alsofor the public. He named it “AIC info” (http://www.aic.info.ro/) upon AEC(Architecture, Engineering and Construction) + information. It was, basically, anelectronic catalogue of construction products and services, accessible through theInternet but published also on CDs (due to the lack of Internet connection for manyusers at that time). The main idea behind this project was the large dissemination ofbuilding and construction concepts, services and products, not just for accurate andefficient information, but also for education and promotion.User interfaceIIIIIIIO subsystem (generated pages)Help, commands etc.Instruments: applications, filters,plug-ins, cgi-bin etc.Database• Query management(from users or programs)• Knowledge managementKnowledge collectionText, images, models, documents, links,references, rules, elementary procedures etc.Figure 3. The initial layers of “AIC info” [2].The available resources were classified considering the life cycle of a construction,from conception to demolition, also according to the instant and complexity of aproduct or technology. Normally, at the beginning, every new building object goesthrough conception, certification etc., so we named the first category “Services”. Inthe next category, we included the tools, devices, machinery etc. needed forbuilding activities. The material part of a construction is already subordinated tothe complexity level of entities, thus after “Raw and basic materials” the morecompounded entities were grouped under “Building parts, units and assemblies”.Networks, plants, building equipment were divided in two categories: internal andexternal ones, such a differentiation being necessary also according to theirimportance and complexity. The most complex category was “Buildings” (integralconstructions). According to the life cycle, the next category was “Repair andmaintenance” while the last one “Demolition, recovery and recycling”.