Conceptual Structural Design in SEED

Although there are many computer-based tools for analyzing structures whose geometry, topology, and member properties have already been determined, there are very few general-purpose tools to assist structural designers in synthesizing structural configurations to be subsequently sized, analyzed, and detailed. The comceptual-structural-design submodule of the Software Environment to Support the Early Phases in Building Design (SEED-Config) is intended to fill this void. The process starts with a geometric model of the building's massing, a set of functional requirements to be satisfied, and a toolkit of technologies capable of generating potential structural system and subsystem alternatives. Structural alternatives can be rapidly generated under designer control to the level of detail desired and evaluated against a range of criteria. Provisions are made to store design cases as well as to retrieve and adapt these to meet new requirements.