Donahue - Group D - Uses of Databases in Design Offices

Donahue - Group D - Uses of Databases in Design Offices

A database is defined as “a structured set of data held in a computer, especially one that is accessible in various ways.” Databases are used in many fields of professional work. However, this post will focus on the uses of databases in design offices for engineering. In the engineering profession, databases can be found in almost any location because they are the fundamental basis for most of the design software tools that engineers use daily.

Aside from this obvious use in design offices, I decided to explore other uses and came across an article from ASCE. The article states that by 2025, the entire civil engineering profession will be enamored solely on fast tracking construction and development and deployment of technologies. Steps are already being taken in this field by designers and researchers, as technology continues to evolve itself and the engineering profession. Such benefits are listed, including improvements in the processes of design, engineering, building, and maintaining. Of course, these technological advancements will continue to push the limits of these facets and will also create new applications for engineers and designers to use.

Engineers are already seeing some of these advancements push the limits through the practice of “leveraging real-time access to living databases, sensors, diagnostic tools, and other advanced technologies to ensure informed [design] decisions are made.” Relating this all back to how databases can be used in design offices is simple: design offices use databases every day for “highly-integrated planning and construction tools” where “data flows freely and is available at all times, representing current conditions.” From there, as the design and construction advance, these databases will continually be updated and these current conditions analyzed, with the key benefit being that “latent defects are addressed early in the design, and flowed back into the parent database” and the analytical and design processes continue.

This is a classic example of the growing field of intelligent infrastructure (or even intelligent buildings, if you will). And while other technologies, such as sensors, are required to work in association, databases are at the forefront of this growing field. Data is always readily accessible on almost any device now and informed design and construction decisions can be made as a consequence. Accuracy and precision are also improved because important information is properly organized and stored, for all to access. To close, I always like to add in personal experience to help defend my commentary. In my three co-op experiences (all design firms), databases were utilized daily by all engineers. There were several databases, each with varying functions and purpose. These include shop drawing logs, master drawings, as-builts, design logs, etc. And of course, the information kept in these databases was specific to each.

The design logs were most intriguing because it utilized this concept I presented in this blog post of integrated design. Necessary HVAC information was continuous analyzed and updated in an existing building and it was datalinked into the model. Thus, as the database updated itself so did the model. It truly helped with the design process to avoid mistakes and defects and also created more ease for the engineer, as was discussed in last week’s posting. Depending on what information you were specifically interested in viewing or accessing, you could also just run a set of queries to narrow down the return from 16,000 entries to a more manageable number. This concept of queries and SQL is brought up in both Ivan’s and Audrey’s posts and is very comprehensive.

Databases are powerful tools and their application in design offices is astounding. And with ASCE hoping that this intelligent infrastructure (and I.B.) concept takes off by 2025 or earlier, it creates an excitement for future applications and the pushing of the limits of design.

Comments on Other Entries:

On Ivan’s Post:

    Great post, very comprehensive. Your first paragraph was very informative about the true definitions of various elements of general databases and then you defined specific ones such as RDBMS and their use of SQL. I really liked how you focused the remainder of your post on the comparisons and capabilities of relational databases and how they can improve the formulating of specifications. This is a benefit that a majority of the class will be specifically interested in as structural engineers.

On Audrey’s Post:

   Great job on your post about SQL. I’ve had some experience coding the queries of databases that were used in design offices and like you stated, it can be very complex sometimes and also requires some other programs/language for complete successful capabilities.

Resources:

[1.]  ASCE. "The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025." Asce.org. ASCE, 2007. Web. 10

Feb. 2014. <http://www.asce.org/uploadedFiles/Vision_2025_-_New/TheVisionforCivilEngineeringin2025_ASCE.pdf>.