Early Computer Graphics Developments in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industry

Despite 30 years' experimentation and 20 years' availability of commercial products, the architecture, engineering, and construction industry in the mid-1990s had yet to achieve an effective integration of computer-based techniques into its business processes. Business processes in all industries are resistant to change, and people tend to use new tools in the same way they used their old ones: computers as pencils. In the architecture, engineering, and construction industry within the United States, this tendency has been aggravated by the segmentation of the work process into myriad specialties, frequently performed by separate companies, with the information flow obstructed by professional licensing, regulation, contracts, the profit motive, and even the training of design professionals. However, a number of devel-opments—the emergence of object technology; industry standardization initiatives ; widespread adoption of Internet technologies; and competitive pres-sures—are converging to create both the feasibility of and the necessity for rethinking and restructuring the industry. This article focuses on computer graphics precedents related to the architecture, engineering, and construction industry.