An integrated study of construction virtual prototyping system

Construction project is a complicated and dynamic process which is impossible to have the ability to try before build. And for most of construction enterprises in China, traditional methods such as bar chart and column diagram are always used for denoting the schedule and resource utilization, which are very difficult to explicitly show the variational construction process. In order to change the old construction management mode, the paper designs a construction information management system by making use of virtual prototyping technology for graphically simulating the whole construction process and visually realizing the dynamic management under various operation environments including the schedule, labor, equipment and all physical layout, etc. The system called construction virtual prototyping system (CVPS) includes the three aspects of mechanism analysis: (1) integrated platform; (2) development environment; (3) design. Basically, its use can help find the problems in advance before the design and construction process so as to minimize the risk, cost, and the makespan or total project duration.