ABSTRACT
A consequence of the arrival of low cost sophisticated computer-aided design systems as everyday tools in the construction industry, is the increased perception that all the information that needs to be collected about a building can be integrated through the CAD package. This expectation has led to a miscellany of software tools with extensions to allow them to extract information from the CAD tool, perform some evaluation and return the results. However, it is now becoming clear that the results of this activity are far from satisfactory when examined from the perspective of integration of construction information. Each of the software tools uses different conceptual information models resulting in a very low level of overall integration. This has not gone unnoticed and perhaps the most positive outcome is the increased awareness of the need for standards in the area of integrating building information systems.
