The use of three-dimensional computer modelling in the design of cut and fill platforms for building sites.

Abstract

Computers have infiltrated all areas of human endeavour, from computer controlled buildings to computerised toasters. Many design professionals have embraced computer tools, and reaped tremendous benefits as a result. Architects, planners, and urban designers have tended to resist their implementation, ostensibly on the grounds that most currently available computer tools are inapplicable to design tasks. This surmise can be investigated by reviewing recent design methods and computer capabilities. A more interesting challenge is to test it in practice by means of a computer application written to aid a particular area of design, that of cut and fill platform creation. Pilot studies of the use of this program have been encouraging, indicating that computers offer capabilities not available with any other design tool. Computer modelling is relatively new, and as with all tools there is a period of acceptance and maturing, but there is little doubt that three dimensional design visualisation without computers will soon be as unthinkable as a return to report writing on manual typewriters.