Many civil
engineering tasks
are supported by specific software systems for a specific
application.
Integration
of
engineering information is often approached as an exchange of
digital data between separate
application software systems via standardised
data exchange definitions. Current approaches assume a “passive” involvement of
the engineering user. The user basically asks for a complete set of digital
information to be transferred into a standardised “data exchange format” which
then can be used to be read by another engineering application software system.
In this paper a method is proposed which much more resembles traditional ways
of utilizing engineering information generated in separate processes.
Functionality is provided for “actively” transferring specific aspects of
engineering information defined in the context of a specific application into
another context of a separate application. This is achieved on the basis of a
standardized communication technology. This process can furthermore be enhanced
to support a revision control of engineering information modified in one
context and utilized in a separate one.