Interfacing architectural CAD data with KBS technology

The important task of communicating architectural geometry as a set of basic entities to Knowledge Based Systems (KBS) has in the past presented a number of unresolved problems. This paper addresses the critical issues and suggests an algorithmic strategy for their resolution. An example of a building plan mapped to a node-arc network representation illustrates the application of the methodology.The popular computer aided design package AutoCAD provides an environment for the interface which will form the primary module of an extensible Building Evaluation and Analysis SysTem, (BEAST).