Computer-aided architectural design

[6] The practical commercial tools for architecture design and building information modeling appeared a decade later, in the 1980s.

Caetano et al.[3] analyzed the language of architectural research publications and noted the following trends: All CAD and CAAD systems employ a database with geometric and other properties of objects; they all have some kind of graphic user interface to manipulate a visual representation rather than the database; and they are all more or less concerned with assembling designs from standard and non-standard pieces.

Currently, the main distinction which causes one to speak of CAAD rather than CAD lies in the domain knowledge (architecture-specific objects, techniques, data, and process support) embedded in the system.

For example, software which is specifically developed for the computer animation industry (e.g. Maya and 3DStudio Max), is also used in architectural design.

Specialized software, for example for calculating structures by means of the finite element method, is used in architectural design and in that sense may fall under CAAD.

Also algorithms that allow the generation of patterns and their analysis using programmed criteria, and data banks that store information about the problem at hand and the standards and regulations that applies to it.

Computer hardware and machine languages that are supported by these make it easy to perform arithmetical operations quickly and accurately.

Further questions occur about navigation, associative information access, programming and communication within very large data sets.