The architectural production process is extremely complex. A great amount of communication is necessary between the design team members, the constructor and all other parties involved. During the design phase, many iterations of decomposition and integration of different parts and specialties of the design are necessary. Many errors can occur during these iterations. In addition, the architectural design and construction team is usually a temporal combination for a particular project. The project teams are usually geographically spread out which makes the communication even more difficult. The current business model of the AEC industry is facing the difficulties in the communication and information integration. The M3D system is a first time attempt to provide a communication and integration tool for an architectural design team. It promotes a new business process in the AEC industry. It is a higher level CSCW system particularly for 3D architectural design. It provides cooperative working sessions to connect the long distance team members to have on-line visualization and modification of the design. The system provides a rich set of editing and integration operations focused on architects and engineers necessities.

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Communication systems,Building design,Architecture,AEC,CSCW

• Computer and Information Sciences - Natural Sciences
• Civil Engineering - Engineering and Technology
• Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering - Engineering and Technology