📓Technical Concept Document

Sample a document explaining a complex technical concept.

Model-Based Design

Model-based design refers to the ability to create intelligent, real-world models of the assets and materials being designed. It originates from the software engineering concept of object orientation. Like objects, models encapsulate attributes and metadata to represent real-world objects.

Object orientation, or object-oriented programming (OOP), is a programming paradigm (and not a specific language) that uses objects as the basis for designing computer programs. Objects are made up of data and code and represent real-world things.

Three factors make a design solution intelligent:

1. The ability to be “model-based” and ensure that critical attributes and metadata remain persistent.

2. Encapsulated engineering standards that facilitate real-time validation and other automations.

3. Integration with the enterprise systems, eliminating the need for duplicate data entry.

Courtesy of Story Source | Source: Freepik

In model-based software, a designer draws a pole in CAD as a 2D block. Behind the scenes however, the software simultaneously models the same feature in 3D. Unlike the 2D block, this duplicate “digital twin” model is spatially aware in all dimensions (x/y and z) and tracks what features are connected or contained. Additionally, the model can

• encapsulate attributes like length, burial depth, maximum vertical load, and others required to support engineering and materials ordering.

• maintain an electrical and structural topology supporting essential business functions such as network trace. This supports network analysis or planning for customers impacted by loss of service during a construction operation.

In other words, all activities performed in the design session are captured in the design model.

A model is a single depository containing all information on the features created, deleted, or modified in the design sessions.

A model is contained within the standard AutoCAD DWG file. The modeled objects, in addition to their attributes, have unique identifiers that can be related to the enterprise systems responsible for all aspects of asset life cycle performance. These properties enable the sharing of these digital twins across all the necessary systems for creating and fulfilling a design.