Issues in developing an Internet application for engineering consulting in architecture

Information technology has become so powerful that what is conventionally called CAD might evolve to iAD (Internet Aided Design) (Zhou 2000). For Internet applications in the AEC industry, most of the efforts and success have been concentrated on project management and collaboration, while in the design and engineering consulting area, limited progress has been made. At the same time, contemporary development has not changed the nature of the fragmentation of the AEC industry . Based on previous research of surveys of development of Internet applications in the AEC industry (Zhou 2001), and the study of information technology both available today and in the near future, we raise a series of issues related about Internet-based consulting application by integrating a variety of disciplines and functions of design and construction processes. It will cover a range of design phases, such as, information gathering, automatic remote consultation, specific problem solving, and collaboration. Finally, in future follow up research, we will apply these conceptual ideas to steel construction consulting for architects.