Robertson Ceco: Automatic Engineering and Detailing of Metal Buildings
The Robertson Ceco Corporation (RCC) uses Design++ in the automation of their engineering and design processes in the production of over 7,000 buildings annually. In April 2006 NCI Building Systems, Inc. (NCI) acquired RCC. NCI praised RCC's Design++ - based engineering systems.
AECbytes published a detailed article on the Robertson Ceco Design++ based solution in June 2005.
Daratech, Inc. published a best practices article titled Robertson Ceco Automates Design Process, Leverages Designer Knowledge
Selvaag Bluethink: A Rule-Based House Designer
Selvaag Bluethink, the technology arm of Selvaag Gruppen AS, a large Norwegian developer and builder of residential buildings, used Design++ to create a rule-based house type design tool that lets architects sketch layouts for urban multi-story appartment buildings after which the tool automatically configures and details the appartments hand the entire building to meet applicable building codes and Selvaag standards.
"It surprises me that the (rule-based design systems) technology still hasn't really taken off commercially after all these years...the underlying technology still seems to be very complex...but now that Design++ is the product of a mainstream BIM vendor such as Bentley, I hope to see it simplified and more widely disseminated...bringing to a larger audience the potential of the computer to become a much more active participant in the design process rather than a passive tool."