4D CAD training in the housing industry and tertiary education

Despite the considerable economic investment involved in housing production, the home building industry still lags behind others in widespread use of computer technology. Residential construction is still very much dependent on labour intensive processes many of which have remained relatively unchanged for the past fifty years. Furthermore, when compared to other industries, the construction industry has often had a reputation for low productivity, waste, and the continued use of antiquated technology. In this paper the authors report on a proposal for a pilot study involving student participation in order to develop an IT-based training scheme for construction professionals and other industry participants. A research methodology and research plan is presented in this paper describing how the performance of various construction workers, inspectors, and building graduates may be monitored so as to measure any performance differentials that may accrue with the introduction of prior training using object oriented 4D CAD modelling. In this paper 4D CAD model results from the linking of 3D graphic images to the fourth dimension of time.