1996  CKB (Construction Kit Builder) is a computational design environment based on defining, then working within, a system of components and rules for their placement. In construction details, the components and placement rules are standard; in less routine design tasks they are not. CKB uses a constraint-based, object oriented, system architecture to provide two levels of design support. At the higher level, designers of technical systems use CKB to specify components and rules for their positioning. At the lower level, building designers use CKB to lay out components of these systems.

1996 Why can’t CAD be more like Lego? Gross, M.D., Automation in Construction Journal, 5:285-300. [pdf]

1996 Elements that Follow Your Rules: Constraint Based CAD layout, Gross, M.D., Proceedings of Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) ‘96, Tuscon, AZ, pp. 115-122. [pdf}

1994 Avoiding conflicts in architectural subsystem layout, Gross, M.D., Journal of the Concurrent Engineering Research Association 2:163-171.

1990 Knowledge-Based Support for Subsystem Layout in Architectural Design, Gross, M.D., in Gero, J., ed., Proceedings 1990 Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Engineering — Design, Southampton: Computational Mechanics