ADDVAC: Applying Active Design Documents for the Capture, Retrieval and Use of Rationale during Offshore Platform VAC Design

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Engineering design is a plan to build an artifact that needs to be communicated and discussed among designers. The concept is an abstract idea that can only be transmitted through a document containing the description of the artifact’s form, function and behavior as well as the designer’s rationale for them. Most engineering design domains are multidisciplinary. Understanding design decisions and their rationale becomes crucial to allow collaborative work. The Active Design Documents (ADD) approach has been very effective in assisting the capture, retrieval and use of rationale during the design process in various engineering domains. This paper presents the development and results of ADD applied to the domain of Ventilation and Air Conditioning (VAC) design of offshore oil production platforms. We focus our discussion on the way rationale availability improved the design process itself and on the problems encountered during