A proposed method for generating,storing and managing large amounts of modelling data using scripts and on-line databases

With computational analysis and simulation becoming an increasingly important part of the building design process, the complexities of dealing with the huge amount of data that this can produce can be overwhelming for many designers. This is especially true in large projects where several different types of analysis may be required, spread out over various different areas of the building and dealing with many different parameters. Without a mechanism for managing and interrogating all the output, important trends and relationships within the data can easily be missed. 
This paper argues that the process of making sense of all this output in such a way that it is possible to make informed design choices is just as important as performing the analysis itself. As a result, it proposes an innovative means of generating and storing output data using scripts to automate parametric calculations and an on-line database for storing this data for access by any member of the design team. A case study of lighting and shading in a high-rise complex urban environment is presented where the use of such a generation and data manipulation system is demonstrated.