Johnston, Brendan Ashley2014-03-142014-03-142012-10-08etd-10172012-073023http://hdl.handle.net/10919/29295The modern design-construction boundary is facing an unprecedented moment of evaluation. Global applications of building information modeling, including virtual prototyping, factory-based component procurement and industrialized site production are only a few of the forces that threaten to engulf the established façades of architecture, engineering and construction practice. Those professional identities that are unable or unwilling to reach deeply into this oncoming torrent of interoperability, integrated delivery, and infinite domains will be lost. It is even possible that the language of building culture will be washed away forever. Preparations should be made. This research proposes to strengthen available built-project communications. It does so by examining the natural architectonic relationships which exists at the most primitive level of production — about the assembly task. A work and its procedures are investigated through the programming interface of a Virtual Prototype (VP) modeling system. With visualized constructability as its goal, this study highlights the character of VP programming as it translates between design and production information with digital specificity. The results of that investigation fashion a test of a new production communications language with the potential to enrich and refresh the insulate expressions and hollow specification of traditional design communications.In CopyrightConstructability ProgrammingVirtual PrototypingAssembly InstructionIndustrialized ConstructionPictographic CommunicationDissertationhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-10172012-073023/