United States site instead?Endorsement by Japan’s largest construction company confirms GDL’s technological advantage
Budapest/Tokyo – May 2, 2000 – Kajima Corporation, a multi-national construction company
based in Japan, along with its affiliated catalog company Plus Alpha and Graphisoft, staged a
presentation of Graphisoft’s 3D object technology, GDL (Geometric Description Language),
as a means for electronic catalog publishing. More than 60 companies from the Japanese
building and construction industry were in attendance.
It was announced that Kajima has chosen GDL as the technological basis for their new
e-commerce activities. Plus Alpha will contract with building product manufacturers to
publish their catalogs electronically using GDL. The objects will then be marketed on Plus
Alpha’s website, as well as used by Kajima in their architectural plans.
States Mr. Takagaki, General Manager, Architectural & Engineering Design Group of Kajima,
“GDL is the most appropriate and effective technology for electronic commerce of furniture
and building components. It has the necessary information to define an object through
images and attributes, is compact in file size, and easy to maintain in a Web environment.”
“We believe the real breakthrough for electronic commerce in the construction industry will
be led by the largest firms, just as this revolution was led in the automotive industry by the
big automakers like General Motors,” says Graphisoft President and CEO Gábor Bojár. “We
are proud that Kajima has chosen us as their technology partner.”
Kajima has also developed a new AEC solution, DB-CAD, based on Archicad and the
Virtual BuildingTM concept. DB-CAD System is the first CAD solution in Japan to encompass
architectural design, HVAC design and structure engineering through an integrated database.
Kajima began using Archicad in 1998, because as a “true object-based building simulator
that integrates the 3D model, 2D drawings and properties data,” it was well-suited to be the
basis for their new integrated system.
About Kajima Corporation
Founded in 1840 in Yokohama, Japan, Kajima Corporation has rapidly developed by anticipating trends in all types of
construction-related needs. The Company’s activities have encompassed the railway construction and electric power
development that propelled Japan’s initial modernization as well as coastal industrial development, high-rise structures,
nuclear power plants, and maritime-related projects that helped the nation rise quickly to economic superpower status.
Today, as one of Japan’s leading construction companies, Kajima maintains subsidiaries in North America, Europe, and
Asia and is active in construction and real estate development around the world. More information about Kajima
Corporation is available at www.kajima.co.jp.
Graphisoft is a leading provider of computer-aided design (CAD) software solutions for the architectural profession and the
building industry. Founded in 1982, Graphisoft is ranked today among the largest AEC CAD software developers in the
world, with 12 offices all over the world in addition to its headquarters. Graphisoft’s flagship product, Archicad, is used
by more than 75,000 architects worldwide and distributed in 25 languages and 80 countries. Shares of Graphisoft are traded
on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Neuer Markt under the symbol GPH. More information about Graphisoft is available at
www.graphisoft.com.