Simphony-an integrated environment for construction simulation

This paper discusses Simphony as an integrated environment for building special purpose simulation tools for modeling construction systems. Simphony provides various services that enable the developer to easily control different behaviors in the developed tool such as simulation behaviors, graphical representation, statistics, and animation. These services allow the building of flexible and user-friendly tools in a relatively short time. The developed tools (templates) then provide the building blocks that a user (construction engineer) can use to create simulation models for different construction domains without the need for a deep background in simulation techniques. The services available for the developer are discussed and examples of their use are illustrated. Samples of the tools developed with Simphony are also reviewed to highlight some of their features