Components are stand-alone software modules which can be used by other components, independent of their programming language and process borders. Components offer their functions through a public interface, called service. The communication between components is controlled by an object request broker (ORB). One of the most common ORBs is ActiveX from Microsoft Co. For software in civil and structural engineering there are no really components available yet. The problem with components is that they should be designed for a big number of reusing cases. This paper shows how mechanical models can be used to define engineering components and they can be used in several concepts of distributed software environments (intra- and internet).     «

Components are stand-alone software modules which can be used by other components, independent of their programming language and process borders. Components offer their functions through a public interface, called service. The communication between components is controlled by an object request broker (ORB). One of the most common ORBs is ActiveX from Microsoft Co. For software in civil and structural engineering there are no really components available yet. The problem with components is that th...     »