Patent ID: 7409392

Claim:
A method for managing a construction project, said method comprising: receiving a plurality of identifiers from a user, each of said identifiers identifying a respective component of said construction project; associating an initial one of a plurality of predefined states with each of said identifiers, said predefined states indicating the construction status of the component identified by the associated identifier; writing records to a database, said records including said identifiers and said associated initial states; updating the states associated with said identifiers by writing records to said database associating different ones of said predefined states with said identifiers; and retrieving the updated states from said database to determine the status of said construction project; and wherein said step of receiving a plurality of identifiers from said user includes receiving a drawing file corresponding to said construction project, receiving definitions of groups of objects within said drawing file from said user, said groups of objects corresponding to said components of said construction project, assigning one of said identifiers to each of said groups of objects, generating a model tile from said drawing file, said model file including graphical representations of said components, and associating each graphical representation with the one of said identifiers identifying the component represented by the particular graphical representation.