Abstract:

As society places higher demands on the quality of building designs, design software has become more professional and complicated. Current design software not only incurs high learning costs but also features complex interaction modes. The recent breakthroughs in large language models (LLM) have enabled computers to clearly comprehend instructions based on human natural language and accurately generate code, which is expected to provide new ideas for the paradigm of human interaction with software. Therefore, this study designed a new paradigm of interactive building design driven by LLM, i.e., shifting from the designers interacting with the design software through multiple keyboard and mouse operations to LLMs writing scripts to invoke APIs according to architects’ instructions. The methodology was proposed and its implementation feasibility in building design was validated. The methodology included: ① LLM retrieved task-related APIs from the API set according to user instructions; ② LLM wrote a program script based on instructions and the abstract of candidate APIs and ran it; ③ LLM revised the script written based on the feedback from the environment, users, etc. To validate the capabilities of current LLMs in executing the key steps of the methodology, multiple design tasks were completed with Rhino7 design software, GPT-4, and CodeLlaMa. The results not only demonstrated that the LLM-driven interactive design paradigm held initial prospects for implementation in building design, but also provided experiences and suggestions for its implementation. The implementation of this design paradigm could reduce the threshold and learning costs, improving the efficiency in many scenarios, and was expected to play a key role in future building design software.

Key words: building design software, interaction with software, large language model, application programming interface, GPT-4, Rhino7, Ladybug