On April 4, 1991 the author gave a seminar on Object-Oriented Approach to the Analysis and Optimization of Truss Structures at Interdisciplinary Reserch Office (IRO) of NASA Langley Reserch Center. This paper is the record of the seminar. The seminar was planned by Dr. Sobieski, who is the Head of Interdisciplinary Research Office. The figures in this paper are the same as the transparencies used in the seminar. Object-oriented approach is one of the methods for representing knowledge and has a paradigm in which the fundamental processing is to send a message to an object rather than a more traditional approach of calling a procedure to operate on some data. In this paper a concept of object-oriented approach to the analysis and optimization of truss structures is presented. Much attention is focused on the development of a knowledgebase for structural engineering and such knowledgebase is very useful for the conceptual design stage of structures.
