Adequate explanation facilities in knowledge based systems are necessary for such systems to be considered successful. In the past, however, explanation facilities of standard knowledge based systems have usually reproduced only automatically generated knowledge statements rather than providing meaningful explanations that pertain to a given knowledge domain. In particular, knowledge based engineering software to verify structural designs according to industrial standards must reflect the fact that the design code (DIN 18800) used in the verification process is the basis of knowledge that the engineer references and, therefore, should also play a vital role in the explanation facility itself.

In this paper, some knowledge based systems for design verification are presented. It is shown how the transcription of a technical document (DIN 18800) into a hypertext document (HTML 3.0) can provide the basis of an explanation facility in which the technical document plays a central role.

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