A Web-based prototype system has been setup for users to carry out visualization-based manipulations and process planning of design models to support distributed design and manufacturing analysis. The process planning module, which has been deployed as services in the Internet, includes four intelligent approaches, and a Tabu search-based approach is explained to illustrate the optimization process. The Web-based system has been integrated with a distributed feature-based design system, and the latter can generate design models and re-represent them in an XML representation based on VRML and attributes of features to provide the input of the former. Through effective utilization of the Web and Java technologies, this system is independent of the operating system, scalable and service-oriented, and can be used by a geographically distributed design team to organize concurrent engineering design activities effectively.