New and efficient paradigms for web-based collaborative product design in a global economy will be driven by increased outsourcing, increased competition, and pressures to reduce product development time. We have developed a three-tier (client-server-database) architecture based collaborative shape design system, Computer Aided Distributed Design and Collaboration (CADDAC). CADDAC has a centralized geometry kernel and constraint solver. The server-side provides support for solid modeling, constraint solving operations, data management, and synchronization of clients. The client-side performs real-time creation, modification, and deletion of geometry over the network. In order to keep the clients thin, many computationally intensive operations are performed at the server. Only the graphics rendering pipeline operations are performed at the client-side. A key contribution of this work is a flexible architecture that decouples Application Data (Model), Controllers, Viewers, and Collaboration. This decoupling allows new feature development to be modular and easy to develop and manage.
The implications of enterprise-wide pipeline management tools for organizational relations and exchanges
