Abstract
Although Concurrent Engineering can offer substantial benefits, and hence many companies take a strong interest in the collaborative approach, it is not yet clear how it can best be implemented, particularly for a geographically distributed Concurrent Engineering team that may be using a disparate range of computer systems. The recent rise in the number connected to the Internet would offer the possibility of using Internet standards to allow for collaboration over the Internet. Central to the use of Internet standards for Concurrent Engineering is the key area of transmitting and viewing CAD and engineering information, and of communication between team members. This paper is concerned with addressing this issue and describes the how 3D CAD files can be viewed, and engineering information exchanged, by geographically distributed team members in an interactive manner using Internet standards. In particular this paper is concerned with the issue of storing STEP data so that it can be retrieved efficiently, how this data can be converted from STEP data to the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) to allow the product to be viewed in interactive 3-D on a wide number of platforms using the Internet, and is concerned with the issue of how team members can markup the VRML worlds, with other team members being able to examine the markup comments of others. An algorithm for converting STEP data to VRML is described and an overview of the implementation of this approach, in a system called CyberView, is given.
The result of this is that users from disparate functions, on a wide variety of platforms, can view products in interactive 3-D through the Internet, can comment on aspects of the design, and can examine the markup comments of other team members on particular aspects of the design. Such an approach offers the promise of improved communication and hence for enhancing the product development process.
