Collaborative computer-aided design - Research and development status

Abstract

In order to facilitate product design and realization processes, presently, research is actively carried out for developing methodologies and technologies of collaborative computer-aided design systems to support design teams geographically dispersed based on the quickly evolving information technologies. In this paper, the developed collaborative systems, methodologies and technologies, which are organized as a horizontal or a hierarchical manner, are reviewed. Meanwhile, a 3D streaming technology, which can effectively transmit visualization information across networks for Web applications, is highlighted and the algorithms behind it are disclosed. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.