Web-enabled collaborative design environment

Abstract

Recently, advanced information technologies have opened new possibilities for collaborative designs, Zn this: paper, a web-enabled collaborative design environment is proposed, where the product data based on STandard for the Exchange of Product model data (STEP) is managed in a hierarchical database and the product metadata is used to efficiently search and utilize information scattered over the network Several integrity constraints are depicted using EXPRESS to validate the combination of data from different sources. The knowledge represented as metadata and constraints on the interacting features differentiate this environment from previous ones. The collaborative conferencing system is also introduced to communicate and collaborate simultaneously among the related designers. As a result,the proposed environment allows the distributed designers to more efficiently obtain, exchange and communicate the design information throughout the design process.