A collaborative framework for integrated part and assembly modeling

Abstract

An ideal product modeling system should support both part modeling and assembly modeling, instead of just either of them as is the case in most current CAD systems. A good basis for such integration is multiple-view feature modeling, as it allows focusing on different aspects of the product, while at the same time maintaining the consistency among all model views. This paper presents a framework that supports synchronous collaborative sessions via the Internet, among members of a distributed development team, with such a modeling system. The framework provides facilities for creating a hierarchical product structure, with single and compound components, and meanwhile assigning tasks to team members. The actual design of a single component is supported by a web-client specialized in part design, whereas the specification of assembly relations among components is supported by a web-client specialized in assembly design. All clients make use of the same server, which runs a multipleview feature modeling kernel and maintains the complete product model, guaranteeing the consistency between the part design and the assembly design views. In addition, the server keeps all clients up to date and manages all communication.

A virtual environment for complex products collaborative assembly operation simulation

“…In this system, a new Assembly Representation (AREP) scheme was introduced to improve the assembly modeling efficiency. Bidarra presented a collaborative framework that does support integrated design of parts and assemblies (Bidarra et al 2002); in this framework, the team members can discuss the assembly design issues through a collaborative validity maintenance scheme including phone, chat channel, shared camera, etc. Chen introduced an Internet-enabled real-time collaborative assembly modeling system (Chen et al 2004), named e-Assembly, which allowed a group of geographically dispersed designers to jointly build an assembly model in real time over the Internet.…”

A CAE-integrated distributed collaborative design system for finite element analysis of complex product based on SOOA

“…A server plays as an information exchanger to broadcast CAD files or commands generated by a client to other clients during a collaborative design process [54]. CollaCAD TM is developed [55] and a thin/strong representation in client/server has been proposed to enhance the performance of the system effectively [56], such as Alibre Design TM [53], and other developed systems [56][57][58]. A network-centric feature-based virtual prototyping system in a distributed computing architecture was proposed [59].…”

A collaborative approach to assembly sequence planning

“…Bidarra et al [5] presented a collaborative framework that does support integrated design of parts and assemblies. It enables members of a product development team to have synchronous collaborative modeling sessions via Internet.…”