A Web-Enabled Approach to Feature-Based Modeling in a Distributed and Collaborative Design Environment

Network and Internet technology opens up another domain for building a future CAD/CAM environment. The environment will be global, network-centric, and spatially distributed. In this paper, we present a web-enabled approach to feature-based modeling in a distributed and collaborative design environment. The presented approach combines the current feature-based modeling technique with distributed computing and communication technology for supporting product modeling and collaborative design activities over the net work. The approach is implemented in a client/server architecture, in which Web-enabled feature modeling clients, neutral feature model server, and other applications communicate with one another via a standard communication protocol. The paper discusses how the neu tral feature model supports multiple views and how the client-side feature model supports inexpensive and distributed geometric pro cessing. It also explains how to maintain naming consistency between geometric entities of the server and clients. Moreover, it explains how to minimize the network delay between the server and clients according to incremental feature modeling operations.