A Distributed-Computing Integrated Collaborative CAD System

Existing researches on distributive and collaborative CAD systems often focus on collaborative request submitting, but not distributive executing. A novel approach on architecture of Collaborative CAD system is proposed in this paper. A Prototype system, GridCAD, is integrated with Web Services-based Distributed-Computing technology and XML/SOAP is adopted as the communications mechanism between Server and Clients. The Session Manager provides the solution of validity maintenance of model under collaborative environment. And particularly, as the core module, Task Manager enables GridCAD to split complex operations dynamically and perform distributively. GridCAD also guarantees interoperability on heterogeneous systems so that different types of systems can communicate smoothly and perform the computation much faster than on a single machine.