CoDE: A Cooperative Design Environment— A New Generation of CAD Systems

Abstract

According to conceptual changes on design methodology, this paper presents some research results on a new generation of CAD systems. This new software has not been used to achieve automatic design tasks. On the contrary, it has to make part of an inte grated design environment. A cooperative design modeler is then presented as a support for cooperative and integrated design methodology in this design envi ronment. It mainly allows every design actor to share a unique database owing to a formal exchange network. The modeler provides a graphic interface to add, edit, or modify data. Moreover, the modeler manages the shared database in order to realize heavy design tasks as data propagation or data coherence management. The presented modeler takes place in the global design environment connected to specific applications based on specific design tasks (process planning, structure analysis). An informal communication network worthwhile in any design group including human actors also assists the cooperative design modeler.