Constraint-Based Techniques to Support Collaborative Design

Abstract

We develop a framework to support collaborative constraint-based geometric design systems with multiple views for concurrent engineering. The framework is based on a conceptual architecture with a master view and several client views with a two-way flow of information between the master and client views. The tools in the framework are used to open a new application’s view and to maintain consistency when one of the applications changes its view by editing it and when either the master view or one of the other views must be updated. A simple case study illustrates how the tools in the framework work.