Distributed collaborative CAD system based on Web Service

This paper presents a novel Web Service based distributed collaborative CAD system employing feature as its collaborative design element and uses XML to define feature operations and communication protocol between the server and the client. To reduce network load and increase response ability of the system, the feature information is updated incrementally on the client. The system supports collaborative designing on heterogeneous platforms. Its framework and communication protocols are analyzed in detail. The experimental results from the developed prototype system showed that it can effectively support collaborative design under the distributed environment.