Web-based collaborative engineering support system:: Applications in mechanical design and structural analysis

The diversity in software used to support collaborative design and concurrent engineering requires the implementation of new technologies in order to ensure the integration between the various activities of the product development process. Most of the time, companies can not afford to spend the time and the funds required to enhance their IT and software resources. This is often the case of small and medium companies. Nowadays, in mechanical design, the needs for product data sharing between Computer Aided Design (CAD) and finite element analysis (FEA) activities have been fairly increased even for small companies. This article aims at presenting Teamproject software, an asynchronous Web Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) oriented toward the sharing and viewing of 3D data (CAD and FEA) based on Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). Regarding the collaborative design and concurrent engineering approaches, this software increases the information access and its availability to expert and non-expert users in a remote mode. The article deals with the benefits proposed by the use of Web technologies in mechanical design and structural analysis fields. It details the software architecture of Teamproject. One of the added values offered by the new version of the Web CSCW is the translation of CAD and FEA data into VRML format. It extends the 3D product data review to all the team members involved in a project. Indeed, the reading of the Java3D can be ensured by the most used web navigator (like Internet Explorer and Netscape) with the aid of a free plug-in. To summarize, the proposed Web CSCW provides a simple and efficient access to mechanical design and structural analysis data in a real collaborative engineering approach.