PROPOSAL FOR COLLABORATIVE CONCURRENT ENGINEERING TOOL

COMPANIES THAT ARE IMPLEMENTING SIMULTANEOUS ENGINEERING OF PRODUCTS FACE SEVERAL PROBLEMS LACK OF TOOLS THAT SUPPORT COLLABORATION; LACK OF SUPPORT FOR HIGH-BANDWIDTH COMMUNICATION MEDIA TO INCREASE THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN MARKETING AND DEVELOPMENT; AND LACK OF TOOLS THAT SUPPORT INTEGRATION OF CROSS FUNCTIONAL AND CROSS DOMAIN TOOLS IN A TEAM CONTEXT. TO ADDRESS THESE PROBLEMS WE AT CRYSTALIZ INC. PROPOSE TO BUILD A CONCEPTUAL SOFTWARE PROTOTYPE THAT: SUPPORTS A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE WITH REMOTE VIEWING AND ANNOTATION FACILITY ALLOWING IMMEDIATE MODE COLLABORATION; HAS INTERACTIVE PHOTO-REALISTIC RENDERING CAPABILITY TO SUPPORT HIGH BANDWIDTH COMMUNICATION; IS USED TO CREATE NON MANIFOLD SOLID MODELS THAT COULD BE EASILY CONVERTED TO FINITE ELEMENT MESHES; WOULD ALLOW DESIGNERS TO CREATE OBJECTS WITH SOLID, ORIENTATION AND POSITIONAL INFORMATION THAT COULD BE USED BY DYNAMIC AND KINEMATIC SIMULATION PACKAGES; SUPPORTS NATIVE REPRESENTATION OF PDES/STEP FORMAT SO THAT OBJECT DATA COULD BE EXPORTED TO DISSIMILAR TOOLS. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO DEVELOP A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT PROTOTYPE THAT DEMONSTRATES VIABILITY OF THIS CONCEPT. THE WORK CONSISTS OF DEVELOPING THREE LAYERS OF SOFTWARE. THE FIRST LAYER CONSISTS OF INTEGRATING A NON-MANIFOLD SOLID MODELER FROM CARNEGIE MELON UNIVERSITY CALLED NOODLES WITH INTERACTIVE RENDERMAN. THE SECOND LAYER CONSISTS OF DEVELOPING AN OBJECT SCHEMA USED TO REPRESENT GEOMETRIC, POSITIONAL AND ORIENTATION INFORMATION. THIS SCHEMA WILL BE COMPATIBLE WITH PDES?STEP. THE FINAL LAYER IS THE DIRECT MANIPULATION USER INTERFACE THAT SUPPOR COLLABORATION AND PROVIDES AN ANNOTATION FACILITY. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS - THIS EFFORT WILL SEED THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW GENERATION CAD TOOL THAT CAN BE USED BY PRODUCT TEAMS TO REDUCE THE TIME TO MARKET. IN ADDITION, EXPRESSION AND RESOLUTION OF CROSS-FUNCTIONAL CONSTRAINTS INCREASES THE QUALITY OF THE DESIGNED PRODUCT. WE BELIEVE THAT THE MARKET IS FOR SUCH A TOOL $110 MILLION IN 1991 GROWING AT A RATE OF 20%.