Abstract
In this research, we attempt to allow designers to share engineering resources and information such as geometric and non-geometric information on the networked design environment like Internet, Intranet, or WWW. For extending now standalone solid modeling process towards a distributed collaborative one, Solid Modeling Browser concept is proposed, which has been developed as a system module of ANetCoDE and a typical wrapper agent in ANetCoDE context. Based on multi-layered network architecture (interaction layer, coordination layer, communication layer, and transport layer), we realize the distribution of solid modeling process. The distribution and intelligent collaboration between heterogeneous engineering tools, for instance 3-D CAD system, are facilitated using KQML-CORBA integration, coordination mechanism and common interaction protocol. In addition, a wrapping concept for providing the interoperability between heterogeneous 3D-CAD systems is described. Finally, a network-centric solid modeling tool is proposed by combining the distributed computing technologies and multi-agent technologies.
