Maintaining time and space consistencies in hybrid CAD environments: Framework and algorithms

Based on the analysis of two types of collaborations during engineering design, namely time collaboration and space collaboration, this paper introduces a Total Data Model (TDM) centered framework to support the maintenance of time and space consistencies in hybrid CAD environments. By separating data and view, the proposed framework supports view-wandering between different perspectives so that designers can adjust their behaviors to avoid conflicts. The maintenance of time consistency is achieved by utilizing the Address Space Transformation (AST) algorithm. In order to adapt AST to new large-scale design environments, an effective garbage collection strategy is proposed. As for space collaboration, a conflict detection algorithm based on feature face is introduced. A prototype system has been developed to prove the validity, efficiency, and feasibility of the proposed framework.