Collaborative Design System Based On ACIS/HOOPS For Modular Fixture

With the trend of economic globalization and information industry, how to use all the design information, theory and experience efficiently to complete the product design has become increasingly critical in the rapidly changing situation. According to this problem, the traditional design mode which is stand-alone can no longer meet the requirements of integrated management and data sharing that large design teams need urgently. In view of this situation, the demand of remote collaboration becomes increasingly hot to meet the requirements of people those in different places and with expertise in different fields.According to this requirement of modular fixture design, the paper used XML technology in description of graphic data for parameterizing of modular fixture, and proposed a computer-aided three-dimensional and collaborative design system based on ACIS/HOOPS. The system realizes to be a collaborative design system where workers in different places can take part in the same task at the same time in a collaborative environment, and allows real-time exchanging of information. The main research of the work is as follows:1. Generation of graphics interface. Integrated the HOOPS into the ACIS three-dimensional geometric modeling core ,Using the ACIS modeling core to complete the CSG modeling for modular fixture, and using HOOPS to achieve graphics rendering as well as real-time display. The object-oriented design method was also used for the second development, which was programmed by VC ++6.0 to achieve the conversion of data in different structures and as well as to generate the user interface.2. The mapping between fixture structure and XML file. Realized the parametric description of the modular fixture graphic data by using of XML data technology, and designed the XML interface in order to implement the mapping of XML document to the modular fixture, and finally generated the solid model of the modular fixture.3. The implementation of collaborative design for three-dimensional modeling process. According to the functions of HOOPS / Net network server, formed the C/S model. The paper introduced the Extensible Markup Language XML data description language which is flexible for the ability of partial update to achieve collaborative design of three-dimensional interactive modeling process in which everyone takes a role as designer.4. The conflict resolution in the process of Collaborative design. The research achieved the shared graphical interface and communication in text form between designers by introduction of communication mechanism of real-time, management mechanism of access rights, as well as the Working Group mechanism. Proposed a feasible approach called rights control to settle conflict during the process of collaborative design by making reference to Constraint relaxation, Arbitration and other methods.