Collabcad: A toolkit for integrated synchronous and asynchronous sharing of cad applications

We are developing CollabCAD, a novel software architecture and toolkit, that supports shar-ing of arbitrary user-defined objects or applications over intranets and the internet. Developers
can use CollabCAD to rapidly re-engineer existing CAD applications to be collaboration-capable
or build new collaboration-capable CAD applications.
CollabCAD provides the following functionalities:
1. Support for fiexible forms of sharing in which users can interact with multiple presentations
of CAD applications or objects.
2. asynchronous and synchronous sharing, as well as a mixture of both,
3. effective communication between users by supporting direct manipulation of user-defined
objects, and a new form of sharing called para-synchronous sharing,
4. support for asymmetric collaborations between users with 1 different roles, or, 2
systems with different input-output, hardware and network capabilities.
We plan to test and evaluate CollabCAD by building collaboration systems in several CAD-
oriented application areas: these include virtual reality for mechanical, architectural and molec-
ular CAD, and volume visualization and volume graphics for CAD applications.