Collaboration technologies enable engineers to work together more efficiently. Two basic categories for collaboration are synchronous and asynchronous.
Synchronous collaboration is used to connect engineering models and users together in real-time. The applications for this technology are wide-ranging. For example, it can be used to let a wing designer in Ohio, a fuselage designer in California, and a landing gear designer in Germany connect all of their models in order to run system-level trade studies or optimization. Alternatively, synchronous collaboration can allow a structural designer to share her model with a stress analyst, working at a different computer, to ensure that the mesh generation process is working properly.
Asynchronous collaboration includes technologies such as Product Data Management (PDM). This technology allows engineering data and state models to be shared among all of the stakeholders in the design process. For example, a small team of co-located engineers may use a PDM system to archive engineering models and trade study results. Or, a large, distributed team including engineers, suppliers, and customers can have secure, controlled access to a central repository of product information.
PDM systems typically include the following functionality:
- Configuration management
- Workflow automation
- Web-based access to data
- Connections to external systems, programs, databases, etc.
Find out more about TechnoSoft’s design collaboration capabilities:
- Products
- AMEnterprise
- Products
- Distributed Modeling Manager (DMM)
- Applications
- Interactive Missile Design – Manufacturing Network Accelerated Spiral Development Times Four
- Publications
- “Web-Based Design Environment Accelerates Weapon System Design”