Concurrent-interactive Design and Analysis Using the Internet and VRML

Concurrent-interactive Design and Analysis Using the Internet and VRML


ABSTRACT
Although many companies have started using the Internet as an important
tool in exchanging information, relatively few have begun to experiment with the
virtual design concept despite its many advantages. These companies, which
often already have a system of sharing information via an Intranet (a private
network based on the Internet), are only just now starting to stress a concept of
concurrent engineering. This concept is being widely stressed because it enables
people from different departments to plan the design of a product at the same
time. This method reduces production time, as well as overall labor costs.
Another advantage is the ability to limit basic design flaws because all
departments are able to examine the product at any stage in the design process.
With current design methods, a part is completed by one design team before being
sent to the next, and only then would a possible design flaw be uncovered,
perhaps forcing the part to be entirely redesigned. However, before this method
can be put into action, a reliable system is needed so that people from different
departments will not only be able to access and modify the data for a design, but
also see in real time the changes made by others on the data. Since, the data
transferred across the departments is restricted to common software and platform
the same should be software as well as platform independent.
This thesis is concerned with creating a virtual design environment using
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) and the Internet.

A virtual design environment is an environment, which allows the creation of 3D models that are
viewable over the Internet using a simple VRML browser. The research project
consists of setting up a system such that different parameters or attributes of the
3D model can be changed with the changes being applied instantaneously to the
model. The system has been developed using both CGI scripts and Java to show
the difference in performance between the two tools. There has been a
comparison made between the two tools to enable the future researchers to use the
right tool for the right kind of job. The thesis also takes an emphasis on multi-user
systems in which more than one user can enter the same VRML world and make
changes to a model, which may be viewed by people around the world within
seconds. Finally, to show the importance of engineering applications, a simple
Finite Element Analysis module is created with the post processor results being
displayed in a VRML world. Thus, this thesis not only gives an efficient solution
to facilitate the implementation of concurrent engineering, but also breaks the
barrier for an entirely new futuristic design world by allowing analysis to be done
on the Internet.

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