DETC2001/CIE-21286 COLLABORATIVE MODELING WITH FEATURES

Collaborative systems are distributed multiple-user systems that are both concurrent and synchronized. An interesting research challenge is to develop a collaborative modeling system that offers all facilities of advanced modeling systems to its users, while at the same time pro-viding them with the necessary coordination mechanisms that guaran-tee an effective collaboration. To achieve this, a web-based collaborative feature modeling system, webSPIFF, has been developed. It has a client-server architecture, with an advanced feature modeling system as a basis for the server, provid-ing feature validation, multiple views and sophisticated visualization facilities. A good distribution of the functionality between the server and the clients has resulted in a well-balanced system. On the one hand, the server offers all the functionality of the original feature modeling sys-tem. On the other hand, all desirable interactive modeling functionality is offered by the clients, ranging from display of sophisticated feature model images to interactive model specification facilities. The architecture of webSPIFF, the distribution of model data, the func-tionality of the server and the clients, and the communication mecha-nisms are described. It is shown that a good compromise between interactivity and network load has been achieved, and that indeed ad-vanced modeling with a collaborative system is feasible. 1