Research Issues in Network-centric Computer-aided Design

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) users and software vendors are quickly recognizing the potential of the Internet. This has produced a tremendous investment in new Internet technologies for connecting distributed tools and users, such as the World Wide Web (WWW), plug-ins, and Java as enabling mechanisms for next-generation systems. Deploying next-generation tools incorporating these technologies will certainly require additional pre-competitive research and the development of practical standards. This paper presents an very brief overview of the technology and trends in Internet-enabled ComputerAided Design and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAD/CAE). This paper is the result of nearly two years of discussions with many people in both the software and engineering industries, as well as discussions held at industry-focused panel and workshops sponsored by NIST. I describe several of the emerging approaches, some of the tools that will leverage this technology, and hypothesize how CAD systems are likely to change in the very near future to leverage Intranets and the Internet.