Data exchange and multi-layered architecture for a collaborative design process in virtual environments

The design review process of new products is time consuming, requires the collaboration and synchronization of activities performed by various experts having different competences and roles, and is today performed using different tools and different product representations. In order to improve the performances of the overall product design process, it would be beneficial the availability of Computer Aided tools supporting both conceptual design and analysis activities within an integrated environment based on a multi-disciplinary model paradigm. The paper presents an environment named PUODARSI that allows product designers to intuitively modify the shape of a product through haptic interaction and to test in real-time the structural and fluid-dynamics impact of these changes. The research work shows that a smooth and effective integration of modeling tools based on haptic interfaces, fluid-dynamics analysis tools, and Virtual Reality visualization systems is feasible in real-time through the use of a proper data model exchange.