Distributed & conceptual CAD (DC-CAD) : a new software solution for product design

Many computer aided design (CAD) software packages focus on detailed design and not on early stage, conceptual design. The ability to conceptualize and sketch early versions of a product solution is currently limited to paper and pencil or to inadequate computer-aided industrial design programs (CAID) that focus mainly on surface design, not product design. Working on a design as a group also poses problems since the team can be geographically distributed. In an attempt to address the current inadequacies of CAD systems for distributed conceptual design, my thesis proposes a vision for a new CAD program, DC-CAD. This vision anticipates network-orientated conceptual design, and encompasses capabilities for multiple users to collaborate simultaneously on design, compare & evaluate concept sketches, comment on designs and merge changes from other designers, transfer data to detailed design CAD programs, and record concept changes over time. MIT's Product Engineering Class (2.009) was used as the basis for conceiving the software system. By analyzing design challenges that arose during the course, new software features are suggested to mitigate such problems.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Egan, Mark D. (Mark Douglas), 1985-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David C. Gossard.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40428

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/40428