CAD – WEBDAV ADAPTOR: PREMISE FOR A LIGHT PLM SOLUTION

Abstract

In today's dynamic engineering environment, including the automotive area, collaboration is a hard requirement. More than in other disciplines, the CAD design process can't be conceived outside a team. Central (secure) repository, remote access, metadata, access control and versioning are mandatory tools for a design team in order to be effective and successful. PDM/PLM platforms offer solid solutions for big companies, which use expensive CAD platforms, but they are a luxury that smaller companies/teams can't currently afford. The general need for collaboration lead the Internet community and groups (W3C, IETF) to define WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning), a HTTP based protocol that allows teams to collectively work on the same document. The paper presents a WebDAV adaptor that enables CAD clients to access a remote WebDAV server. It features access control, metadata management, locking (checkin/checkout), versioning, part relations (in assemblies), and enables teams for distributed design process. The adaptor was implemented for Unigraphics, as a C/C++/OpenUg application and it can be used with any server implementing the WebDAV specifications. Designed for CAD activities, the proposed solution can be easily adapted for other domains.