OpenDesign: An open user-configurable project environment for collaborative design and execution on the Internet

OpenDesign is an open user-configurable project environment that supports distributed collaborative design and execution on the Internet. The environment is created by configuring a generic client for a specific project. This is in contrast to an implementation of a project-specific client-server architecture. This paper introduces the OpenDesign environment in the context of a design process and project-specific tasks. An OpenDesign task is defined as execution of one or more CAD point tools, whereas a task flow is a dependency graph of tasks and/or other task flows. Challenges arise when, within a single project, (1) tasks must be executed on remote hosts under different file systems, (2) data must be accessed, moved, modified, and archived with consistency, (3) tasks and task flows are assigned to more than one designer, and (4) designers are physically dispersed. In collaboration with peer institutions, a number of demo design projects demonstrate the features and the opportunities with the OpenDesign environment.