A Web services based platform for exchange of procedural CAD models

Exchange of procedural CAD models between heterogeneous CAD systems is still a challenging issue in CAD area. Previously we proposed an approach for effectively constructing synchronized collaborative design environment based on heterogeneous CAD systems. In this paper, we extend the synchronized collaborative design environment that we have developed to a Web services based platform for exchange of procedural CAD models between heterogeneous CAD systems. First, the real-time exchange of a single operation is extended to the exchange of the complete procedural CAD model between heterogeneous CAD systems. Furthermore, Web services technology is adopted to encapsulate the procedural CAD model exchange functions, which are then released on the Internet as a standard interface and can be used by remote developers in their windows applications, Web applications, and so on. Finally, a Web service for exchange of procedural CAD models between SolidWorks and Autodesk Mechanical Desktop is realized.