STEP-based product modeling system for remote collaborative reverse engineering

Production of high-quality products with lower cost and shorter time-to-market is an important challenge in the face of increased global competition, and reverse engineering plays an important role in accelerating product and process development. With the advent of new technologies such as network, multimedia and product data exchange standard STEP (STandard for Exchange of Product model data), there are many advantages to adopt these technologies to enhance the competitiveness of an enterprise. In this paper, a product information recording module for reverse engineering is developed to enhance the performance of product development. A STEP development tool, ST-Developer, and Visual C + + were used to develop this module, which can be used to record key information expeditiously during a collaborative process, and can also be used for further exchange of information, or as the basis for manufacturability evaluation. In this paper, the developed STEP-based information recording system is further integrated with the conventional Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) methods such as videoconferencing and application-sharing to form a remote collaborative reverse engineering system, which can provides a new strategy for an enterprise to speed up the product development cycle, reducing production cost, as well as sharing knowledge and experience. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.