Executives, IT managers, and engineers do their math, and the math tells them that: AutoVue + Real-time Collaboration = Big Savings.

Designing the right product and getting it out the door at the right price and the right time requires tapping into the expertise of several individuals and groups within the organisation. Factor in customers, suppliers, experts, subcontractors, outside consultants, and the logistics involved in bringing all stakeholders together in one location for brainstorming sessions, design reviews, or troubleshooting meetings become nightmarish.

At the same time, organisations large and small are challenging themselves to shorten time-to-market, improve product definition processes, reduce costly iterative engineering changes (ECOs), and eliminate rework. For many of them, achieving these objectives will mean broadening their sources of input and seeking better quality input by assembling multi-disciplinary teams whose members run the gamut of technical skills.

Some matters can be addressed through traditional e-mail, fax, or telephone conferences, but others are better dealt with through face-to-face interaction, which is not always a practical option.

A solution is needed that offers the advantages of same-room meetings without the disruption and expense. Web-based collaboration has shown itself to be an effective and economical substitute for physically gathering people in a room.

Building on its innovative and acclaimed Visualisation and Collaboration technology, Cimmetry Systems has enhanced the power of its AutoVue Professional and AutoVue SolidModel Pro viewing and redlining applications with built-in real-time collaboration. Users and other fans of the products will find all the familiar features they have come to appreciate:

• Native format viewing (parts and assemblies), rotation, sectioning, transformation, precise measurement, and marking up of CATIA, Pro/E, Unigraphics, SolidWorks, Solid Edge, Autodesk Inventor and Mechanical Desktop, DirectModel JT, VDA-FS, STEP, STL, and many more 3D formats;
• Native format viewing and marking up of AutoCAD, MicroStation, Cadkey, ME10, HPGL, IGES, and other 2D formats and of 2D drafts from the 3D modeling packages;
• Native format viewing, navigating, and annotating of popular business application formats such as MS Office, Visio, Adobe PDF, PostScript, WordPerfect, fax formats and many more;
• Native format viewing and marking up of design files (PCB and schematics) from EDA design applications such as Cadence Allegro, Mentor Board Station, Orcad, P-CAD, plus EDIF, IDF, ODB++, etc.

• Interactively view, manipulate, and mark up any document in any of the more than 200 supported formats while accepting feedback and input from other contributors as the need or opportunity arises in the course of the meeting, just as in a face-to-face meeting, without the overhead of passing control of the session from contributor to contributor;
• Inspect designs, share information, share ideas, solve problems, coordinate activities, assign action items, all in real time;
• Share design documents, viewpoints, etc. over a connection that is optimized for engineering processes with speedy updating of displayed engineering data;
• Sign-in to a collaboration session, be individually identified by the system, have a colour-coded pen assigned to each of them for creating mark-ups, and participate — in real time — with other contributors;
• Create a proper audit trail: A session transcript is saved at the end of the collaboration session in which the meeting host and all contributors are listed; each contributor’s contribution is clearly identified; and a chronological accounting of all discussions, issues, decisions, action items, and other interactions is recorded.

With applications throughout the product lifecycle, from the initial stage of product definition to product retirement, real-time collaboration is a viable alternative to more traditional means of exchanging ideas and information. Verbal explanations given over the telephone, for example, without the support of visuals are not as effective and leave no audit trail.

In real-time collaboration, every participant is a contributor and each contributor sits before an active application running locally on her or his computer or workstation with access to the shared document meant to fuel team discussion (most new designs inherit design data from previous products). In Cimmetry Systems’ implementation of real-time collaboration, a contributor also has access to any other documents to which she/he has rights. Contributors are supplied with an assortment of mark-up tools to put their point across to the other contributors and the meeting host. As in face-to-face meetings, each contributor can offer feedback at any time, without requesting and waiting for control of the session. In the context of AutoVue Professional and AutoVue SolidModel Pro, real-time collaboration is fully interactive collaboration.