Cloud-Native MUCAD for Design Reviews

This research explores the potential of a cloud-native multi-user computer-aided design (MUCAD) system to improve communication and efficiency during engineering design reviews and shorten the design timeline for military tools. First, a literature review is used to generate a list of thirty-five collaboration-oriented requirements that aim to ensure concurrency, annotations, heterogeneity, security, IP protection, version control, and viewing within a MUCAD system. A comparative evaluation of existing collaborative CAD system architectures, including cloud-native, cloud-enabled, and a single-user system with external file sharing, is conducted to determine how well each system architecture fulfills the generated collaboration-oriented requirements. Following this, a survey with thirty-six participants is used to evaluate the usefulness of the generated collaboration requirements and elicit personal experience and opinions from both industry and academic personnel regarding CAD, MUCAD, and design reviews. Eleven participants from the survey were involved in one-on-one interviews diving deeper into personal experiences and opinions regarding the topics. While participants generally expressed caution, many participants believed that real-time collaborative features could streamline feedback, accelerate the design process, and improve design work. Overall, the findings from this research indicate that a cloud-native MUCAD platform, equipped with the generated collaboration requirements and a user-friendly interface can significantly enhance distributed design reviews. This thesis recommends the implementation of cloud-native MUCAD systems within engineering design environments, particularly within government and defense contexts.