Cooperative Working on Virtual Prototyping

In the last decade, computer-aided (CAx) and computer-integrated (Ctx) technologies had a strong influence on the product development process. Prototypes are needed for the feedback of avluation experience back into the electronic design. Physical prototypes need a refinement loop of design, preparation and evaluation, step-by-step. Fully digital prototypes overcome this refinement as discussion and modification can take place at the same time. This cooperative working (CSCW) is the next step for making the product development even faster and efficient. In contrary to most basic CSCW applications, an open environment with heterogeneous application has to be considerd. Therefore, certain assumptions have to be made: * each user may use a different (specialized) application * virtual prototypes are more than a single digital files but rather a collection of data structures with overlapping contents * coordinating design activities has to create a common understanding about objects and ac tivities * frameworks have to glue existing applications by providing global services. Therefore, this paper focuses on the definition of these advanced global services and their useage within xisting frameworks to show the benefits of cooperative engineering.