3. Working modes

Working methods in the context of a collaborative design project for a mechanical product involving several departments of a company and/or several companies, can range from the use of very simple tools to the implementation of a rigorous organization of real-time exchanges using advanced databases and software to ensure consistency throughout the project and centralized management of modifications. We propose first to retrace the evolution from the CAD model to the digital mock-up, and then to show the different levels of complexity of the methods, from the simplest to the most advanced.

Moreover, there are many different notions surrounding collaborative working, making it difficult to grasp the reality behind terms whose definitions are not really fixed. For example, the terms collaborative portal, collaborative network, collaborative platform, collaborative...