Summary: |
In this paper the author describes the development of a virtual studio environment, which is intended for supporting communications for both dispersed human designers and distributed CAD applications. By applying the metaphor of the real world design studio, a virtual studio model has been defined as an electronic locale in the computer networks, which contains distributed resources and is inhabited by dispersed designers. Virtual studio environment (VSE) has then been proposed to refer to such a multi-user environment which supports the creation, operation and management of virtual studios. A distributed implementation architecture, which loosely couples the domain resources with the VSE base system through resource agents, has been designed. Conceptual building design has been chosen as the application domain for prototyping. Several typical scenarios of interaction with VSE will be discussed. One of the prominent features of this system is that the supported interaction takes place within, instead of through or external to, the design systems. |