CADdrive (see https://caddrive.org and https://caddrive.com) provides an open source solution for collaborative product design. In the most recent version our platform supports ...
- member management for assigning access permissions on product data to our users (using a role-based access control paradigm),
- version management for tracking the evolution of CAD models (currently in LDraw format or GLTF format, but extensible to other formats as well),
- issue management for task specification and discussion among stakeholders, as well as assignment to project members, and
- milestone management for scheduling task execution and tracking completion across the design project (using time boxing).
In issue discussions, you can refer to parts and assemblies of CAD models through Markdown references. The references help making the discussion more self-explanatory and easy to understand.
You can read more about CADdrive in the following publications:
Read at Cambridge University Press or cite with our BibTex entry:
@article{hackenberg_zehetner_frühwirth_2023,
title = {GITHUB FOR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT - HOW COULD THAT LOOK LIKE?},
volume = {3},
DOI = {10.1017/pds.2023.206},
journal = {Proceedings of the Design Society},
publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
author = {Hackenberg, Georg and Zehetner, Christian and Frühwirth, Dominik},
year = {2023},
pages = {2055–2064}
}In the following, we provide screenshots of different views inside CADdrive:
- Product overview
- Version overview
- Issue overview and issue detail view
- Milestone overview and milestone detail view
- Member overview
The product overview provides an overview of public and private product design projects on the platform.
The version overview shows the history of the CAD models that have been developed for the product.
The issue overview provides an overview of open and closed issues for the product design team.
The issue detail view enables discussion between stakeholders and engineers around issues.
The milestone overview provides an overview of the time schedule for the product design project.
The milestone detail view provides an overview over the open and closed issues as well as a burn down chart.
The member overview provides an overview the team members of the product design project and their roles.
CADdrive requires the following tools:
- node@^16
- npm@^9
The software provides the following scripts:
Install third party dependencies as follows:
cd <CADdrive>/packages/node
npm installStart the software in development mode as follows:
cd <CADdrive>/packages/node
npm run devStart the software in production mode as follows:
cd <CADdrive>/packages/node
npm run clean
npm run build
# Mail configuration
export SMTP_HOST=<host name or IP address>
export SMTP_PORT=<port number>
export SMTP_SECURE=<true|false>
export SMTP_AUTH_USER=<user name>
export SMTP_AUTH_PASS=<password>
# Database configuration
export TYPEORM_TYPE=<sqlite|postgres>
# ... for sqlite
export TYPEORM_DATABASE=<path to sqlite database file>
# ... for postgres
export TYPEORM_HOST=<host name or IP address>
export TYPEORM_PORT=<port number>
export TYPEORM_DATABASE=<database name>
export TYPEORM_USERNAME=<user name>
export TYPEORM_PASSWORD=<passwpord>
npm startIn the following, we explain different structures implemented in CADdrive:
- Package structure (reduced and extended)
- Entity structure
- Model structure
The software exhibits the following package structure:
This is a reduced version of the diagram:
This is an extended version of the diagram:
The software implements the following entity structure:
The software implements the following model structure:
This repository contains the following folders:
- Diagrams contains the diagrams shown before
- Manuscripts contains manuscripts submitted for publication
- Packages contains the actual software code behind CADdrive
- Services contains additional services of the CADdrive platform
- Screenshots contains the screenshots shown before
Here are some more resources to read through: