Abstract: A computer-aided tool for collaborative integrated design environments is discussed. Firstly, a descriptive and a cognitive model of collaborative design processes are presented to illuminate the nature of Human-human interaction in distributed, concurrent and collaborative environments. As a result, a corresponding prescriptive model is outlined to adopt a multi-agent architecture for collaborative integrated design. Secondly, a novel approach of semi-transparency and semi-awareness collaboration frame is researched to develop collaborative CAD systems. It does so by inserting CoCADToolAgent into the kernel of commercial stand-alone CAD systems. CoCADToolAgent has a reactive agent structure with communication capability. Finally, some issues and solutions in CoCADToolAgent are studied. The proposed methods and tool have been successfully to update a commercial stand-alone CAD system into a collaborative integrated design environment.

Key words: Agent, Collaborative design, Computer-aided design, Cooperative awareness, Human-human interaction, Network