Methods for determining the optimal number of simultaneous contributors for multi-user CAD parts

The development of multi-user CAD (MUCAD) tools has opened up exciting new opportunities and applications. The capability for multiple users to simultaneously model and design a CAD part has far-reaching potential. However, many basic questions remains unanswered, such as how many users should work together on a given part. This research proposes and develops a set of methods to determine the optimal number of users for a given part within a MUCAD environment, based on the characteristics of the part itself. Two candidate models are evaluated with a set of 60 experiments with design teams composed of different numbers of users. The models show modest correlations with the test data while more-refined models are explored to improve predictive power. On the other hand, highly significant correlations between the ability to predict completion time and multi-user team size were identified in the experimental data. Observations regarding the speed and quality of MUCAD teams are also made with future ar...