“Thin” vs. “Fat” Client of Web-Based CAD Tools

Internet technology in particular opens up another domain for building future CAD/CAM environment. This environment will be a global, network-centric environment with various members providing different software tools, manufacturing facilities, and analysis services for distributed design and fabrication. Web-based CAD tools play a prominent role in the environment. Two kinds of clients can be used to develop a web-based CAD tool now, one is “thin” client, and another is “fat” client. This paper compares the advantage of “thin” and “fat” client, and explains the advantage of using low-cost, configurable, CAD components.