A few months ago, I posted about Ajax (Extranets to embrace Ajax?, 2 December 2005 – Ajax stands for ‘Asynchronous JavaScript and XML’, by the way), wondering if it might form part of the interfaces of construction collaboration solutions. Last week, courtesy of AECnews.com, I read an article, Ajax comes to CAD, which describes an Ajax-based CAD application from a Canadian-based develop, AfterCAD, “that lets anyone zoom, pan, change layers and markup a CAD document with nothing more than a web browser”.
We already have various web-based viewer products (typically ActiveX or Java applications). This tool potentially could mean the end of such viewers, but – as Randall Newton points out – at "the extra expense of adding a server-based application on the creator’s end." However, for sizeable organisations looking to encourage collaboration in their supply chain (or, better still, for ASPs delivering collaboration solutions on their behalf), this route may be a persuasive alternative.