A rapid shift from desktop computing to cloud computing might be the next big jump. Solidworks has a plug-in which it gives the ability to process point clouds. We use to play with Cloud data in CAD software the next step would be in the Cloud I guess?
Today’s CAD & FEA workstations which are integrated with PDM or PLM software’s require enormous processing power but through cloud computing, we can do things that require enormous processing power without having to own the processors.
Still there are some questions on security how safe will be our engineering designs when it moves to a web applications with cloud computing
