Concurrent engineering and design becomes more and more important as design tasks grow more complex and an increasing number of people have to cooperate. Shared access to design data plays a key role for efficient interaction if the access mechanisms are realized properly. Supporting the notion of a design repository with import and export procedures available for obtaining and providing data that can be used within one's own design could be a first step. In the long run, a separation of different tasks into different applications acting as servers for user clients seems to be the preferred solution.