With their practical introduction by the 1970's, virtual product data have emerged to a major technical source of intelligence in manufacturing. Modern organization have since then developed and continuously improved strategies, methods and tools to feed the individual needs of business domains, multidisciplinary teams and supply chain to master the growing complexity of virtual product data and manufacturing processes. Three principal activities are associated to the repurposing of virtual product data. These are Exchange, Visualization and Communication of the manufacturing intelligence from its virtual product representation perspective. One development approach alongside PLM, which declares the 3D CAD model as the record of authority and the source for which all other documentation flows is Model-Based-Design (MBD). By emphasizing digital CAD file use for collaboration at the beginning of development, it is the ground for a fully integrated and collaborative environment founded on a 3D model based definition detailed, documented and shared across the enterprise to enable rapid, seamless, and affordable deployment of products from concept to disposal. Since the practical introduction of virtual product data by the 1970's, several CAD interoperability and visualization formats have indeed been developed to support the aforementioned strategies. Most of them, however, have not yet provided the expected outcome mainly due to their lack of versatility and primary focus on only selected business need. This paper analyses methods and tools used in virtual product development to leverage 3D CAD data across the entire life cycle. It presents a set of versatile concepts for mastering exchange, aware and unaware visualization and collaboration from single technical packages fit purposely for different domains and disciplines.