Method for manipulation of objects within electronic graphic documents

• US 20060005126A1
• Filed: 10/07/2003
• Published: 01/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Varilang Soft Limited
• Original Assignee: Varilang Soft Limited
• Inventors: Shapiro, Shaul
• Application Number:
  US10/530,419
• Publication Number:
  US 20060005126A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/248
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A method of transforming location based objects, such as text, included in a digital source Artwork file, for example a geographical map file, and creating a transformed target Artwork file. The method is particularly advantageous in converting geographical maps from one language to another. The method includes tools for extracting the required location based objects, for example text elements, from the source file, including all pertaining information, into a first intermediate structured database, represented for the user as, for example, a structured table. The required transformations are then operated on the extracted objects, partly manually but also automatically creating a transformed second intermediate database, which is subsequently integrated with the source file to create a target file, which represents, for example, a new map with translated text on new layers.

Claims

1. A method of transforming an Artwork, comprising:

extracting data representing location based objects from a source file of said Artwork;

registering said extracted data in a first structured intermediate database;

transforming said registered data, according to stored instructions;

registering said transformed data in a second intermediate structured database, and

transforming said source file of said Artwork according to said transformed data registered in said second intermediate database to create a target Artwork file.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said source files are one of draw-vector graphics programs such as Adobe Illustrator (ai), Adobe Acrobat (pdf), Macromedia Freehand, Corel Draw (cdr).

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said source files are described in one of Quark Xpress (qxd), Adobe Pagemaker (pm), Adobe Indesign (pdf) or Autodesk AutoCad (dwg;

dxf) description file.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said source files are described in any page description language that attaches page location to objects described in it.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said source files are rich text files described in great detail objects, their attributes and locations, such as in the extended markup language (XML) and its derivatives and related formats.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said location based object is expressed in coordinates of a 2D representation medium.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein said 2D representation is one of geographical map or technical drawing.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said location based object is characterized by its appearance, including geometric form, color, line style and print style.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said location based object is characterized by identification data including text and numbers.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein said location based object is characterized by data calculated from its relationship to other objects in the same source file.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein said first structured intermediate database is represented by a tabular structure, including a spreadsheet.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein said first structured intermediate database is a tagged text file with sufficient details describing the object so that reconstructing the original file is possible.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein said first intermediate database is a spreadsheet and the commands for transforming the objects are spreadsheet commands.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein said spreadsheet manipulation commands are stored in additional related files.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein transforming includes changing the text associated with an object, or its attributes, or its location on the page.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein said first intermediate database includes additional data from at least one such database previously prepared from other source files.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein said first intermediate database includes descriptive data of objects not extracted from said source file.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said objects was given an instruction to be subsequently omitted in said first intermediate database.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein said transforming includes changing properties of said objects in the source file according to instructions included in said first intermediate database.

20. The method according to claim 1, wherein said transforming includes creating new objects in the source file where second intermediate database includes description of objects not extracted from said source file.

21. The method according to claim 19, wherein for each object detailed in the second intermediate database a new object is created in the source file.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein said objects are arranged in layers, or not arranged in layers, or rearranged in layers, where new objects are put in new layers or put in the original layers.

23. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data in said first intermediate database can be manually edited by the user including entering new values in lieu of present values in the file.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein said manual changes can be applied to the original extracted version of said database or a manipulated version.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein said spreadsheet manipulations can be applied to the original extracted version of said database or a manipulated version.

26. The method according to claim 1, wherein objects are added or changed by directly changing said source file.

27. The method according to claim 1, wherein objects are added or changed by causing the originating program to add or change said objects, using software additions to said originating software.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the changes are done manually by an operator that activates said software additions.

29. The method according to claim 27, wherein the changes are done automatically by activating said software additions.

30. The method according to claim 1, wherein the target file is the same type as the source file.

31. The method according to claim 1, wherein the type of target file different than the source file.