Process and system for rendering an object in a view using a product lifecycle management database

• US 20070013709A1
• Filed: 12/19/2005
• Published: 01/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dassault Systemes SA
• Original Assignee: Dassault Systemes SA
• Inventors: Nonclercq, Arnaud, Charles, Bernard, Gicquel, Guenole, Perroux, Francois, Vu, Duy
• Granted Patent: US 9,075,931 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/581
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/02 CAD in a network environment, e.g. collaborative CAD or distributed simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/20 Configuration CAD, e.g. designing by assembling or positioning modules selected from libraries of predesigned modules
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/00 Manipulating 3D models or images for computer graphics
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/004 Annotating, labelling

Abstract

The invention proposes a process for rendering an object view using a PLM database. The database comprises modeled objects and relations between said modeled objects. Said modeled objects are associated to a set of values of attributes, whose values are stored in the database or computable based on relations involving said modeled objects. The process comprises displaying to the user a view of a set of modeled objects; receiving a selection by a user of an attribute; querying the database for a modeled object to be rendered; providing a value of the selected attribute, associated to said modeled object; and rendering said modeled object in the view according to the provided value of the attribute. It is also possible for the user to select a value of an attribute and the rendering will be carried out only on the object, whose value(s) matches with the selected value.

Claims

1. A process for rendering an object view using a product lifecycle management database, the database containing modeled objects and relations between said modeled objects, wherein said modeled objects are associated to a set of values of attributes, the values of the set of values being stored in the database or computable based on relations involving said modeled objects, the process comprising:

displaying to the user a view of a set of modeled objects;

receiving a selection by a user of an attribute;

querying the database for a modeled object to be rendered;

providing a value of the selected attribute, associated to said modeled object; and

rendering said modeled object in the view according to the provided value of the attribute.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving comprises selection by the user of the attribute among preselected attributes.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying comprises displaying to the user a three-dimensional view of the set of modeled objects, including said modeled object to be rendered.

4. The process of claim 1, further comprising, prior to the step of querying, a step of selecting said modeled object to be rendered among the set of modeled objects displayed at the step of displaying.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein the step of rendering comprises displaying a representation of the value of the selected attribute as a label associated to said modeled object.

6. The process of claim 1, wherein:

the step of querying comprises querying the database for each modeled object of the set of modeled objects displayed at the step of displaying;

the step of providing comprises providing, for each modeled object queried at step of querying, a value of the selected attribute, respectively associated to each object of the set of modeled objects; and

the step of rendering comprises rendering each modeled object of the set according to its respectively associated value provided at the step of providing.

7. The process of claim 1, further comprising, prior to the step of querying:

receiving from the user a selection of at least another attribute,

and wherein;

the step of providing comprises providing, for each of the attributes received at the step of receiving, a respective value associated to the modeled object to be rendered; and

the step of rendering is carried out according to each value provided at the step of providing.

8. The process of claim 1, wherein the rendering of said modeled object to be rendered is carried out according to a color different from a color used for displaying a modeled object of the set of modeled objects at the step of displaying.

9. The process of claim 6, wherein at the step of rendering, rendering each modeled object of the set is carried out using a color respectively associated to its associated value of the attribute.

10. The process of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving comprises receiving a user selection of the attribute via a user-interactive graphical tool.

11. The process of claim 10, wherein the user-interactive graphical tool comprises at least one user-selectable area suitable for user selection of the attribute.

12. The process of claim 1, wherein the attribute selected at step of receiving a selection relates to an object lock/unlock status.

13. The process of claim 12, wherein the lock/unlock status comprises at least one of the following:

lock/unlock status of a reference of said modeled object to be rendered, lock/unlock status of an instance of said modeled object and lock/unlock status of a three dimensional representation of said modeled object.

14. The process of claim 1, wherein the attribute selected at step of receiving selection relates to a modification status of said modeled object.

15. The process of claim 14, wherein the attribute selected at step of selection and relating to a modification status of modeled object has associated values corresponding to at least one of:

modeled object identified as being modified by the user in a current session of the user;

modeled object identified as being able to be modified by the user; and

modeled object identified as not being able to be modified by the user in the current session.

16. The process of claim 1, further comprising, prior to the step of rendering:

querying the database for the name of at least one modeled object to be rendered; and

providing the name,

wherein;

the step of rendering comprises displaying a representation of the name of the at least one modeled object to be rendered.

17. The process of claim 1, wherein the step of rendering comprises, upon action of a user, displaying of at least one of the following:

representation of a maturity level of said modeled object to be rendered according to criteria comprised in the set of values of attributes of said modeled object;

representation of a version identifier of said modeled object to be rendered, the version identifier belonging to the set of values of attributes of said modeled object; and

representation of an effectivity identifier of said modeled object to be rendered, the effectivity identifier belonging to the attributes of said modeled object.

18. The process of claim 10, wherein the user-interactive graphical tool comprises four user-selectable areas, arranged as quadrants, each area being suitable for selection by a user of a respective attribute.

19. The process of claim 10, wherein:

said user-interactive graphical tool is a drag or drag-and-drop tool; and

the graphical tool is adapted for both selecting the object to be rendered and receiving a user selection of at least one attribute upon dragging the graphical tool up to or dragging the graphical tool up to and dropping it at a location corresponding to the object to be rendered.

20. The process of claim 1, wherein the modeled object to be rendered comprises data related to a product, a product part, 3D representation of a product part or product, a 2D representation of a product, product part, electrical diagram, PERT or GANTT diagram.

21. The process of claim 1, further comprising a step of:

receiving a selection by a user of a value of an attribute;

wherein the step of rendering is carried out according to both the provided value and the received value selected by the user.

22. A process for rendering an object view using a product lifecycle management database, the database containing modeled objects and relations between said modeled objects, wherein said modeled objects are associated to a set of values of attributes, the values of the set of values being stored in the database or computable based on relations involving said modeled objects, the process comprising:

displaying to the user a view of a set of modeled objects;

receiving a selection by a user of a value of an attribute;

querying the database for the modeled objects of the set;

providing at least one modeled object, a value of attribute of which matches with the value selected by the user; and

rendering at least one modeled object provided.

23. A product lifecycle management system, comprising a database storing modeled objects and relations between said modeled objects, said modeled objects being associated to a set of values of attributes, said values being stored in the database or computable based on relations involving said modeled objects,

wherein the product lifecycle management system comprises:

means for displaying to the user a view of a set of modeled objects;

means for receiving a selection by a user of an attribute;

means for querying the database for a modeled object to be rendered;

means for providing a value of the selected attribute, associated to said modeled object; and

means for rendering said modeled object in the view according to the provided value of the attribute.

24. The product lifecycle management system of claim 23, further comprising a graphical user interface adapted for displaying a user-interactive graphical tool, the graphical tool being adapted for receiving the selection by the user of the attribute.

25. The product lifecycle management system of claim 24, wherein the graphical tool is further adapted for receiving the selection by the user of various attributes.

26. The product lifecycle management system of claim 25, wherein the graphical tool is further suitable for user selection of the object to be rendered.