METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR CREATING AND UTILIZING TEMPLATES IN CONNECTION WITH INFORMATION MODELING

• US 20090070368A1
• Filed: 11/07/2008
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Callahan, Sean M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,402,007 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for information modeling, such as product modeling, are described. In one specific embodiment, a system for capturing product information includes a product definition tree representing permitted elements of a generalized product structure, a plurality of template trees and a plurality of configuration trees. Each template tree represents a product design structure variant which represents a subset of said product definition tree. Each configuration tree represents a particular design configuration, which is constrained to implement the structure of its associated template tree.

Claims

1. A system for capturing product information, comprising:

a product definition tree representing permitted elements of a generalized product structure; and

a plurality of template trees, each said template tree representing a product design structure variant which represents a subset of said product definition tree.

2. A system in accordance with claim 1 wherein said template trees define permitted structures of configuration trees.

3. A system in accordance with claim 1 further comprising a plurality of configuration trees, each said configuration tree associated with one of said template trees.

4. A system in accordance with claim 3 wherein at least two of said template trees share at least one of a usage template object, an occurrence template object, and an in-place definition template object.

5. A system in accordance with claim 3 wherein at least two of said configuration trees share at least one of a usage configuration node and an in-place design node, and said at least two configuration trees share at least one of a usage configuration object, a occurrence configuration object, and an in-place definition configuration object.

6. A method of creating product design model instances comprising the steps of:

creating a product definition tree comprising a plurality of usage nodes, in-place design nodes, and occurrence nodes;

creating a template tree comprising at least one of a template usage node, a template occurrence node, and a template in-place definition node.

7. A method in accordance with claim 6 wherein the product definition tree represents permitted elements of a generalized product structure, and the template tree defines permitted structures of configuration trees, and said method further comprises creating a plurality of configuration trees, each configuration tree associated with one of said template trees.

8. A method in accordance with claim 7 wherein at least two template trees share at least one of a template usage node, a template occurrence node, and a template in-place definition node.

9. A method in accordance with claim 7 wherein at least two configuration trees share at least one of a usage configuration node and an in-place design node, and said at least two configuration trees share at least one occurrence configuration node.

10. A method in accordance with claim 6 further comprising the steps of creating a first template tree structure, by defining a root template definition node having multiple child nodes.

11. A system for capturing product information, comprising:

a product definition tree;

a plurality of template trees, each said template tree associated with the product tree and representing a product design structure variant which represents a subset of said product definition tree;

a configuration tree comprising a plurality of nodes, each node in said configuration tree associated with one node in one of said template trees.

12. A system in accordance with claim 11 wherein at least two of said template trees share at least one node.

13. A system in accordance with claim 11 wherein at least two of said configuration trees share at least one of a usage configuration node and an in-place design node, and said at least two configuration trees share at least one occurrence configuration node.

14. A system in accordance with claim 13 wherein said shared usage configuration node comprises a configuration of a usage template that is a child component of a root template definition of said template tree, and wherein said shared in-place definition configuration comprises a configuration of an in-place definition template that is a child component of a root definition template of said template tree.