Collaborative Development of a Model on a Network

• US 20120331061A1
• Filed: 06/27/2011
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trimble Navigation Limited (Trimble Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lininger, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 9,323,871 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/02 CAD in a network environment, e.g. collaborative CAD or distributed simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/13 Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads

Abstract

An application programming interface (API) is provided for use with a modeling software. The API allows users at several devices operating on a network to collaboratively develop a model of an object or a group of objects. The API receives an indication that a selected component has been modified by the modeling software in accordance user commands, generates component data indicative of the modifications of the selected component, and causes an update indication to be transmitted to a collaboration server via a communication network to synchronize the selected component between the first computing device and a second computing device. The update indication may include a component identifier, such that the component identifier uniquely identifies the selected component in the model.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium storing an application programming interface (API) thereon for use with a software application for developing a three-dimensional (3D) model that is stored as model data and includes a plurality of components, each component having one or more elements, wherein the API includes a set of instructions that, when executed on a processor of a first computing device, cause the processor to:

receive an indication that a selected one of the plurality of components has been modified by the software application in accordance with a set of one or more modification commands received from a user interface of the first computing device;

generate component data indicative of the modifications of the selected component; and

cause an update indication to be transmitted to a collaboration server via a communication network to synchronize the selected component between the first computing device and a second computing device, wherein the collaboration server is communicatively coupled to the first computing device and the second computing device, including;

provide the component data in the update indication, and

provide a component identifier in the update indication, wherein the component identifier uniquely identifies the selected component.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

generate an operational transformation (OT) representation of the set of modification commands applied to the selected component; and

provide the OT representation in the update indication.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein:

the model data includes a hierarchical tree data structure having a plurality of branches corresponding to the plurality of respective components of the model, and

the instructions cause the processor to include in the component data a serialized representation of the branch that corresponds to the selected component.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the OT representation is a first OT representation, and wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

receive an indication that the selected component has been modified at the second computing device, wherein the indication includes a second OT representation of modification commands applied to the selected component at the second computing device; and

use the first OT representation and the second OT representation to modify the selected component device in accordance with the set of modification commands applied to the selected component at the first computing device and set of modification commands applied to the selected component at the second computing device.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

receive an indication that the component has been selected for modification; and

cause a lock request to be transmitted to the collaboration server in response to receiving the indication that the component has been selected for modification, including provide the component identifier in the lock request, whereby the collaboration server prevents modifications of the selected component by the second computing device.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 associated with a first memory component included in the first computing device, wherein:

the second computing device includes a second memory component;

each of the first computing device and the second computing device stores a respective copy of the model data respectively in the first memory component or the second memory component; and

the instructions cause the processor to generate the component data using the copy of the model data stored in the first memory component.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein:

the software application runs as a compiled executable on the first computing device;

the API is provided as a plugin that extends the functionality of the software application; and

the API is invoked from a script interpreted by the software application at runtime.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

generate an invitation for a user operating the second computing device to collaboratively develop the model, including;

provide in the invitation an identifier of a user operating the first computing device, and

provide in the invitation an identifier of the user operating the second computing device;

cause the invitation to be transmitted to the collaboration server to be forwarded to the second computing device.

9. A method in a first computing device for developing a three-dimensional (3D) model in collaboration with a second computing device operating independently of the first computing device, wherein the model includes a plurality of components and wherein each component has one or more elements, the method comprising:

causing the model to be stored on a computer-readable medium as model data including a hierarchical tree data structure having a plurality of branches corresponding to the plurality of respective components;

in response to a selected one of the plurality of components having been modified at the first computing device, generating a serialized representation of the branch that corresponds to the modified component; and

causing the model to be synchronized between the first computing device and the second computing device, including causing an update indication to be transmitted to a collaboration server communicatively coupled to the first computing device and the second computing device, wherein the update indication includes the serialized representation of the one of the plurality of the branches and an indication of the set of transformation operations.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein generating the serialized representation of the branch includes generating an entity identifier to uniquely identify the modified component at the first computing device and the second computing device.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein generating the serialized representation of the branch includes generating a sequence of basic 3D shapes that make up the modified component to which the branch corresponds.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a selection of the one of the plurality of components from an interactive user interface of the first computing device;

receiving a plurality of modification commands from the user interface, wherein the plurality of modification commands correspond to a set of one or more transformation operations to be performed on the selected component; and

modifying the selected component in accordance with the set of transformation operations.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein causing the selected component to be synchronized comprises not including a serialized representation of unmodified components of the model in the update indication.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising causing a lock request to be transmitted to the collaboration server in response to receiving the selection of one of the plurality of components, wherein:

the lock indication identifies the one of the plurality of the branches, and

the collaboration server prevents modifications of the selected component by the second computing device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the lock request further indicates a user operating the first computing device.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a selection of a plurality of elements from the user interface;

receiving a request to group the selected plurality of elements; and

in response to receiving the request, associating the selected plurality of elements with a single component.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising causing an invitation to collaboratively develop the model to be transmitted to the collaboration server, wherein the invitation identifies a user operating the second computing device.

18. The method of claim 9, wherein the update indication is a first update indication, the method further comprising:

receiving a second update indication from the collaboration server, wherein the second update indication is descriptive of a second one of the plurality of components, wherein the second one of the plurality of components has been modified at the second computing device; and

causing the second one of the plurality of components to be displayed on the user interface.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein the update indication conforms to a format of an operational transformation (OT) system.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein:

each of the first computing device and the second computing device is associated with a respective storage device; and

each of the first computing device and the second computing device operates on a respective version of the model data stored on the respective storage device.

21. A method in a network device for managing collaborative development of a three-dimensional (3D) model at a plurality of client devices communicatively coupled to the network device via a communication network, the method comprising:

receiving, from the client devices, a plurality of updates for a component of the model, including receiving indications of respective sets of one or more operations applied to the component;

storing the sets of operations in an operation stack, including preserving a relative order of the operations applied to the component, wherein the operation stack includes data on a computer-readable medium;

receiving an indication of a last operation performed on the component by another client device; and

using the operation stack, generating a list of operations applied to the component that are subsequent to the last operation; and

providing the list of operations to the client device from which the indication of the last transformation is received.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein each of the operations is selected from a set including translate, rotate, and scale.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

in response to detecting an obsolete operation, removing the obsolete operation from the operation stack, wherein the obsolete operation includes a transformation of an element in the component removed by another operation stored on the operation stack.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

storing a master copy of the model as model data on a computer-readable medium associated with the network device; and

modifying the model data in accordance with the update indications received from the client device.

25. A method in a first computing device for collaboratively developing a three-dimensional model stored as model data on a computer-readable medium, wherein the model data includes a hierarchical tree data structure having a plurality of branches corresponding to a plurality of respective components of the three-dimensional model, each component having one or more elements, the method comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the plurality of components of the model from an interactive user interface of the computing device;

receiving a plurality of modification commands from the user interface, wherein the modification commands correspond to a set of one or more transformation operations to be performed on the selected component;

modifying the selected component in accordance with the set of transformation operations;

generating a serialized representation of the one of the plurality of the branches that corresponds to the selected component; and

causing the 3D model to be synchronized with a second computing device, including;

causing an update indication to be transmitted to a collaboration server, wherein the update indication includes the serialized representation of the one of the plurality of the branches and an indication of the set of transformation operations, and wherein the collaboration server is communicatively coupled to the first computing device and the second computing device.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein causing the update indication to be transmitted to the collaboration server further includes:

generating a unique component identifier to uniquely identify the selected component, and

providing the unique component identifier in the update indication.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein causing the update indication to be transmitted to the collaboration server further includes providing a user identifier in the update indication, wherein the user identifier identifies the user operating the computing device.