Hierarchical data model for design automation
First Claim
1. An information model comprisinga first data structure containing, at respective nodes, descriptions of physical or abstracted physical attributes of a spatially partitioned physical structure, said descriptions of physical or abstracted physical attributes being partitioned hierarchically,a second data structure containing, at respective nodes, a nested, compacted, representation of each said hierarchical partition of said physical or abstracted physical attributes and specifications of each said hierarchical partition of said physical or abstracted physical attributes, andan interface means for encapsulating said first and second data structures from inquiring applicationseach said node of said first data structure mapping to a node of said second data structure and each node of said second data structure mapping to at least one node at a single hierarchical level of said first data structure.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A computer model for facilitating computer assisted design includes data structures which are flexibly organized by storing of information in accordance with entities or simulations thereof (including symbolic layer entities, area entities, area spec entities and area spec usage pattern entities), which are hierarchically associated both by relationships between them at a given level of abstraction of the physical entity they represent and by various attributes that correspond to different levels of abstraction in graphs. The graphs are freely mappable onto any desired fixed data structure such as a hierarchical area tree. Each hierarchical level and particularly the symbolic layer entity within the computer model provides data hiding at each lower level thereof and thus provides data hiding in the fixed data structure by virtue of the mapping function in order to reduce data processing overhead for manipulation of the fixed data structure. Further spatial restriction within one or more symbolic layers is provided by means of an applications window entity. Data compaction is provided by provision of data sharing of area spec entities by plural area entities which are otherwise uniquely maintained.
-
Citations
14 Claims
-
1. An information model comprising
a first data structure containing, at respective nodes, descriptions of physical or abstracted physical attributes of a spatially partitioned physical structure, said descriptions of physical or abstracted physical attributes being partitioned hierarchically, a second data structure containing, at respective nodes, a nested, compacted, representation of each said hierarchical partition of said physical or abstracted physical attributes and specifications of each said hierarchical partition of said physical or abstracted physical attributes, and an interface means for encapsulating said first and second data structures from inquiring applications each said node of said first data structure mapping to a node of said second data structure and each node of said second data structure mapping to at least one node at a single hierarchical level of said first data structure.
-
9. A method of performing an operation on data representing physical or abstracted physical attributes of an object including the steps of
specifying said data in a first data structure in a hierarchical form, storing specification data in nodes of a second data structure, said second data structure being hierarchically partitioned, said specification data at a node of said second data structure corresponding to said data stored in at least one node at a single hierarchical level of said first data structure, mapping nodes of said first data structure to nodes of said second data structure, and forming an encapsulating layer which interfaces with said first and second data structures for accessing, interrogating and altering said first and second data structures.
Specification