Specifying operations to be applied to the attributes of a set of objects

• US 7,817,158 B1
• Filed: 10/22/1999
• Issued: 10/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Inventors: Wainwright, John
• Primary Examiner(s): HARRISON, CHANTE E
• Application Number:
  US09/426,143
• Time in Patent Office: 4,015 Days
• Field of Search: 345/473, 345/419, 345/474, 345/619, 345/581, 345/475, 345/689, 707/513, 707/514
• US Class Current: 345/581
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/00 Animation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2213/04 Animation description language

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for specifying that an operation should be performed on an attribute of each object of a group of objects. A statement, for example, in a script, specifies an operation to perform on an attribute of a set of objects. The statement may specify the set in a variety of ways that may be easier to program. According to an aspect of the present invention, the statement may specify an operation identifier and pattern matching criteria for identifiers associated with objects. Objects that are associated with identifiers that satisfy the pattern matching criteria are identified, and for each identified object, the operation is applied to the attribute of the object. According to another aspect of the present invention, the statement may specify an operation identifier and an identifier associated with a collection of objects. The operation is applied to the objects that belong to the collection of objects.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for performing an operation on a set of graphical components in a computer-aided design (CAD) application executing on a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting that a statement includes;

an operation identifier that specifies said operation,

pattern matching criteria comprising an identifier associated with a container object that is associated with one or more graphical components, and

an attribute identifier that identifies an attribute; and

executing said statement by

identifying said set of graphical components that satisfy said pattern matching criteria, wherein a graphical component satisfies said pattern matching criteria when the graphical component is one of the one or more graphical components associated with the container object, and wherein said set of graphical components includes at least two graphical components,

performing said operation on said attribute of each graphical component in said set of graphical components that satisfy said pattern matching criteria,

generating a frame within an animation by altering state information corresponding to each graphical component in said set of graphical components, and

displaying said frame on a display device or storing said frame in a memory.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said statement includes a first string of characters that contains at least one wild card character and that specifies said pattern matching criteria.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said first string is part of a second string of characters, wherein said second string of characters includes said attribute identifier and is in a format that conforms to object-dot notation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said statement is written in a scripting language and the step of detecting is performed by a script processor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein step of detecting that a statement contains pattern matching criteria includes detecting that the statement contains pattern matching criteria for a hierarchical identifier.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of changing the value of another attribute, the other attributes not associated with the identifiers that satisfy said pattern matching criteria.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the container object comprises an array.

8. A computer-implemented method for performing an operation on collections of graphical components in a computer-aided design (CAD) application executing on a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting that a statement includes;

an operation identifier that specifies said operation,

an identifier associated with a container object that that is associated with a collection of graphical components, and

an attribute identifier that identifies an attribute of a member graphical component of said collection of graphical components; and

executing said statement by

identifying member graphical components of said collection of graphical components, wherein said collection of graphical components includes at least two graphical components, and wherein a graphical component comprises a member graphical component when the graphical component is included in the collection of graphical components associated with the container object,

performing said operation on said attribute of each graphical component of said identified member graphical components,

generating a frame within an animation by altering state information corresponding to each graphical component of said identified member graphical components, and

displaying said frame on a display device or storing said frame in a memory.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said collection of graphical components is an array.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein said collection of graphical components includes all instances of a native type of graphical components managed by a CAD system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said native type is a map type of graphical components, wherein a map type defines a surface.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of changing the value of another attribute, the other attribute not associated with the attribute identifier.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the container object comprises an array.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a computer system to execute an operation on a set of graphical components, by performing the steps of:

detecting that a statement includes;

an operation identifier that specifies said operation,

pattern matching criteria comprising an identifier associated with a container object that is associated with one or more graphical components, and

an attribute identifier that identifies an attribute; and

executing said statement by

identifying all graphical components that satisfy said pattern matching criteria, wherein a graphical component satisfies said pattern matching criteria when the graphical component is one of the one or more graphical components associated with the container object, and wherein at least two graphical components satisfy said pattern matching criteria,

performing said operation on said attribute of each of said graphical components that satisfy said pattern matching criteria,

generating a frame within an animation by altering state information corresponding to each graphical component in said set of graphical components, and

displaying said frame on a display device or storing said frame in a memory.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein said statement includes a first string of characters that contains at least one wild card character and that specifies said pattern matching criteria.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein said first string is part of a second string of characters, wherein said second string of characters includes said attribute identifier and is in a format that conforms to object-dot notation.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, said statement is written in a scripting language and the step of detecting is performed by a script processor.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a computer system to execute an operation on collections of graphical components, by performing the steps of:

detecting that a statement includes;

an operation identifier that specifies said operation,

an identifier associated with a container object that that is associated with a collection of graphical components, and

an attribute identifier that identifies an attribute of a member object of said collection of graphical components; and

executing said statement by

identifying member graphical components of said collection of graphical components, wherein said collection of graphical components includes at least two graphical components, and wherein a graphical component comprises a member graphical component when the graphical component is included in the collection of graphical components associated with the container object,

performing said operation on said attribute of each graphical component of said identified member graphical components,

generating a frame within an animation by altering state information corresponding to each graphical component of said identified member graphical components, and

displaying said frame on a display device or storing said frame in a memory.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein said collection of graphical components is an array.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein said collection of graphical components includes all instances of a native type of graphical components managed by a CAD system.