Systems and methods for differentiating and associating multiple drawings in a CAD environment

• US 8,554,520 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2010
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Auto PREP LLC
• Original Assignee: Auto PREP LLC
• Inventors: Reghetti, Joseph P., Schaeffer, Phillip M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Craig, Dwin M
• Application Number:
  US12/716,757
• Publication Number:
  US 20100250615A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,315 Days
• Field of Search: 703/1, 700/97, 700/182, 706/919, 715/964, 715/968
• US Class Current: 703/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]

Abstract

Systems and methods for facilitating CAD design of one or more structures by automatically categorizing and/or associating multiple drawings without pre-existing knowledge as to the type of drawings being categorized. In some examples, a computing system receives a set of CAD drawings from a third-party, and a host manager automatically determines which of the drawings are host, stand-alone, and external reference drawings. Moreover, the host manager can determine which of a set of external references comprises a broken reference, such as a network pathway that does not contain the desired external reference. For each broken or corrupt reference, the host manager can create a dummy (proxy) drawing that can be inserted in place of the broken reference so that the system can process (e.g., bind) the set of drawings without crashing. An interface may be further provided for displaying the categorized set of drawings to the user.

Claims

1. A method for managing a batch of computer aided design (CAD) drawings, the method comprising:

receiving with a first computing device a plurality of CAD drawings associated with a design of one or more structures, wherein the plurality of CAD drawings comprises at least one host drawing and a plurality of external reference drawings;

storing a list of the plurality of CAD drawings in a memory;

for each of the plurality of CAD drawings,

accessing an external reference listing within the CAD drawing structured to identify one or more external reference drawings related to the particular CAD drawing, and

if the external reference listing identifies no external reference drawings, storing an identification of the particular CAD drawing within a first database,

otherwise, storing an identification of each of the one or more external reference drawings within a second database;

identifying as external reference drawings, with a host manager module executing on the first computing device, first ones of the plurality of CAD drawings identified in the second database and storing the external reference drawings in a first location;

identifying as stand-alone drawings, with the host manager module, second ones of the plurality of CAD drawings identified in the first database and storing the stand-alone drawings in a second location;

identifying as host drawings, with the host manager module, third ones of the plurality of CAD drawings not identified in at least one of the first database and the second database and storing the host drawings in a third location; and

outputting to a user interface an indication of the external reference drawings, the stand-alone drawings and the host drawings.

2. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising identifying as a broken reference each of the one or more external reference drawings identified in the second database that is not also identified in the list of the plurality of CAD drawings.

3. The method of claim 2, additionally comprising creating a blank CAD drawing for each of the broken references.

4. The method of claim 3, additionally comprising assigning each blank CAD drawing a name of the corresponding broken reference and storing each blank CAD drawing in the first location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of CAD drawings is received over a network.

6. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising:

attempting to open each of the plurality of CAD drawings; and

for each of the plurality of CAD drawings that cannot be successfully opened, withholding an identification of the particular CAD drawing from the list of the plurality of CAD drawings.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of CAD drawings comprises a duplicate set of original drawings.

8. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising displaying through the user interface relationships between at least the external reference drawings and the host drawings of the plurality of CAD drawings.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving comprises receiving the plurality of CAD drawings without information categorizing each of the plurality of CAD drawings as an external reference drawing, a stand-alone drawing or a host drawing.

10. A system for managing a batch of computer aided design (CAD) drawings, the system comprising:

a plurality of CAD drawings comprising at least one host drawing and a plurality of external reference drawings;

at least one storage device configured to store at least the plurality of CAD drawings and a list of each of the plurality of CAD drawings;

a first database;

a second database; and

a host manager module executing on at least one computing device, the host manager module being configured to, for each of the plurality of CAD drawings,

access a listing of the CAD drawing to identify any external reference drawings associated with the particular CAD drawing,

store an identification of the particular CAD drawing in the first database if the listing identifies no external reference drawings, and

if the listing identifies one or more external reference drawings, store an identification of each of the one or more external reference drawings within the second database;

and wherein the host manager module is further configured to,

identify first ones of the plurality of CAD drawings identified in the second database as external reference drawings and store the external reference drawings in a first memory location,

identify second ones of the plurality of CAD drawings identified in the first database as stand-alone drawings and store the stand-alone drawings in a second memory location, and

identify third ones of the plurality of CAD drawings not identified in at least one of the first database and the second database as host drawings and store the host drawings in a third memory location.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first, second and third memory locations comprise first, second and third folders in a file system.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising a user interface module configured to display to a user listings of the external reference drawings, stand-alone drawings and host drawings of the plurality of CAD drawings.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the host manager module is further configured to identify corrupt ones of the plurality of CAD drawings.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the host manager module is further configured to replace each of the corrupt drawings with blank CAD drawings.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the host manager module is further configured to create a blank drawing for each of the corrupt drawings and to assign the blank drawing a name of the corresponding corrupt drawing.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one computing device is configured to receive the plurality of CAD drawings over a network from a second computing device.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of CAD drawings comprises at least one hundred CAD drawings.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the listing comprises a plurality of network paths to each of the external reference drawings related to the particular CAD drawing.

19. A system for selectively grouping a batch of computer aided design (CAD) drawings, the system comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of CAD drawings comprising at least one host drawing and a plurality of external reference drawings;

means for storing a list of the plurality of CAD drawings;

means for processing each of the plurality of CAD drawings by,

accessing a listing of the CAD drawing structured to identify one or more external reference drawings related to the particular CAD drawing, and

if the listing identifies no external reference drawings, storing an identification of the particular CAD drawing within a first database,

otherwise, storing an identification of each of the one or more external reference drawings within a second database,

storing first ones of the plurality of CAD drawings identified in the second database in a first location,

storing second ones of the plurality of CAD drawings identified in the first database in a second location, and

storing third ones of the plurality of CAD drawings not identified in at least one of the first database and the second database in a third location; and

means for displaying relationships between at least a portion of the CAD drawings stored in the first and third locations.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for creating blank drawings for each of the one or more external reference drawings identified in the second database that is not also identified in the list of the plurality of CAD drawings.