Method and system for designing an assembly of objects in a system of computer-aided design

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10210304-B2
Application number	US-201213597179-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 28, 2012
Priority date	Sep 8, 2011
Publication date	Feb 19, 2019
Grant date	Feb 19, 2019

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and apparatus of designing an assembly of objects in a system of computer-aided design. The method/apparatus provides a three-dimensional geometrical modeled object comprising at least one three-dimensional geometrical element; provides a logical modeled object comprising at least one logical component; and associates sets of at least one three-dimensional geometrical element with respective sets of at least one logical component. The method/apparatus display in a three-dimensional scene, a representation of a set of at least one logical component partially superimposed on the corresponding associated set of at least one three-dimensional geometrical element.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of designing an assembly of objects, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a three-dimensional geometrical model of an object of the assembly of objects in a computer system of computer aided design (CAD), the three-dimensional geometrical model comprising at least one three-dimensional geometrical element and stored in a memory device, each three-dimensional geometrical element having an anchor point;
providing a logical model of said object describing behavior of the object within the assembly, the logical model comprising at least one logical component and stored in said memory device;
associating at least one three-dimensional geometrical element of the three-dimensional geometrical model of the object with at least one respective logical component of the logical model;
displaying, on a screen, a three-dimensional scene comprising a representation of said logical component partially superimposed on the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element, a location of the logical component being linked to the anchor point of the corresponding three-dimensional geometric element; and
computing and displaying, on the screen, synchronous animations of the representation of the logical component and the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element, said animations providing a dynamic illustration of a calculated behavior of the corresponding object within the assembly.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising designing the representation of the at least one logical component by directly linking in the scene said representation with an anchor point to the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the representation of the logical component comprises at least one port and is designed by directly linking in the scene the logical component to the corresponding three-dimensional geometrical element.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the representation of the logical component is activable, deactivable, expandable, and zoomable on request.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the representation of the logical component respects a relative depth position in the scene of the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element, the method further comprising changing a point of view of the scene and automatically adapting the representation of the logical component such that it remains partially superimposed on the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising displaying, in the three-dimensional scene, a link between the representation of a logical element and that of the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element, the link being represented by an extensible leading line.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the representation of the logical component is comprised in a label.

8. A computer program product, for designing an assembly of objects in a system of computer-aided design, comprising:
a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program supporting the system of computer-aided design;
the computer program comprising code for causing the system of computer-aided design (CAD) to:
provide a three-dimensional geometrical model of an object of the assembly of objects in the system of CAD, the three-dimensional geometrical model comprising at least one three-dimensional geometrical element and stored in a memory device, each three-dimensional geometrical element having an anchor point;
provide a logical model of said object describing behavior of the object within the assembly, the logical model comprising at least one logical component and stored in said memory device;
associate at least one three-dimensional geometrical element of the three-dimensional geometrical model of the object with at least one respective logical component of the logical model;
display on a screen of a computer a three-dimensional scene comprising a representation of the logical component partially superimposed on the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element, a location of the logical component being linked to the anchor point of the corresponding three-dimensional geometrical element; and
compute and displaying, on the screen, synchronous animations of the representation of the logical component and the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element, said animations providing a dynamic illustration of a calculated behavior of the corresponding object within the assembly.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , further comprising code for designing the representation of the logical component by directly linking in the scene said representation with an anchor point to the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the representation of the logical component comprises at least one port and is designed by directly linking in the scene the logical component to the corresponding three-dimensional geometrical element.

11. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein display of the representation of the logical component is activable, deactivable, expandable, and zoomable on request.

12. The computer program product as claimed in claim 8 , wherein display of the representation of the logical component respects a relative depth position in the scene of the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element, the computer program also comprising code for causing the system of the computer-aided design to allow a user to change a point of view of the scene, and automatically adapting the representation of the logical component such that it remains partially superimposed on the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element.

13. The computer program product as claimed in claim 8 further comprising code for causing the system of computer-aided design to display a link in the three-dimensional scene, wherein the link is represented by an extensible leading line.

14. The computer program product as claimed in claim 8 , wherein display of the representation of the logical component is comprised in a label.

15. An apparatus for designing an assembly of objects in a system of computer-aided design, the apparatus comprising:
a non-transitory computer memory device storing a three-dimensional geometrical model of an object of the assembly of objects in the system of computer-aided design (CAD), the three-dimensional geometrical model comprising at least one three-dimensional geometrical element, each three-dimensional geometrical element having an anchor point;
a non-transitory memory device storing a logical model of said object describing behavior of the object within the assembly, the logical model comprising at least one logical component;
a computer processor for associating the at least one three-dimensional geometrical element of the three-dimensional geometrical model with the respective logical component of the logical model; and
a computer display for displaying a three-dimensional scene comprising a representation of said logical component partially superimposed on the corresponding associated three-dimensional geometrical element, a location of the logical component being linked to the anchor point of the corresponding three-dimensional geometrical element, and for computing and displaying, on the computer display, synchronous animations of the representation of the logical component and the corresponding associated thre

Assignees

• Santiquet Laurent
• Faure Bertrand
• Dassault Systemes

Inventors

• Santiquet Laurent
• Faure Bertrand

Classifications

• G06F2111/04

  Constraint-based CAD · CPC title

• G06F30/17 Primary

  Mechanical parametric or variational design · CPC title

• G06F30/00 Primary

  Computer-aided design [CAD] · CPC title

• G06T19/00

  Manipulating three-dimensional [3D] models or images for computer graphics · CPC title

• G06T17/10

  Constructive solid geometry [CSG] using solid primitives, e.g. cylinders, cubes · CPC title