Digital bridge for drawing and configuration tools

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10719635-B2
Application number	US-201715722613-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 2, 2017
Priority date	Oct 2, 2017
Publication date	Jul 21, 2020
Grant date	Jul 21, 2020

Abstract

A computer implemented digital bridge that reduces the time and costs associated with designing and configuring hardware and/or logic for an application while also reducing the potential for errors during the process.

First claim

We claim:

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program implementing a digital bridge, said program including one or more sets of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
identifying and extracting first project data from one or more output features of a first computer-implemented tool executed on a first computer device;
storing the identified and extracted first project data in a first project data structure;
converting stored first project data of the first project data structure into one or more formats for transferring the stored first project data to a second computer-implemented tool executed on a second computer device;
storing converted first project data on one or more non-transitory mediums respectively associated with the one or more formats;
at the second computer device, inputting the stored converted first project data from the one or more non-transitory mediums;
converting input stored converted first project data into second project data for storage in a second project data structure; and
storing the second project data in the second project data structure,
wherein the first project data and the second project data are organized by data types, each data type having an associated data value,
wherein, upon instantiation of the digital bridge at the second computer-implemented tool, the digital bridge searches for matching data types in the second project data of the second computer-implemented tool and automatically assigns an associated data value to a matching data type in the second computer-implemented tool.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions for identifying and extracting the first project data comprises sets of instructions for identifying and extracting first project data from one or more of a form, tag or drawing output from the first tool.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the one or more formats comprises a first data format for storing the first project data in a random access memory, a second data format for storing the first project data in a file, a third data format for storing the first project data in a barcode, and a fourth data format for storing the first project data in an external storage medium.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3 , wherein the set of instructions for converting the stored first project data of the first project data structure into one or more formats comprises a set of instructions for:
converting the stored first project data into the first, second, third and fourth formats;
storing the converted first project data in the first format in the random access memory;
storing the converted first project data in the second format in the file;
creating a first barcode with the converted first project data in the third format;
storing the converted first project data in the fourth format in the external storage; and
creating a second barcode with an identifier associated with the external storage.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3 , wherein the set of instructions for inputting the stored converted first project data from the one or more non-transitory mediums comprises a set of instructions for:
inputting the stored converted first project data from the random access memory;
inputting the stored converted first project data from the file;
extracting the stored converted first project data from the first barcode;
extracting the identifier from the second barcode; and
inputting the stored converted first project data from the external storage using the identifier.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 , wherein the set of instructions for converting the input stored converted first project data into second project data comprises sets of instructions for:
converting the data input from the random access memory into second project data;
converting the data input from the file into second project data;
converting the data extracted from the first barcode into second project data; and
converting the data input from the external storage into second project data.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the first tool comprises a drawing tool and the second tool comprises a configuration tool.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the first and second project data comprises data for one of interlocking hardware for a railroad application, manufacturing stations and belts for an automated process, energy generation infrastructure, or building technology infrastructure.

9. A system for converting and transferring project data comprising:
a digital bridge comprising:
a plurality of mechanisms identifying and extracting first project data from one or more output features of a first computer-implemented tool executed on a first computer device, and storing identified and extracted first project data in a first project data structure;
a first set of converters converting stored first project data of the first project data structure into one or more formats for transferring the stored first project data to a second computer-implemented tool executed on a second computer device, and storing converted first project data on one or more non-transitory mediums respectively associated with the one or more formats; and
a second set of converters, at the second computer device, inputting the stored converted first project data from the one or more non-transitory mediums, converting input stored converted first project data into second project data for storage in a second project data structure and storing the second project data in the second project data structure,

wherein the first project data and second project data are organized by data types, each data type having an associated data value,
wherein the first computer-implemented tool assigns associated data values of the data types of the first project data to the digital bridge, and
wherein the second computer-implemented tool reads the associated data values from the digital bridge in order to find matching data types in the second project data.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of mechanisms identify and extract first project data from one or more of a form, tag or drawing output from the first computer-implemented tool.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more formats comprises a first data format for storing the first project data in a random access memory, a second data format for storing the first project data in a file, a third data format for storing the first project data in a barcode, and a fourth data format for storing the first project data in an external storage medium.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first set of converters:
convert the stored first project data into the first, second, third and fourth data formats;
store the converted first project data in the first data format in the random access memory;
store the converted first project data in the second data format in the file;
create a first barcode with the converted first project data in the third data format;
store the converted first project data in the fourth data format in the external storage medium; and
create a second barcode with an identifier associated with the external storage medium.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the second set of converters:
input the stored converted first project data from the random access memory;
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Assignees

• Siemens Industry Inc
• Siemens Mobility Inc

Inventors

• Degen Heinrich Helmut
• Schmidt Holger
• Clanney Nathan

Classifications

• G06F8/20 Primary

  Software design · CPC title

• G06F9/54

  Interprogram communication · CPC title

• G06F30/13 Primary

  Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads · CPC title

• G06Q10/00

  Administration; Management · CPC title