AUTODESK, INC. Patent applications |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20160140260 | DETERMINING WIND LOADING OF STRUCTURES THROUGH WIND FLOW SIMULATION - A method, system, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to automatically simulate a wind load. An analytical model is converted into a solid model. A wind flow on the solid model is simulated to determine pressures on structural elements of the solid model. The simulating is repeated until the pressures converge. The pressures are converted to loads on the structural elements. Load cases are generated with equivalent loads on the structural elements. | 05-19-2016 |
20160103936 | RULE BASED THREE-DIMENSIONAL (3D) INTERSECTION MODEL - A method, apparatus, system, and computer program product provide the ability to design a road intersection in a three-dimensional (3D) modeling and visualization system. Two roads are defined in the system with the second road intersecting the first road. A set of design rules (that define characteristics of use that contribute to a shape of the road intersection) is acquired. Based on the set of rules, a 3D model of the road intersection is directly created. A property of one of the roads is modified. Without additional user input, the 3D model of the road intersection is automatically and dynamically updated based on the modified property and while maintaining conformance with the set of design rules. | 04-14-2016 |
20160101474 | SPIRAL TOOLPATHS FOR HIGH-SPEED MACHINING OF POLYGONAL POCKETS - A method, apparatus, and computer program product provide the ability to construct a spiral toolpath for machining solid material. A polygon with a polygonal hole in an interior is obtained. A Voronoi diagram of a set of line segments is obtained and modified to provide a modified Voronoi diagram (VD) having a cycle with one or more trees growing out. For each of the trees, a wave model is defined for a wave that starts at time t=0 on leaves on a boundary of the hole and moves through the tree to hit leaves on a boundary of the polygon at time t=1. A polyline spiral curve toolpath is created by travelling around the wave as it moves towards the boundary of the polygon. A pocket is milled in a solid piece of material by following the polyline spiral curve toolpath. | 04-14-2016 |
20160078118 | PARALLEL PROCESSING USING A BOTTOM UP APPROACH - A method, apparatus, system, computer program product, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to parallel process hierarchical data. Hierarchical data is obtained. The hierarchical data is organized in a relationship graph having two or more nodes (consisting of parent nodes that are dependent on child nodes). The relationship graph requires bottom-up processing. Cycles are identified in the relationship graph. The relationship graph is leveled by traversing the graph and assigning all graph nodes into levels. The hierarchical data is processed by parallel processing the nodes in a first level of the one or more levels before parallel processing the nodes in a subsequent level. | 03-17-2016 |
20160034150 | BI-DIRECTIONAL SEARCH AND SORTING - A method, apparatus, system, and computer program product provide the ability to search for and interact with three-dimensional (3D) objects in a 3D model/drawing. Searches may be conducted on a per object basis (based on properties of the object) and search queries may be amended based on shared/common attributes between objects found in an initial search. Differences in search results can be identified and the causality may be used to perform additional searches. Search results may be listed in a list view and a correspondence between objects in the list view and the modeling view may be visibly discernible. Further, selection of a single object from a search result may focus the view on such an object while removing any occluding objects. Multiple selected objects can be viewed in an array of rotationally synchronized viewports. | 02-04-2016 |
20160034137 | REALITY CAPTURE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE - A method, system, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to perform multiple actions based on a reality captured image. An adjustable splitter splits a viewport into viewing panes with the ability to freely adjust the splitter angle. A sphere represents a view of a scene from a viewpoint and used to render an interactive preview of the view without moving to the viewpoint. A series of 2D images may be used to simulate the navigation of a 3D model in an expedited manner. A 3D mesh error scroll bar is used navigate unsorted errors resulting from mesh creation. An interactive gradient map can be used to select a points based on a range of values for non-geometric parameters. An irregularly shaped mesh selection boundary can be directly modified by stretching. An elevation slice of a 3D model can be defined and isolated for viewing/manipulation. | 02-04-2016 |
20150373068 | COLLABORATION PLATFORM - One or more embodiments of the invention provide a collaboration platform that permits multiple users to collaborate on multiple copies of a model simultaneously. The collaboration application provides a full set of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) tools for a client to manipulate a model and transmit the results of such manipulations to a server. Both the clients and the server maintain a history of the manipulations results. Once object changes are received by the server from one or more clients, the server distributes the object changes to the remaining clients. Thereafter, the clients modify their local version of the model in accordance with the object changes received from the server. The history maintained by the clients or the server may then be used to undo or redo any of the object changes, or to rebuild a model space in the event of a network failure. | 12-24-2015 |
20150312550 | COMBINING TWO-DIMENSIONAL IMAGES WITH DEPTH DATA TO DETECT JUNCTIONS OR EDGES - A method, system, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer program product provide the ability to detect junctions. 3D pixel image data is obtained/acquired based on 2D image data and depth data. Within a given window over the 3D pixel image data, for each of the pixels within the window, an equation for a plane passing through the pixel is determined/computed. For all of the determined planes within the given window, an intersection of all of the planes is computed. A spectrum of the intersection/matrix is analyzed. Based on the spectrum, a determination is made if the pixel at the intersection is of 3 or more surfaces, 2 surfaces, or is 1 surface. | 10-29-2015 |
20150295923 | ENVIRONMENT BASED SWITCHING BETWEEN TWO DIMENSIONS AND THREE DIMENSIONS - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer program product provide the ability to provide three-dimensional (3D) content. A user is authenticated and authorized to view the 3D content. The 3D content is displayed. A change in the user state is detected. Based on the user state change, two-dimensional (2D) content is displayed instead of the 3D content. | 10-15-2015 |
20150294035 | SWEEPING A PROFILE ALONG SMALL CIRCULAR ARCS OF A PATH - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer program product provide the ability to sweep a profile along a circular arc of a path. A sweep operation to sweep a profile along an arc of a path is initialized in a CAD application. For each path segment (in the path) that is circular, a determination is made regarding whether the profile crosses an axis of revolution of the circular path segment at a start position of the circular path segment. The profile that crosses the axis of revolution of the circular path segment is trimmed. The trimmed profile and an association with the circular path segment having the axis of revolution that is crossed by the trimmed profile are stored. A selective union operation that joins the solid bodies from the trimmed profiles is performed. | 10-15-2015 |
20150283760 | ELECTRO-MECHANICAL 3D PRINTING DESIGN SYSTEM - A computer-implemented layout tool includes a mechanical design engine for configuring mechanical design components to be included in a design, an electrical design engine for configuring electrical components to be included in the design, a constraint engine for identifying a 3D printer to be used to print the design and to provide design constraints including feedback for inoperative or impermissible configurations of one or more mechanical components or electrical pathways associated with the design; and a simulation engine for simulating, at least, electrical performance of the design based on one or more electrical components added to the design after printing and proposed electrical pathways. | 10-08-2015 |
20150279091 | VOXELIZATION TECHNIQUES - A computer-implemented method for classifying voxels. The method includes rendering a plurality of images associated with a three-dimensional model. The method also includes identifying one or more pixels associated with the plurality of images that correspond to a voxel. The method further includes classifying the voxel as either external to the three-dimensional model or internal to the three-dimensional model based on the one or more pixels. | 10-01-2015 |
20150279076 | DYNAMICALLY SUPPORTING CUSTOM DEPENDENCIES DURING THREE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTER ANIMATION - One embodiment of the present invention includes a double solve unit that configures a kinematic chain representing an animated character. The double solve unit generates a first solution for the kinematic chain based on a first solving order. While generating the first solution, the doubles solve unit determines the recursion depth of each output connector included in the kinematic chain. Subsequently, the double solve unit identifies any output connectors for which the recursion length exceeds a corresponding expected recursion depth—indicating that a custom recursive dependency exists that is not reflected in the first solution. For these custom recursive output connectors, the double solve unit creates a second solving order and generates a more accurate solution. Advantageously, identifying the custom recursive dependencies as part of the solution process enables the double solve unit to portray animated movements without incurring the quality degradation or prohibitive execution time of conventional techniques. | 10-01-2015 |
20150242377 | LOGICAL STRUCTURE-BASED DOCUMENT NAVIGATION - Embodiments include a method for navigating an electronic document. The method includes displaying a navigation pane that includes a group of logical document elements associated with the electronic document. The method also includes detecting a first user input. The method further includes determining that the first user input is configured to select a first logical document element included in the group of logical document elements. The method also includes selecting the first logical document element based on the first user input. The method further includes navigating to a portion of the document associated with the first logical document element. Embodiments also include a system and a computer-readable medium for navigating an electronic document. | 08-27-2015 |
20150154323 | HORIZONTAL OPTIMIZATION OF TRANSPORT ALIGNMENTS - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer program product provide the ability to optimize a transport alignment. Terrain data, constraint data, and cost data are read. Terrain pixels having elevation values are organized and stored in a first grid structure with rows and columns that enable efficient access to each terrain pixel. One or more raster layers of a same dimension and orientation as the first grid structure are created. A starting alignment is obtained. The starting alignment is then optimized using the one or more raster layers. | 06-04-2015 |
20150154199 | AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION - A method, system, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer-readable storage medium provide the ability to merge multiple point cloud scans. A first raw scan file and a second raw scan file (each including multiple points) are imported. The scan files are segmented by extracting segments. Features are extracted from the segments. A set of candidate matching feature pairs are acquired by registering/matching/pairing features from one scan to features from another scan. The candidate pairs are refined based on an evaluation of all of the matching pairs. The candidate pairs are further refined by extracting sample points from the segments (within the matched pairs) and refining the pairs based on the points. The feature pairs are scored and then merged based on the scores. | 06-04-2015 |
20150151493 | GENERATING SUPPORT MATERIAL FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING - In one embodiment of the present invention, a support structure generator creates support structures designed to buttress three-dimensional (3D) digital models during 3D printing. In operation, the support structure generator incrementally constructs a support graph that connects overhanging points included in the 3D model with support points on a horizontal ground plane or relatively flat surfaces in the 3D model. After generating the 3D model, the support structure generator translates the connections between the nodes into support posts sized to sufficiently support the connected surfaces with the minimum amount of support material. Advantageously, the support structure is noticeably sparser than conventional support structures that fill a given support region with a solid volume of support material. Consequently, the time necessary for 3D printers to fabricate the support structure of interconnected support posts is less than the time required for 3D printers to fabricate conventional support structures. | 06-04-2015 |
20150146971 | MESH RECONSTRUCTION FROM HETEROGENEOUS SOURCES OF DATA - A system, apparatus, method, computer program product, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to reconstruct a surface mesh. Photo image data is obtained from a set of overlapping photographic images. Scan data is obtained from a scanner. A point cloud is generated from a combination of the photo image data and the scan data. An initial rough mesh is estimated from the point cloud data. The initial rough mesh is iteratively refined into a refined mesh. | 05-28-2015 |
20150125071 | PRE-SEGMENT POINT CLOUD DATA TO RUN REAL-TIME SHAPE EXTRACTION FASTER - A method, apparatus, system, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to pre-segment point cloud data. Point cloud data is obtained and segmented. The segment information is stored. An indexing structure is created and instantiated with the point cloud data and the segment information. Based on the segment information, a determination is made regarding points needed for shape extraction. Needed points are fetched from the indexing structure an used to extract shapes. The extracted shapes are used to cull points from the point cloud data. | 05-07-2015 |
20150123968 | OCCLUSION RENDER MECHANISM FOR POINT CLOUDS - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to render point cloud data. After obtaining point cloud data, polygons are fit to the point cloud data. A texture atlas is created for each of the polygons. A lookup table is generated from the texture atlases and maps each pixel to a corresponding texture location. When a scene is loaded for rendering/processing, the polygons and texture atlas are loaded and projected into an off-screen buffer that defines a depth map of the scene with approximations of a depth per pixel in screen space. The off-screen buffer is used as a lookup table to determine texture data to be rendered for the scene. | 05-07-2015 |
20150112644 | EVALUATING THE STABILITY OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELS - A three-dimensional (3D) modeling application is configured to generate a graphical user interface (GUI) that notifies a user whether a 3D model represents a stable, marginally stable, or unstable object. The 3D modeling application includes a stability module that determines the stability of the object based upon the 3D model. Advantageously, the user may ensure that an object will be stable, before printing the object with a 3D printer. | 04-23-2015 |
20150110385 | PHOTOGRAPH LOCALIZATION IN A THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODEL - A photo localization application is configured to determine the location that an image depicts relative to a 3D representation of a structure. The 3D representation may be a 3D model, color range scan, or gray scale range scan of the structure. The image depicts a particular section of the structure. The photo localization application extracts and stores features from the 3D representation in a database. The photo localization application then extracts features from the image and compares those features against the database to identify matching features. The matching features form a location fingerprint, from which the photo localization application determines the location that the image depicts, relative to the 3D representation. The location allows the user to better understand and communicate information captured by the image. | 04-23-2015 |
20150098143 | REFLECTION-BASED TARGET SELECTION ON LARGE DISPLAYS WITH ZERO LATENCY FEEDBACK - One embodiment of the invention disclosed herein provides a system that includes a mirror apparatus with a first surface to which a half-silvered mirror film is applied, where the mirror apparatus transmits a transmitted image from a second surface to the first surface. The system further includes a servo-controlled dimmer that adjusts a level of ambient light associated with the mirror apparatus. The system further includes a motion sensing device that tracks positions of a plurality of points associated with an object; wherein the object is situated on the half-silvered mirror film side of the mirror apparatus. The system further includes a computing device including a memory that stores instructions that, when executed by a processor included in the computing device, cause the processor to control the servo-controlled dimmer to adjust the ambient light such that both the transmitted image and a reflected image is visible on the first surface. | 04-09-2015 |
20150095881 | COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN METHOD AND INTERFACE - A method, system, apparatus, computer program product, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to define an object in a parametric modeling application. Geometric parametric objects are authored and organized into a family definition. Via a user interface, enhanced computational logic is defined. The logic is compiled into the family definition such that the enhanced computational logic is embedded at an object level of the one or more geometric parametric objects. Upon a building information model requiring a regeneration operation, the compiled enhanced computational logic is automatically executed. | 04-02-2015 |
20150063707 | OUTLINE APPROXIMATION FOR POINT CLOUD OF BUILDING - A method, apparatus, system, and computer program product provide the ability to model a polyline boundary from point cloud data. Point cloud data is obtained and boundary cells are extracted. Potential boundary points are filtered from the boundary cells. Line segments are extracted from the potential boundary points and refined. A regularized polygon is obtained by intersecting the refined line segments. | 03-05-2015 |
20150063683 | BUILDING DATUM EXTRACTION FROM LASER SCANNING DATA - A method, apparatus, system, and computer program product provide the ability to extract level information and reference grid information from point cloud data. Point cloud data is obtained and organized into a three-dimensional structure of voxels. Potential boundary points are filtered from the boundary cells. Level information is extracted from a Z-axis histogram of the voxels positioned along the Z-axis of the three-dimensional voxel structure and further refined. Reference grid information is extracted from an X-axis histogram of the voxels positioned along the X-axis of the three-dimensional voxel structure and a Y-axis histogram of the voxels positioned along the Y-axis of the three-dimensional voxel structure and further refined. | 03-05-2015 |
20150033108 | ADAPTING VIDEO ANNOTATIONS TO PLAYBACK SPEED - Embodiments presented herein include a method for altering a first annotation associated with a media file. This method may generally include the technique for receiving the media file wherein the media file contains the first annotation which is associated with a first playback speed of the media file. A second playback speed is received for the media file. A second annotation is generated based on the second playback speed of the media file based on the first annotation associated with the first playback speed of the media file. The second annotation is associated with the second playback speed of the media file and, at the second playback speed, the media file concurrently plays the second annotation. | 01-29-2015 |
20140337779 | INTERACTIVE DESIGN VARIATIONS INTERFACE - One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for generating design variations. The technique involves identifying a first design variable and a second design variable associated with a first design. The technique further involves generating a first plurality of design variations based on the first design. Each design variation is generated by varying at least one of the first design variable and the second design variable. Finally, the technique involves causing the first plurality of design variations to be displayed to a user. | 11-13-2014 |
20140337286 | Systems and Methods for Construction Field Management and Operations with Building Information Modeling - The invention generally relates to systems and methods for construction field management and operations with building information modeling. In certain embodiments, the invention provides systems for construction field management and operations, that include a central processing unit (CPU), and storage coupled to the CPU for storing instructions that when executed by the CPU cause the CPU to: encode and map data structures and data sets received from Building Information Modeling software; select particular data structures and data sets relevant to at least one person associated with a construction project; transmit the selected data structures and data sets to a user terminal operated by the person; receive inputs made by the person to the selected data structures and data sets; and synchronize and update the data structures and data sets received from Building Information Modeling software based on the inputs received from the person. | 11-13-2014 |
20140333618 | SLICE VIEW - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer program product display multiple slices of a three-dimensional body in a computer drawing application. A first view of a 3D body is displayed. One or more slice sketches are defined on the first view. A single slice view of the three dimensional body is displayed. The single slice view simultaneously depicts all of the slices with a zero-depth representation of each slice. | 11-13-2014 |
20140324823 | IMAGE SELECTION USING AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED SEMANTIC METADATA - A computer-implemented method for method for selecting visual subject matter stored in a database includes receiving user input that indicates a first region of a first image that is stored in the database and, based on metadata associated with the first image stored in the database, determining at least one visual feature in the first region of the first image stored in the database. The method further includes, based on metadata associated with other images stored in the database, selecting a second image from the database that includes a visual feature that correlates with the visual feature in the first region of the first image, wherein the metadata associated with the first image stored in the database and the metadata associated with the other images stored in the database include image correlation information received from a remote server device. | 10-30-2014 |
20140310601 | REAL-TIME SCRUBBING OF VIDEOS USING A TWO-DIMENSIONAL GRID OF THUMBNAIL IMAGES - A computer-implemented method for traversing a video file includes populating a two-dimensional array with representative images corresponding to a portion of the video and causing the two-dimensional array to be displayed. The two-dimensional array includes a location indicator configured to traverse the two-dimensional array in a direction parallel with one dimension of the two-dimensional array in response to navigation information associated with the portion of the video. The location indicator is further configured to indicate a position in the video by highlighting one of the representative images populating the two-dimensional array. Because an end-user is provided with a large set of statically displayed representative images during navigation of a video timeline, the end-user can visually identify a desired target scene, even when traversing a the timeline relatively quickly. | 10-16-2014 |
20140310596 | COMMUNITY ENHANCED TUTORIALS: IMPROVING TUTORIALS WITH MULTIPLE DEMONSTRATIONS - Techniques are disclosed for presenting an online tutorial. A method for presenting an online tutorial may generally include providing an interactive tutorial to a user. The interactive tutorial may include both tutorial content specifying steps to perform a task with an application and an application interface associated with the application used to perform the task. This method may also include recording the user interacting with the application interface to perform the task according to the steps specified by the interactive tutorial and augmenting the tutorial content with the recorded user interaction. | 10-16-2014 |
20140306962 | MESH SKINNING TECHNIQUE - A computer-implemented method for computing skinning weights. The method includes traversing one or more paths from a first voxel included in a voxelization associated with a three-dimensional model to a second voxel included in the voxelization. The first voxel intersects a first influence included in the three-dimensional model. The second voxel intersects a target vertex associated with the three-dimensional model. The voxelization includes a set of interior voxels. The first voxel and the second voxel are included in the set of interior voxels. The method also includes identifying a first path included in the one or more paths that is associated with a first distance value related to the second voxel that indicates that the first path represents the shortest distance between the first voxel and the second voxel. The method further includes assigning a skinning weight to the target vertex based on the first distance value. | 10-16-2014 |
20140306955 | VOXELIZATION TECHNIQUES - A computer-implemented method for classifying voxels. The method includes rendering a plurality of images associated with a three-dimensional model. The method also includes identifying one or more pixels associated with the plurality of images that correspond to a voxel. The method further includes classifying the voxel as either external to the three-dimensional model or internal to the three-dimensional model based on the one or more pixels. | 10-16-2014 |
20140297717 | SERVER SIDE VIDEO SCREEN CAPTURE - A technique for capturing the output of a software application, controlled by an end-user of a client computer, on a server computer. The data may be captured from a hosted application running on the server computer, an application simulating the operations of an application used by the end-user on the client computer, or from a capture stream sent by an application on the client computer. A capture engine stores the capture data on the server computer without consuming processing or memory resources of the client computer. Furthermore, the capture data is immediately available on the server computer for sharing and publication, without consuming network bandwidth or a long upload delay. | 10-02-2014 |
20140297716 | SERVER-SIDE VIDEO SCREEN CAPTURE - A technique for capturing the output of a software application, controlled by an end-user of a client computer, on a server computer. The data may be captured from a hosted application running on the server computer, an application simulating the operations of an application used by the end-user on the client computer, or from a capture stream sent by an application on the client computer. A capture engine stores the capture data on the server computer without consuming processing or memory resources of the client computer. Furthermore, the capture data is immediately available on the server computer for sharing and publication, without consuming network bandwidth or a long upload delay. | 10-02-2014 |
20140297715 | SERVER SIDE VIDEO SCREEN CAPTURE - A technique for capturing the output of a software application, controlled by an end-user of a client computer, on a server computer. The data may be captured from a hosted application running on the server computer, an application simulating the operations of an application used by the end-user on the client computer, or from a capture stream sent by an application on the client computer. A capture engine stores the capture data on the server computer without consuming processing or memory resources of the client computer. Furthermore, the capture data is immediately available on the server computer for sharing and publication, without consuming network bandwidth or a long upload delay. | 10-02-2014 |
20140292754 | EASY SELECTION THRESHOLD - A method, system, and computer readable storage medium/computer program product provide the ability to select an object in a three-dimensional (3D) scene. A 3D scene is displayed and consists of a first object that is displayed in the foreground and a second object that is occluded or partially occluded by the first object. An object selection option is activated. A transparency threshold value is defined for the first object. A location in the displayed 3D scene is selected. Such a location is located on a portion of the first object that occludes the second object. Based on the transparency threshold value and the location, either the first object or the second object is selected and displayed in a visually distinguishable manner. | 10-02-2014 |
20140282268 | USER INTERFACE NAVIGATION ELEMENTS FOR NAVIGATING DATASETS - One embodiment of the invention sets forth a data navigation engine that generates user interface navigation elements for navigation large and expanding datasets. The user interface navigation elements may include a pivot control zoom slider for adjusting the data resolution with respect to different zoom pivot locations, an interactive ruler for consistent visual feedback and navigation of intervals of data within the dataset, a context bar for viewing the data proximate to a current view, and a multi-scale slider for repositioning the dataset within the current view. These user interface navigation elements provide the end-user with consistent control and visual feedback while navigating the dataset, independent of the size of the dataset or the portion of the dataset displayed within the current view. Therefore, large and expanding datasets can be navigated more effectively relative to prior art approaches. | 09-18-2014 |
20140282171 | USER INTERFACE NAVIGATION ELEMENTS FOR NAVIGATING DATASETS - One embodiment of the invention sets forth a data navigation engine that generates user interface navigation elements for navigation large and expanding datasets. The user interface navigation elements may include a pivot control zoom slider for adjusting the data resolution with respect to different zoom pivot locations, an interactive ruler for consistent visual feedback and navigation of intervals of data within the dataset, a context bar for viewing the data proximate to a current view, and a multi-scale slider for repositioning the dataset within the current view. These user interface navigation elements provide the end-user with consistent control and visual feedback while navigating the dataset, independent of the size of the dataset or the portion of the dataset displayed within the current view. Therefore, large and expanding datasets can be navigated more effectively relative to prior art approaches. | 09-18-2014 |
20140278152 | Enhanced Disk Actuator Modeling - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for modeling turbine parameters. One of the methods includes obtaining, along multiple points of a blade of a turbine from a minimum radius rmin of the blade to a maximum radius rmax of the blade, lift coefficients C | 09-18-2014 |
20140267278 | Assisted Conversion of Biological and Chemical Pathway Information to Three-Dimensional Animations - This specification relates to computer animations, and more particularly to computer animations of biological and chemical pathways in which information defining the molecular assets, interactions and sequence of events involved in the pathway is combined with graphical information to generate a three-dimensional animation of the pathway. | 09-18-2014 |
20140267270 | SHADOW RENDERING IN A 3D SCENE BASED ON PHYSICAL LIGHT SOURCES - A method, system, and computer program product/computer readable storage medium provide the ability to render a shadow. A three-dimensional (3D) scene comprising an object is obtained. An external physical light source that is external to the 3D scene is detected by a sensor. An artificial light source is created in the 3D scene that corresponds to the external physical light source. Based on the artificial light source, a shadow of the object is cast. The 3D scene including the object and the shadow are then rendered. | 09-18-2014 |
20140257759 | COMPUTING BOUNDARY CONTINUITY CONSTRAINTS FOR PATCHING CURVE NETWORKS - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving data describing a model, the model describing a curve network; determining boundary continuity constraints for each edge, of each face, in the model; combining the determined boundary continuity constraints to determine respective boundary continuity for each face; and determining, using the respective boundary continuity constraints, a respective surface patch for each face. | 09-11-2014 |
20140257548 | TECHNIQUES FOR SLICING A 3D MODEL FOR MANUFACTURING - One embodiment of the invention is a slicing engine that generates two or more slices of a virtual 3D model given a slice plane. The slicing engine then determines connection points on each of the slices that indicate how the 3D model is to be reconnected by the user when the 3D model is fabricated. The slicing engine also determines an optimized layout for the various slices of the 3D model on fabrication material for minimal use of the material. The user is then able to “print” the layout on the fabrication material via 3D printers, and connect the various printed slices according to the connection points to build a physical representation of the 3D model. | 09-11-2014 |
20140257547 | TECHNIQUES FOR SLICING A 3D MODEL FOR MANUFACTURING - One embodiment of the invention is a slicing engine that generates two or more slices of a virtual 3D model given a slice plane. The slicing engine then determines connection points on each of the slices that indicate how the 3D model is to be reconnected by the user when the 3D model is fabricated. The slicing engine also determines an optimized layout for the various slices of the 3D model on fabrication material for minimal use of the material. The user is then able to “print” the layout on the fabrication material via 3D printers, and connect the various printed slices according to the connection points to build a physical representation of the 3D model. | 09-11-2014 |
20140253551 | TECHNIQUE FOR FILLING HOLES IN A THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODEL - A mesh repair engine is configured to repair a hole in a three-dimensional (3D) model by (i) filling the hole with a rough mesh, (ii) refining the rough mesh, (iii) collapsing the refined mesh, (iv) refining the collapsed mesh, (v) flattening the refined, collapsed mesh, and then (vi) deforming the flattened mesh into a 3D surface that smoothly fills the hole in the 3D model. One advantage of the disclosed repair engine and associated hole repair technique is that the mesh repair engine is capable of generating polygons that fill regions of a 3D model that are not defined. Consequently, an end-user of the mesh repair tool is able to generate watertight 3D models from previously incomplete and non-watertight 3D models. | 09-11-2014 |
20140253550 | TECHNIQUES FOR SLICING A 3D MODEL FOR MANUFACTURING - One embodiment of the invention is a slicing engine that generates two or more slices of a virtual 3D model given a slice plane. The slicing engine then determines connection points on each of the slices that indicate how the 3D model is to be reconnected by the user when the 3D model is fabricated. The slicing engine also determines an optimized layout for the various slices of the 3D model on fabrication material for minimal use of the material. The user is then able to “print” the layout on the fabrication material via 3D printers, and connect the various printed slices according to the connection points to build a physical representation of the 3D model. | 09-11-2014 |
20140253549 | TECHNIQUES FOR SLICING A 3D MODEL FOR MANUFACTURING - One embodiment of the invention is a slicing engine that generates two or more slices of a virtual 3D model given a slice plane. The slicing engine then determines connection points on each of the slices that indicate how the 3D model is to be reconnected by the user when the 3D model is fabricated. The slicing engine also determines an optimized layout for the various slices of the 3D model on fabrication material for minimal use of the material. The user is then able to “print” the layout on the fabrication material via 3D printers, and connect the various printed slices according to the connection points to build a physical representation of the 3D model. | 09-11-2014 |
20140253548 | TECHNIQUE FOR MAPPING A TEXTURE ONTO A THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODEL - A stroke parameterization engine within a rendering engine is configured to map a texture to the surface of a three-dimensional (3D) model along a stroke defined by an end-user of the rendering engine. The stroke parameterization engine converts the stroke to a polyline, then generates a geodesic trace by sliding a geodesic circle along the polyline and collecting points associated with the 3D model that fall within the geodesic circle. The stroke parameterization engine then parameterizes points associated with the polyline and the geodesic trace using UV coordinates associated with a texture map, thereby generating UV coordinates for each point within the polyline and geodesic trace. The stroke parameterization engine then projects the texture map onto the surface of the 3D model using the UV coordinates generated for the polyline and geodesic trace. | 09-11-2014 |
20140253547 | TECHNIQUE FOR MAPPING A TEXTURE ONTO A THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODEL - A stroke parameterization engine within a rendering engine is configured to map a texture to the surface of a three-dimensional (3D) model along a stroke defined by an end-user of the rendering engine. The stroke parameterization engine converts the stroke to a polyline, then generates a geodesic trace by sliding a geodesic circle along the polyline and collecting points associated with the 3D model that fall within the geodesic circle. The stroke parameterization engine then parameterizes points associated with the polyline and the geodesic trace using UV coordinates associated with a texture map, thereby generating UV coordinates for each point within the polyline and geodesic trace. The stroke parameterization engine then projects the texture map onto the surface of the 3D model using the UV coordinates generated for the polyline and geodesic trace. | 09-11-2014 |
20140253541 | INTERACTIVE TOOL FOR INSPECTING AND REPAIRING THREE DIMENSIONAL MODELS - A mesh repair application within a rendering engine is configured to generate a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows an end-user of the rendering engine to inspect and repair various defects associated with a three-dimensional (3D) model. The GUI provides a filmstrip that includes different visual representations of the various defects. When the end-user selects a given representation, the mesh repair application updates the GUI to display a detailed view of the defect associated with the selected visual representation. An advantage of the approach described herein is that the repair of defects associated with the 3D model may be expedited. | 09-11-2014 |
20140244588 | CLOUD PLATFORM FOR MANAGING DESIGN DATA - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving a first source file, the first source file including one or more first computer-aided design models; converting the first source file into a first plurality of files; generating a first snapshot, the first snapshot including the first source file, the first plurality of files, and a first version; receiving a second source file, the second source file having the first format that is readable by the first application, the second source file including one or more second models, the second source file being an updated version of the first source file; converting the second source file into a second plurality of files; generating a second snapshot; and associating the second snapshot with the first snapshot, where the second snapshot being a more recent version than the first snapshot. | 08-28-2014 |
20140244219 | METHOD OF CREATING A PIPE ROUTE LINE FROM A POINT CLOUD IN THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODELING SOFTWARE - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer program product provide the ability to create a pipe route. A point cloud is obtained into a three-dimensional (3D) modeling application. Cylinders in the point cloud are identified and added as solids overlaying the point cloud. All cylinders that make up the pipe route are identified by system aided selection of two or more of the solids. Automatically, and without additional user input, the selected solids are converted into objects. A continuous pipe route is constructed from the objects. | 08-28-2014 |
20140218476 | Zebra Lights - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for rendering zebra stripes on a three dimensional (3D) object. In one aspect, a method includes rendering an image of an object from the perspective of a camera For each pixel of a plurality of pixels of the image, a point on the surface of the object corresponding to the pixel is determined. An angle between a surface normal at the point and a line between the point and the light source is determined. A zebra light color for the pixel is determined using a stripe function and the angle, the stripe function specifying alternating high and low intensities for various angles. A blended pixel color for the pixel is determined by blending a material color for the point with the zebra light color. | 08-07-2014 |
20140200864 | DETERMINING FEASIBLE SPLINES WITH ENGINEERING CONSTRAINTS USING PROJECTION METHODS - A method, apparatus, system, and computer program product provide the ability to modify a spline (e.g., a civil engineering spline). The spline, defined by a set of connected points, is obtained/acquired. A design constraint set is determined and may include an interpolation constraint (specifying a fixed elevation for a connected point), a slope constraint (specifying a bound on a slope between two of the connected points), and a curvature constraint (specifying; a maximum slope difference of a first slope and a second slope between three connected points). The spline is projected onto the design constraint set thereby modifying the spline by changing elevations of the connected points The modified spline is then projected onto the design constraint set iteratively until the spline satisfies all constraints in the design constraint set. | 07-17-2014 |
20140194174 | 3D PUZZLE GENERATION, ALGORITHMS FOR GENERATION, AND PHYSICAL INSTANTIATIONS - A system for generating a three-dimensional puzzle comprises a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to generate a three dimensional mesh representation. The processor is further configured to convert polygons comprising the three-dimensional mesh representation to one or more puzzle piece representations. The processor is further configured to add attachment points and receiving points to the one or more puzzle piece representations. The processor is further configured to provide the one of more puzzle piece representations with attachment points and receiving points. The memory is coupled to the processor and configured, to provide the processor with instructions. | 07-10-2014 |
20140189481 | Scale Information for Drawing Annotations - The present disclosure includes, among other things, systems, methods and program products for using, storing and retrieving scale information. | 07-03-2014 |
20140181719 | PREDICTIVE MATERIAL EDITOR - A method for generating a user interface within a graphics application for a set of materials, such that each material includes a material definition and is capable of being applied to a geometry in a graphics scene when performing a rendering operation. A GUI generation engine obtains configuration information associated with an environment for a computer system and determines that a first set of materials is associated with the configuration information. The GUI generation selects the first set of materials to be displayed in a graphical user interface, and the graphical user interface is displaying to an end-user. Advantageously, embodiments of the invention provide for a technique for exposing only those materials, user interface objects, editable material parameters, user interface elements, vocabulary, rendering engines, and/or rendering engine implementations that are relevant to the user of a particular rendering application. | 06-26-2014 |
20140149331 | ANALYTICS-DRIVEN GLOBAL OPTIMIZATION STRATEGY SELECTION AND REFINEMENT - A centralized optimization engine is configured to receive a problem specification that defines an optimization problem to be solved. The optimization engine classifies the problem specification within a large dataset of previously solved optimization problems. The optimization engine selects one or more solution strategies associated with similar optimization problems, and then executes those solution strategies to solve the optimization problem. Over time, the optimization engine updates the large data set with statistical information that reflects the performance of different solution strategies applied to various optimization problems, thereby increasing the effectiveness with which optimization problems may be solved. | 05-29-2014 |
20140149090 | Distributed Analysis of Structures - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a storage medium, for distributed analysis of structures. One of the methods includes obtaining a geometric model of a physical structure; and performing an analysis of a structural characteristic of the physical structure, comprising: dividing, by a master node, the model into a plurality of subdomains using a plurality of separator surfaces, selecting, by the master node, a respective separator approximant for each of the plurality of separator surfaces, assigning each of the subdomains to a respective child node, providing, by the master node to each of the child nodes, information defining the subdomain assigned to the child node and information defining separator approximants for the separator surfaces bordering the subdomain assigned to the child node, and performing, by each child node, the analysis of the structural characteristic for the subdomain assigned to the child node using the information. | 05-29-2014 |
20140149084 | GOAL-DRIVEN COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN WORKFLOW - A centralized design engine receives a problem specification from an end-user and classifies that problem specification in a large database of previously received problem specifications. Upon identifying similar problem specifications in the large database, the design engine selects design strategies associated with those similar problem specifications. A given design strategy includes one or more optimization algorithms, one or more geometry kernels, and one or more analysis tools. The design engine executes an optimization algorithm to generate a set of parameters that reflect geometry. The design engine then executes a geometry kernel to generate geometry that reflects those parameters, and generates analysis results for each geometry. The optimization algorithms may then improve the generated geometries based on the analysis results in an iterative fashion. When suitable geometries are discovered, the design engine displays the geometries to the end-user, along with the analysis results. | 05-29-2014 |
20140108353 | CLOUD PLATFORM FOR MANAGING DESIGN DATA - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving a first source file, the first source file including one or more first computer-aided design models; converting the first source file into a first plurality of files; generating a first snapshot, the first snapshot including the first source file, the first plurality of files, and a first version; receiving a second source file, the second source file having the first format that is readable by the first application, the second source file including one or more second models, the second source file being an updated version of the first source file; converting the second source file into a second plurality of files; generating a second snapshot; and associating the second snapshot with the first snapshot, where the second snapshot being a more recent version than the first snapshot. | 04-17-2014 |
20140099622 | HIERARCHICAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT - A design application allows one or more authors to create a learning path associated with a given topic. The learning path includes content curated from various online resources. The design application allows the authors to aggregate the content from the various online resources. The design application allows the author to curate content to include or associate with nodes. The design application also allows the authors to arrange the nodes in a hierarchy. When the learning path is complete, the design application presents the learning path to users. Users access the content within the learning path according to the hierarchy of the nodes. Advantageously, the author is able to present content, which may otherwise be distributed across the internet, within a cohesive learning path. | 04-10-2014 |
20140098090 | GENERATING A CONSENSUS MESH FROM AN INPUT SET OF MESHES - Techniques are disclosed for generating a consensus mesh to cover a received set of points. In one embodiment, a meshing application generates multiple meshes that cover the received point set by varying parameters of an interpolating meshing technique, such as the ball-pivoting technique, tangent-space Delaunay triangulation, and the like. Different values for the one or more parameters are used to generate each of the meshes. After generating the multiple meshes, the meshing application may sort triangles in the meshes based on the frequency in which the triangles appear in the meshes. The meshing application may then iteratively add next-best triangles which are also compatible with the current consensus mesh to the consensus mesh, with the next-best triangle being a most frequently occurring triangle which has not yet been added to the consensus mesh. Compatibility may be defined using various criteria, such as producing a manifold and orientable triangulation. | 04-10-2014 |
20140098067 | ALWAYS-AVAILABLE INPUT THROUGH FINGER INSTRUMENTATION - A finger device initiates actions on a computer system when placed in contact with a surface. The finger device includes instrumentation that captures images and gestures. When in contact with a surface, the finger device captures images of the surface and gestures made on the surface. The finger device also transmits the images and gesture data to the computer system. An application on the computer system matches the images received from the finger device to a representation of the surface, identifies an action associated with the surface representation and gesture, and executes the action. Instrumenting the finger instead of the surface, allows a user to configure virtually any surface to accept touch input. | 04-10-2014 |
20140092090 | MORPHOLOGICAL ATTRACTOR FOR CREATING CUSTOM ANCESTORS IN INHERITANCE-BASED CHARACTER GENERATION - Techniques are disclosed for creating and customizing graphical models. In one embodiment, a design application receives a morphological attractor created from the same mesh as one or more inheritance-based character generation ancestor models. Upon receiving the morphological attractor, the design application may use the attractor to align and transform the ancestor models to create a new set of ancestor models which resemble the attractor. The new set of ancestor models is referred to herein as being in the “genetic space” of the attractor. A user may then create child character models in this same genetic space by, globally or locally, blending two or more of the new ancestor models. | 04-03-2014 |
20140089795 | GENERATING A USER INTERFACE - A method and apparatus provide the ability to generate a graphical user interface. Two user interface groups are defined that both contain two or more user interface (UI) components that are used to perform operations in an image processing application. The two groups are displayed (in panels having panel dimensions) on a first display device having a first aspect ratio. Each UI component has a corresponding size that it is displayed in and spacing between the UI components has a defined spacing size. The two groups are displayed on a second display device having a second different aspect ratio. The second aspect ratio is such that both panels cannot be completely displayed in the panel dimensions. First UI components are displayed in a first panel while the second panel is displayed with a portion obscured by the first panel. | 03-27-2014 |
20140081603 | NESTING USING RIGID BODY SIMULATION - Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for nesting objects in 2D sheets and 3D volumes. In one embodiment, a nesting application simplifies the shapes of parts and performs a rigid body simulation of the parts dropping into a 2D sheet or 3D volume. In the rigid body simulation, parts begin from random initial positions on one or more sides and drop under the force of gravity into the 2D sheet or 3D volume until coming into contact with another part, a boundary, or the origin of the gravity. The parts may be dropped according to a particular order, such as alternating large and small parts. Further, the simulation may be translation- and/or position-only, meaning the parts do not rotate and/or do not have momentum, respectively. Tighter packing may be achieved by incorporating user inputs and simulating jittering of the parts using random forces. | 03-20-2014 |
20140078142 | WAVE FILL - A method, system, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to fill pixels of an image. An area of the image is obtained and one of the pixels is identified as an anchor pixel. Waves are created based on the anchor pixel and placed into a collection of waves waiting to be processed. Each of the waves in the collection is processed. A type of pixel in front of a current wave being processed is determined. If the pixel is fillable, the pixel is filled, the wave is advanced, and child waves are updated. If the pixel is blocking the advancement of the wave, the current wave is updated (e.g., via shrinking or splitting), and child waves are updated. Once all waves have been processed, the area of the image is displayed based on the fill. | 03-20-2014 |
20130318479 | STEREOSCOPIC USER INTERFACE, VIEW, AND OBJECT MANIPULATION - A method, apparatus, and system provide the ability to interact with a virtual stereoscopic object. A set of sensors is placed adjacent to a stereoscopic viewing area. A stereoscopic object is projected in the stereoscopic viewing area. A user's body part is tracked using the set of sensors. A gesture of the user's body part is determined (based on the tracking). Based on the gesture, an interaction event is actively and dynamically applied to the stereoscopic object. | 11-28-2013 |
20130314415 | ADAPTIVELY JOINING MESHES - One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for joining meshes of primitives. The technique involves receiving a first mesh boundary and a second mesh boundary, removing a first surface associated with the first mesh boundary, and removing a second surface associated with the second mesh boundary. The technique further involves joining a first vertex associated with the first mesh boundary to a first plurality of vertices associated with the second mesh boundary to form a joined surface. Finally, the technique involves performing one or more mesh refinement passes on the joined surface to generate a refined mesh surface. | 11-28-2013 |
20130311927 | TECHNIQUES FOR REPRESENTING AND COMPARING WORKFLOWS - An approach is provided for sending pre-defined workflows to a display device of a user device. In one example, the approach includes receiving a request for steps to complete a task associated with a software application. In response to receiving the request for steps, the system obtains at least a first workflow and a second workflow, each workflow including one or more steps that the user device can execute to complete the task. The system receives a request to format the first workflow and the second workflow into one or more view formats. The system generates a summary of the first workflow and a summary of the second workflow. Each summary includes one or more salient attributes of the each workflow. The system sends to the display device at least the first workflow and the second workflow in the one or more view formats. | 11-21-2013 |
20130300741 | ADAPTIVE MESH REFINEMENT - One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for mesh refinement. The technique involves receiving a mesh including a plurality of triangles. The technique further involves processing the mesh to generate a refined mesh by performing an edge flip operation on the mesh, performing an edge split operation on the mesh, and performing an edge collapse operation on the mesh. | 11-14-2013 |
20130300736 | ADAPTIVELY MERGING INTERSECTING MESHES - One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for merging intersecting meshes of primitives. The technique involves determining an intersection boundary that is defined by an intersection between a first mesh of primitives and a second mesh of primitives. The technique further involves determining that a first plurality of primitives included in the first mesh of primitives and a second plurality of primitives included in the second mesh of primitives are proximate to the intersection boundary. The technique further involves removing the first plurality of primitives to form a first mesh boundary associated with the first mesh and removing the second plurality of primitives to form a second mesh boundary associated with the second mesh. Finally, the technique involves connecting a first plurality of vertices associated with the first mesh boundary to a second plurality of vertices associated with the second mesh boundary to form a joined boundary. | 11-14-2013 |
20130300735 | MESH BOUNDARY SMOOTHING - One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for smoothing boundaries associated with meshes of primitives. The technique involves receiving a mesh of primitives that has a mesh boundary and an initial surface, identifying a first vertex associated with the mesh boundary and having a first location, and identifying a second vertex having a second location and a third vertex having a third location. Both the second vertex and third vertex are proximate to the first vertex. The technique further involves determining a fourth location based on the second location and the third location, projecting the fourth location onto the initial surface to determine a fifth location, and moving the first vertex to the fifth location. | 11-14-2013 |
20130300734 | ADAPTIVELY ZIPPERING MESHES - One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for zippering meshes of primitives. The technique involves identifying a first vertex associated with a first mesh boundary and having a first position and identifying a second vertex that is proximate to the first vertex and associated with a second mesh boundary, where the second vertex has a second position. The technique further involves determining a third position based on the first position, the second position, and a zippering strength factor, where the third position is located in a region between the first position and the second position. Filially, the technique involves moving the first vertex to the third position. | 11-14-2013 |
20130278602 | ANIMATABLE GRAPHICS LIGHTING ANALYSIS REPORTING - One embodiment of the invention sets forth a mechanism for displaying lighting values associated with a 3-D graphics model by superimposing an overlay grid with lighting values on the 3-D graphics model. A software rendering engine computes lighting values for each frame that includes the 3-D graphics model, where each frame may have different lighting settings. An overlay grid with lighting values may be superimposed on an area defined by a light meter on the 3-D graphics model. The lighting values on the overlay grid are associated with the light meter and may vary frame-over-frame. In another embodiment, a JPEG image with a superimposed overlay grid with per-pixel lighting values covering a 3-D graphics model is generated for each frame that includes the 3-D graphics model. These JPEG images may be displayed on the screen and stored to an external memory. | 10-24-2013 |
20130268927 | PROCESS FOR COMPRESSING APPLICATION DEPLOYMENTS - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to compress an application deployment. A master application to be deployed that has two or more files is obtained. The files in the master application are inventoried and two file instances that are identical are identified. An application deployment, based on the master application, is written by writing the first file instance and replacing additional identical file instances with links to the first file instance. | 10-10-2013 |
20130219344 | EDITABLE MOTION TRAJECTORIES - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing a view of a three-dimensional computer animation model, the view including one or more objects, wherein each of the one or more objects is associated with a respective animation setting for adjusting a respective three-dimensional motion trajectory interpolation of the object in the computer animation model between a first and a different second key frame; receiving data describing a user interaction with a visual representation of the animation setting in the view for a first object of the one or more objects, the user interaction being an adjustment of the respective animation setting of the first object; and based on the receiving, adjusting the motion trajectory interpolation of the first object between the particular first and second key frames. | 08-22-2013 |
20130218472 | SEGMENTATION OF GROUND-BASED LASER SCANNING POINTS FROM URBAN ENVIRONMENT - A method, apparatus, system, and article of manufacture provide object descriptors for objects in point cloud data for an urban environment by segmenting the point cloud data. Point cloud data for an urban environment is obtained using a ground-based laser scanner. Terrain points are filtered out from the point cloud data using ground filtering. The point cloud data is then segmented into two or more blocks. Objects that lie on neighboring adjacent blocks are combined. Object descriptors for the combined objects are then provided (e.g., to the user or a program used by the user). | 08-22-2013 |
20130197883 | CREATING A SYSTEM EQUILIBRIUM VIA UNKNOWN FORCE(S) - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to solve a not-statically determinate modeling system. A free body diagram (FBD) with a degree of freedom (DOF) greater than zero is obtained. For each beam in the FBD that has more than one DOF, a point of beam that is movable is discovered. A variable force is applied at the point. A DOF of the FBD is determined based on the application of the variable force. Based on the determining, a size of the variable force that places the FBD in equilibrium is computed. | 08-01-2013 |
20130197872 | TECHNIQUES FOR CREATING POP-UP CARDS FROM 3D MODELS - One embodiment of the invention is a pop-up engine that generates a pop-up card from a sliced 3D graphics model. In operation, a pop-up engine processes a sliced 3D model to identify locations where each slice of the 3D model is to attach to the pop-up card or to other slices of the 3D model. The pop-up engine traverses the boundary of each slice and, at intervals along the boundary, projects a ray toward the upper portion of the card. If the ray intersects a neighboring slice, then the slice attaches to the neighboring slice at that location. If, however, the ray does not intersect a neighboring slice, then the slice attaches to the upper portion of the card at that location. The pop-up engine then modifies the slice to include a hinge portion that connects the slice to either a neighboring slice or the upper portion at that location. | 08-01-2013 |
20130197868 | Building Envelope Determination - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining a building envelope. In one aspect, a method includes generating two-dimensional analytical faces; generating a three-dimensional shell bounding box that encompasses the analytical faces; determining, for each analytical face, one or more sample points; performing a flood-fill algorithm from a reference grid cell through other grid cells in the shell bounding box; casting one or more primary rays from each grid cell encountered by the flood-fill algorithm that does not contain any of the sample points but that directly neighbors a grid cell that does contain a sample point; for each ray, identifying as an exterior face the first analytical face within a vicinity of the grid cell from which the ray is cast that is intersected by the ray; and generating a building envelope based on the identified exterior faces. | 08-01-2013 |
20130194275 | GRAPH BASED DEGREE OF FREEDOM COUNTER FOR TWO DIMENSIONAL DRAWINGS - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer program product provide the ability to utilize a degree of freedom (DOF) for a construction. In a preparation phase, a graph structure is constructed from a construction model that transforms construction primitives into graph primitives. In a search phase, all compact sub-graphs of the graph structure are identified. In a counting phase, a DOF is calculated for each compact sub-graph and adjusted based on interactions between the compact sub-graphs. In an internal DOF searching phase, an internal DOF is computed for each compact sub-graph and used to determine and solve overconstrained sub-graphs. A determination regarding whether a structure of the construction model can be modified based on the DOF and internal DOF is output. | 08-01-2013 |
20130194257 | MATCHING A SYSTEM CALCULATION SCALE TO A PHYSICAL OBJECT SCALE - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to scale a diagram. An image is selected and utilized as a background image. Full geometry is obtained and is displayed with the background image. The full geometry is a first geometry and remaining second geometry. The first geometry is selected and a reference length for the selected first geometry is specified. The remaining second geometry is in the diagram is scaled based on the specified reference length. | 08-01-2013 |
20130191089 | Energy Usage in Injection Molding Simulations - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for determining energy indicator values for a plurality of thermoplastic materials. An energy indicator value represents expected energy requirements for performing an injection of the material in a mold cavity. An injection of each of a plurality of thermoplastic materials in a first modeled mold cavity is simulated. A respective value of a first expected energy parameter is determined for each of the plurality of thermoplastic materials based on the simulated injections. A respective energy indicator is determined, for each of the plurality of thermoplastic materials, based at least on the corresponding value of the first expected energy parameter. The respective energy indicator value of one or more of the plurality of thermoplastic materials is presented. | 07-25-2013 |
20130191083 | TECHNIQUES FOR CREATING POP-UP CARDS FROM 3D MODELS - One embodiment of the invention is a pop-up engine that generates a pop-up card from a sliced 3D graphics model. In operation, the pop-up engine processes a sliced 3D model to identify locations where the sliced 3D model is to attach to a plane surface of a pop-up card. For a given set of slices associated with a sliced 3D model, the pop-up engine identifies at least two slices that intersect at a folding line of the plane surface. The pop-up engine then identifies locations on the slices that are the farthest from the folding line. The pop-up engine marks the identified locations as connection points, where the 3D model is to attach to the plane surface. | 07-25-2013 |
20130181987 | GESTURES AND TOOLS FOR CREATING AND EDITING SOLID MODELS - A modeling tool is activated in a 3D modeling application executing on a multi-touch device. A visual representation of a grid system tool is displayed in an active modeling plane and has three separate regions that determine the type of operation to be performed. An existing 3D form is displayed on the tool. A starting touch event of a gesture is received over the existing 3D form within one of the regions. As the gesture is received in the computer, the 3D form may be dynamically extended by adding 3D geometry to the 3D form (thereby adding faces to the 3D form). Alternatively, the 3D form may be scaled (i.e., if the starting touch event occurs over a visual scale grip. Alternatively, if the gesture consists of two taps, a bridge may be created joining the two tapped locations. | 07-18-2013 |
20130181986 | DYNAMIC CREATION AND MODELING OF SOLID MODELS - A method, apparatus, system, and computer-readable storage device is configured to perform three-dimensional (3D) modeling. A modeling tool is activated in a 3D modeling application executing on a multi-touch device. An input touch event and input gesture for creating a new 3D geometric form is received. Dynamically, in real-time as the input gesture is received, the new 3D geometric form is created and displayed. The shape of the new 3D geometric form corresponds to the input gesture. | 07-18-2013 |
20130181972 | THREE DIMENSIONAL CONTRIVER TOOL FOR MODELING WITH MULTI-TOUCH DEVICES - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provides the ability to perform a three-dimensional (3D) modeling operation. A modeling tool is activated in a 3D modeling application. A visual representation (having three separate regions) of a grid system tool is displayed on a digital modeling canvas of the 3D modeling application. The grid system controls whether a gesture is captured as a modeling operation or a navigation operation. A starting touch event (of the gesture) is received in/on one of the three separate regions. The region where the starting touch event is received determines the operation that is to be performed/selected. The operation may be a 3D geometry creation operation, a restroking operation, or a navigation operation. | 07-18-2013 |
20130176207 | IMPLANTED DEVICES AND RELATED USER INTERFACES - Embodiments of the invention generally relate to electronic devices capable of being implanted beneath the skin of a human user. The electronic devices include input devices for receiving input from a user, and output devices for output signals or information to a user. The electronic devices may optionally include one or more sensors, batteries, memory units, and processors. The electronic devices are protected by a protective packaging to reduce contact with bodily fluids and to mitigate physiological responses to the implanted devices. | 07-11-2013 |
20130174028 | WEB-BASED SYSTEM FOR CAPTURING AND SHARING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL FOR A SOFTWARE APPLICATION - A system and technique for capturing a workflow history and video of an electronic document are disclosed. Events generated by an application while modifying an electronic document are stored on a web server as metadata. In addition, a captured digital image or frames of captured digital video that reflect the state of the document at the time the event was generated are also stored on the web server. The metadata is associated with one or more portions of the document and with the captured digital image or frames of captured digital video. | 07-04-2013 |
20130159833 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ACCESS TO AND WORKING WITH ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS ON A PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANT - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide access to architectural documents in a network based on-line web based system. Servers that are accessible from the Internet maintain persistent multiple architectural documents of different media types. An online user is provided, from the servers via the Internet, a set of basic virtual design tools that have persistent properties and may be copied. The virtual design tools may also be utilized to work with the architectural documents. A workspace is also provided for viewing, accessing, and modifying the architectural documents. | 06-20-2013 |
20130159822 | WEB-BASED SYSTEM FOR CAPTURING AND SHARING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL FOR A SOFTWARE APPLICATION - A system and technique for capturing a workflow history and video of an electronic document are disclosed. Events generated by an application while modifying an electronic document are stored on a web server as metadata. In addition, a captured digital image or frames of captured digital video that reflect the state of the document at the time the event was generated are also stored on the web server. The metadata is associated with one or more portions of the document and with the captured digital image or frames of captured digital video. | 06-20-2013 |
20130155062 | LOOPING MOTION SPACE REGISTRATION FOR REAL-TIME CHARACTER ANIMATION - A method for generating a looping motion space for real-time character animation may include determining a plurality of motion clips to include in the looping motion space and determining a number of motion cycles performed by a character object depicted in each of the plurality of motion clips. A plurality of looping motion clips may be synthesized from the motion clips, where each of the looping motion clips depicts the character object performing an equal number of motion cycles. Additionally, a starting frame of each of the plurality of looping motion clips may be synchronized so that the motion cycles in each of the plurality of looping motion clips are in phase with one another. By rendering an animation sequence using multiple passes through the looping motion space, an animation of the character object performing the motion cycles may be extended for arbitrary length of time. | 06-20-2013 |
20130151206 | SOLVING NETWORKS OF GEOMETRIC CONSTRAINTS - Systems, program products and program products for accepting a request to move a first geometric entity that is constrained to other geometric entities in a drawing that may contain both one-way and two-way geometric constraints. A set of affected geometric entities that need to be repositioned or otherwise changed as the result of moving the first geometric entity is identified. The affected geometric entities and the geometric constraints are classified into groups which are solved using a variational geometric constraint solver. If the geometric constraints cannot be satisfied, the movement of the first geometric entity is restricted. Otherwise the affected geometric entities are updated. | 06-13-2013 |
20130138695 | DATABASE VERSIONING SYSTEM - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for identifying one or more rows in a relational database that have each been modified since a first point in time, wherein each of the rows is associated with a respective table in the relational database; for each of the identified rows, updating a respective file in an external representation of the table associated with the row to reflect the modification to the row wherein the respective file is not stored in the database; and creating a first version of the relational database in a version control system using the external representation including one or more of the updated files, wherein the first version of the database comprises one or more files in the version control system. | 05-30-2013 |
20130124157 | Automatic Explode Based on Occlusion - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products feature providing a rendering of a three-dimensional assembly of components. An explosion sequence for separating first components of the assembly is determined. The explosion sequence comprises stages in which each stage represents a different spatial relationship between two or more of the first components. A first input is received from an interactive control. A first stage in the explosion sequence is selected based on the first input. The rendering of the assembly is updated, responsive to the first input, to show the first stage of the explosion sequence. A second input is received from the interactive control. A different second stage in the explosion sequence is selected based on the second input. The rendering of the assembly is updated, responsive to the second input, to show the second stage of the explosion sequence. | 05-16-2013 |
20130103714 | IN-PRODUCT QUESTIONS, ANSWERS, AND TIPS - One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for providing help content related to a software application to a user. The technique involves receiving a first discussion element associated with a first user and including textual input related to a first software application and first contextual information related to the first software application. The technique further involves receiving second contextual information associated with a second user and related to the first software application, determining a measure of correlation between the first contextual information and the second contextual information, determining that the first discussion element should be transmitted to the second user based on the measure of correlation, and transmitting the first discussion element to the second user. | 04-25-2013 |
20130100159 | COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED TUTORIAL FOR VISUAL MANIPULATION SOFTWARE - A method for reproducing authored content within a visual manipulation software environment includes displaying the authored content, such as an individual drawing stroke, in a manner that enables the end-user to experience the temporal dynamics associated with the creation of each drawing stroke or action performed by the author when creating the content. Each individual drawing stroke created by the author may be displayed in a tutorial with the same speed and direction used by the author to create the stroke, and can then be used as a guidance curve by the end-user. End-user input corresponding to the displayed author content is then received and used to generate an end-user version of the displayed content. | 04-25-2013 |
20130100057 | PROXIMITY-AWARE MULTI-TOUCH TABLETOP - A proximity-aware multi-touch tabletop is disclosed that includes both a touch screen display and proximity sensors. The proximity sensors are disposed in one or more annular groups around the touch screen display and are positioned in upward-and outward-facing directions. The proximity sensors allow the multi-touch tabletop to sense the distance of a body, arm, hand, or fingers of a user from the multi-touch tabletop. Thus, hand, arm, and finger positions of a user can be determined relative to the body position of the user, which enables the multi-touch tabletop to differentiate between left hand/arm gestures and right hand/arm gestures. Further, because the multi-touch tabletop can correlate left arm and right arm movements to a user body, the multi-touch tabletop can differentiate gestures originating from different users. The ability of the multi-touch tabletop to distinguish between users greatly enhances user experiences, particularly in a multi-user environment. | 04-25-2013 |
20130097508 | REAL-TIME SCRUBBING OF ONLINE VIDEOS - A method for traversing a streaming video file includes receiving a representative streaming video file that includes less information than a higher-resolution streaming video file and spans the entire streaming video file. Based on navigation information associated with the representative streaming video file, a playback engine navigates to a different portion of the streaming video file. The navigation information may be based on input information received from a viewer of the streaming video file. One advantage of the disclosed method is that it enables fast and accurate navigation of a streaming video. | 04-18-2013 |
20130097497 | IN-PRODUCT QUESTIONS, ANSWERS, AND TIPS - One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for providing help content related to a software application to a user. The technique involves receiving textual input related to a first software application from a first user and comprising help content and generating a first discussion element based on the textual input. The technique further involves receiving first contextual information associated with the first user and related to the first software application, associating the first contextual information with the first discussion element, and transmitting the first discussion element to a server machine for processing. | 04-18-2013 |
20130097259 | IN-PRODUCT MICRO-BLOGGING FOR DESIGN SHARING - One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for generating a status update message. The method involves defining one or more status update criteria and monitoring user activity in a software application for the one or more status update criteria. The method further involves determining, based on the user activity, that the one or more status update criteria have been met and generating, via a processing unit, a status update message. The status update message includes multimedia content related to a project associated with the software application. | 04-18-2013 |
20130093708 | PROXIMITY-AWARE MULTI-TOUCH TABLETOP - A proximity-aware multi-touch tabletop is disclosed that includes both a touch screen display and proximity sensors. The proximity sensors are disposed in one or more annular groups around the touch screen display and are positioned in upward- and outward-facing directions. The proximity sensors allow the multi-touch tabletop to sense the distance of a body, arm, hand, or fingers of a user from the multi-touch tabletop. Thus, hand, arm, and finger positions of a user can be determined relative to the body position of the user, which enables the multi-touch tabletop to differentiate between left hand/arm gestures and right hand/arm gestures. Further, because the multi-touch tabletop can correlate left arm and right arm movements to a user body, the multi-touch tabletop can differentiate gestures originating from different users. The ability of the multi-touch tabletop to distinguish between users greatly enhances user experiences, particularly in a multi-user environment. | 04-18-2013 |
20130090893 | GENERATING CROSS SECTION FOR ROADWAY INFRASTRUCTURE MODELS - A method, system, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer-program product provides the ability to generate a cross section for a roadway infrastructure model. A cutting plane line is drawn on the roadway infrastructure model at an arbitrary location. Portions of the roadway infrastructure model that intersect the cutting plane line are determined. Solids are created at the intersections. A cross section is formed by slicing the one or more solids based on the cutting plane line. The cross section is displayed. | 04-11-2013 |
20130080124 | ROAD DESIGN OPTIMIZATION - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to optimize a design for a vertical road profile. A ground surface profile is obtained. From the ground surface profile, an initial set of points of vertical intersection (PVIs) are obtained. An optimized earthwork cost for the PVIs is determined. The PVIs and curve configurations are then modified to reduce the earth work cost. | 03-28-2013 |
20130063437 | Refining Quilts of Patches Representing Three Dimensional Structures - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for refining quilts of patches representing three dimensional structures. A method is provided that includes generating a first quilt representation of a three-dimensional structure, adding information to the first quilt representation, and generating a second quilt representation based on the first quilt representation. The first quilt representation is based on a model and associated with a first display level of detail. The second quilt representation is associated with a second display level of detail higher than the first display level of detail. | 03-14-2013 |
20130042193 | Configurable Business Rules - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing a graphical user interface configured to present a view of a computer model of a network, wherein the model of the network includes a plurality of elements that represent physical objects in the network and wherein each of the elements is associated with one or more rule points; receiving user input selecting a rule point for an element presented in the view; accepting user input specifying programming logic to be associated with a first one of the predefined conditions of the selected rule point, the programming logic having been entered into a graphical user interface configured to present an interactive template of the predefined condition; enabling the predefined condition based on the accepting; and validating the model by simulating operation of network. | 02-14-2013 |
20130027385 | SEMANTIC-DRIVEN PROFILE CURVE INTERPOLATION FOR SWEPT-SURFACE EXTRUSION - A method, apparatus, system, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to transition between two different profile curves in a swept surface extrusion. Each curve has section sequences that include consecutive sections, which in turn include constant attributes, which in turn include graphic attributes and semantic attributes. The section sequences define a semantic pattern for each profile curve. A globally optimal match is computed between the sections of the different curves. Adapted curves are generated that are structurally identical but geometrically resemble their respective original curves. An actual profile curve is computed for a given position on an extrusion line using a one-to-one vertex position morphing based on the adapted curves. The swept surface extrusion is performed and the result is displayed. | 01-31-2013 |
20130016126 | DRAWING AID SYSTEM FOR MULTI-TOUCH DEVICESAANM Wang; TaoAACI ShanghaiAACO CNAAGP Wang; Tao Shanghai CNAANM Brown; Hans-FrederickAACI MontrealAACO CAAAGP Brown; Hans-Frederick Montreal CA - A method, apparatus, system, and computer program product/article of manufacture provide the ability to enable and use a tool implement on a multi-touch device. The tool implements may be activated and deactivated using the borders of touch-sensitive region of a multi-touch device. The tool implement can be positioned in the display area (e.g., by dragging grips of the tool) and then used (in combination with a touch gesture to perform an operation. The tool implement may be a drawing aid tool that is used to remap a user's stroke gesture to a defined stroke that is displayed. | 01-17-2013 |
20130013265 | DIRECT MANIPULATION OF COMPOSITE TERRAIN OBJECTS WITH INTUITIVE USER INTERACTION - A method, apparatus, system, and computer readable medium provide the ability to manipulate a terrain in a drawing. A composite object of the terrain is obtained in a CAD BIM application. The composite object is a combination of sub-objects that each define a geometry that is part of the terrain. Each of the sub-objects is drawn on a separate corresponding drawable interface instance. A sub-object is selected and in response, the selected sub-object is displayed in its corresponding drawable interface instance. The selected sub-object is directly modified, in canvas, using the drawable interface instance. In response to the modification, the terrain is dynamically updated and displayed. | 01-10-2013 |
20130013264 | INTERACTIVELY SHAPING TERRAIN THROUGH COMPOSABLE OPERATIONS - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to shape a terrain. An associative framework dependency graph used to control the shaping of the terrain is established. The graph defines an association between and processing order for two or more nodes that include an input node and an action node. The input node is a drawing entity or set of one or more geometric parameters. The action node is dependent on and uses the input node as input to perform an evaluation and produce an output object. The associative framework dependency graph is displayed and evaluated by evaluating the action node in accordance with the processing order to produce a finished ground terrain. | 01-10-2013 |
20130013263 | GRADING METHOD UTILIZING FLOW GRADE SOLUTION - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to create a flow-grade solution. In a computer application, a curve from which a slope is to be projected and an elevation field depth buffer, that provides a 2D array with one element for each coordinate, are defined. A slope angle for the slope is specified. As grading shapes are rendered, by sweeping a cone with the slope angle along the curve, a grid is used to capture, into the buffer, an elevation for each vertex of the grid. A flow grade solution represented by the field depth buffer is thus obtained. The flow grade solution includes a path of steepest slope (determined from the elevations stored in the buffer) from any given location in the grid. | 01-10-2013 |
20120299921 | DIRECTING INDIRECT ILLUMINATION TO VISIBLY INFLUENCED SCENE REGIONS - A method, apparatus, system, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to conduct global illumination. A 3D model of a scene is obtained in a computer graphics application. A camera location in the scene is identified and paths emitted from the camera location are traced into the scene (by recording hit points along the paths). The paths are filtered by selecting those paths that can receive light from a light source (i.e., paths whose next path segment hits the light source). Targets are identified based on the hit points. Photons are generated from the light source and follow a corresponding photon path. Each photon path is evaluated to determine if it intersects with a target, in which case it is recorded. A view of the scene is rendered based on the recorded photons. | 11-29-2012 |
20120262458 | TRANSFORM MANIPULATOR CONTROL - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage device provides the ability to manipulate an object in a three-dimensional (3D) modeling system. A first object is displayed and then selected in the 3D modeling system. In response to the selecting, a transform manipulator is displayed displaying coincident with the first object. The transform manipulator includes a two-dimensional (2D) control plane object and grips located on the 2D control plane object. One of the grips is activated and used to manipulate the first object. | 10-18-2012 |
20120246166 | UNIFORM POINT CLOUD DECIMATION - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer readable medium provide the ability to create a point cloud indexed file. A grid (of cells that are divided into subcells) is mapped over points in a point cloud dataset. An occupancy value, that indicates whether a subcell contains a point, is computed for each subcell. A surface area contribution factor is computed for each cell and identifies a count of subcells that are occupied divided by a total number of subcells. The surface area contribution factor for each cell and points for each cell are written to the point cloud indexed file. | 09-27-2012 |
20120194535 | TWO-DIMENSIONAL VECTOR FILLS USING TOPOLOGICAL RECIPES - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to update a fill region of a computer drawing. A topological recipe representing the fill region is defined. The recipe includes a region set (of regions to be filled where the regions are areas bound by contours), a contour set (of contours that are a chain of curve segments), and curve segments. A final fill area of the fill region based on the topological recipe is computed. The final fill area is displayed and the curve segments are then modified. In response to the modification of the curve segments, the final fill area is dynamically updated and displayed. | 08-02-2012 |
20120179430 | MULTI-MODAL MANIPULATION OF A GEOMETRIC MODEL - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to create a geometric model in a computer-aided design (CAD) application. Direct graphical manipulation via user interaction is used to create the geometric model in the CAD application. The direct graphical manipulation is captured, without additional user input, as one or more lines of script code as if the user is writing the script code. The captured script code is integrated into an environment hosted by the CAD application. The script code is then displayed where it can be modified. The modification of the script code acts to modify the geometric model. | 07-12-2012 |
20120137007 | TRANSFERRING OWNERSHIP PRIVILEGES - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for transferring ownership privileges. In one aspect, a method includes identifying an ownership privilege in a system that permits users to acquire a write lock on one or more resources in a plurality of resources. The ownership privilege for a first plurality of users located in a first geographic region is revoked based at least partly on a determination that a current time of day in a different, second geographic region satisfies a criteria. The ownership privilege is granted to a different second plurality of users located in the second geographic location responsive to the determination. | 05-31-2012 |
20120133667 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DESIGNING, STYLIZING, AND SUPPLEMENTING AN IMAGE/SCENE - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer program product provide the ability to utilize scene elements in a computer drawing application. A modeling scene is obtained. The user searches for and selects a pattern scene that includes an environment attribute. The environment attribute is selected and retrieved from the pattern scene to be used in the modeling scene. | 05-31-2012 |
20120116728 | CLICK TO ACCEPT AS BUILT MODELING - A method, system, apparatus, and computer program product provide the ability to augment an as-built model. A CAD drawing of a project as well as a digital representation of a physical implementation of the project are obtained. A relationship that maps the digital representation to the CAD drawing is defined/established. A component of the digital representation is identified based on the relationship (e.g., and a database/catalog). Information about the identified component is transmitted to and displayed on a computer (e.g., a mobile device). | 05-10-2012 |
20120093393 | CAMERA TRANSLATION USING ROTATION FROM DEVICE - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provides the ability to determine two or more camera viewpoint optical centers. A first image and a second image captured by camera devices (and the rotations for the camera devices) are obtained. For each pair of matched points between the first image and the second image, a linear equation is defined that utilizes the rotations, pixel coordinates of the matched points and optical centers. A matrix A | 04-19-2012 |
20120089374 | PASSIVE ASSOCIATIVITY IN THREE-DIMENSIONAL (3D) MODELING - A method, system, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer-readable storage medium provide the ability to edit surface objects in a surface modeler. A dependent surface object (that is dependent on one or more input objects) having one or more properties is obtained. First user input is received that indicates that a surface associativity for the dependent surface object is off. In response to the receiving, an association between the dependent surface object and the one or more input objects is maintained. The association is used to expose the one or more properties of the dependent surface object. The properties are then displayed for editing by the user. | 04-12-2012 |
20120086719 | EXPANDABLE GRAPHICAL AFFORDANCES - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to create and edit a surface object in a computer implemented surface modeler. A surface object creation process is commenced and a surface object type is selected. During the surface object creation process, visual affordances are presented. The visual affordances are grips that can be used to inject modification into the surface object creation process. Subsequent to creation of the surface object, the same visual affordances are displayed and used to edit the surface object. | 04-12-2012 |
20120084060 | MODIFYING A PARAMETRICALLY DEFINED MODEL WITH AN EXPLICIT MODELER - A method, system, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to manage modifications to a solid model between different modeling applications. An original model created using a parametrically-based modeler is obtained. A modified version of the original model that was edited using a history-free modeler is obtained. The original model and the modified version are analyzed to determine differences between them. Based on the differences, a set of parametric-based treatments are determined that, when performed on the original model, affect changes that produce a parametrically-driven version that geometrically matches the modified version. One or more of the treatments are individually selected and applied to produce the parametrically-driven version. | 04-05-2012 |
20120059637 | INTERACTIVE FILLING SIMULATION ON 3D INJECTION MOLDING MODELS - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for interactively simulating an injection mold model. A three-dimensional CAD model is identified representing an injection mold cavity. The mold cavity includes a location of at least one gate. A potential fill pattern is determined for injection of a material into the injection mold cavity. The determined fill pattern is based at least in part on the geometry and dimensions of the modeled mold cavity and the location of the at least one gate. A strip model of the CAD model is generated based at least in part on the determined fill pattern. The strip model is used to perform a strip analysis simulating injection of the material within the injection mold cavity. | 03-08-2012 |
20110304628 | PIPE RECONSTRUCTION FROM UNORGANIZED POINT CLOUD DATA - A method, system, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to reconstruct a pipe from point cloud data. Point cloud data is obtained. Primitive geometric shapes are detected in the point cloud data. A pipeline is determined by determining predecessor and successor primitive geometric shapes for each of the shapes. Diameters, coplanarity, and angles between the shapes are corrected. The shapes are connected and output. | 12-15-2011 |
20110304619 | PRIMITIVE QUADRIC SURFACE EXTRACTION FROM UNORGANIZED POINT CLOUD DATA - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and data structure provide the ability to extract a primitive quadric surface from point cloud data. Point cloud data is obtained in 3D space. The point cloud data is segmented to create a disjoined surface and a smooth surface segment based on spatial connectivity and surface smoothness. One or more shapes are extracted from the point cloud data using geometric fitting. The geometric fitting searches for one or more quadric surface parameters of a given type of model that provides a best agreement between selected points from the point cloud data and a resultant model. | 12-15-2011 |
20110246935 | AUTOMATED FLOODPLAIN ENCROACHMENT COMPUTATION - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to define a floodplain encroachment. River reach and station information are received into a geographic information system (GIS). Floodplain encroachment values are defined using a graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI provides a simultaneous view of station identifiers for each station for which the floodplain encroachment is to be defined, profiles defined for each of the station identifiers, a method identification corresponding to each of the defined profiles, and a target water surface elevation change for each profile. The values are provided to a HEC-RAS engine which outputs analysis results that are simultaneously displayed in the GUI with the other information. The analysis results include a water surface elevation change, a top width, and a velocity for each profile-station pair. Users can modify the values and dynamically view the results from HEC-RAS in the GUI. | 10-06-2011 |
20110214091 | PRESENTING OBJECT PROPERTIES - The present disclosure includes, among other things, systems, methods and program products for presenting object properties by receiving selection of a component of a model presented in a graphical user interface (GUI) of a computer aided design tool, the GUI including an interactive display element having an arrangement of property fields related to the selected component, determining property values associated with the property fields based on the selected component, and providing the determined property values in corresponding property fields of the interactive display element for presentation in the GUI in conjunction with the model, such that responsive to receiving selection of a different component of the model, the property fields are updated with property values corresponding to the different component. | 09-01-2011 |
20110115783 | POINT CLOUD DECIMATION ENGINE - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to visualize a point cloud dataset. A grid, having cells, is mapped over the point cloud dataset. The points are sorted and a contribution factor is computed for each cell. Each cell and its contribution factor is stored. A viewing area and total number of viewing points is determined. The cells are intersected with the viewing area to determine visible cells. The contribution factors for the visible cells are accumulated and divided into the total viewing points to determine a point extraction value. A number of points to read (and display) from each visible cell is determined by multiplying the contribution factor of each visible cell by the point extraction value. | 05-19-2011 |
20110043517 | ADAPTIVE SNAPPING - A computer implemented method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to position/manipulate an object in a computer drawing application. A drawing model having a snap option and a first zoom level is displayed. The snap option that enables a positioning of an object in alignment with grid lines by causing the object to automatically jump to an exact position when the object is moved to within a first snap distance of the exact position. A zoom operation changes the first zoom level to a second zoom level. Automatically, dynamically, and independently from additional user actions, the first snap distance is recalculated based on the second zoom level. | 02-24-2011 |
20110018898 | Graphical Object Generation and Regeneration - A method of propagating changes in a design model identifies a change to a changed element, creates steps to carry out the change, creates additional steps based on the change and on relationships between the changed element and other elements in the design model, and executes the steps to alter the model in a manner that reflects the change. The steps may be created in a manner that depends on other steps that have been created. A system for regenerating a design model comprises a model element, a step propagator, and a step executor. The step propagator receives a first step that represents changes in the model element, and produces a second step that represents other changes in the model element that are dependent on the first step, and the step executor executes the first and second steps. | 01-27-2011 |
20100333026 | OBJECT BROWSER WITH PROXIMITY SORTING - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to interface with objects. A computer-implemented scene having two or more objects is displayed and a corresponding list of the two or more objects is displayed in independent categories called facets and in an ungrouped flat list. A user identifies a viewpoint within the scene that establishes a location and an orientation within a space of the scene from which to view the scene objects. Dynamically and independently from additional user actions, a proximity of each of the two or more objects from the viewpoint is determined. The ungrouped list of the two or more objects is sorted based on the proximities and displayed. | 12-30-2010 |
20100269041 | DYNAMIC MACRO CREATION USING HISTORY OF OPERATIONS - A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to perform a series of steps in a graphics drawing application. A drawing is opened and a series of two or more drawing operations is performed. Subsequent to the performing, the series of the two or more drawing operations is displayed in a history list of drawing operations. An arbitrary subset of the two or more drawing operations is selected from anywhere in the history list. The selecting provides for the recording of the arbitrary selected subset. The recorded arbitrary subset of drawing operations is dynamically performed. | 10-21-2010 |
20100205161 | TRANSITIVE FILE COPYING - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide an alternative mechanism for copying files. A request to copy a first file from a first source location to a first target location is received. A first checksum value of the first file is determined and used in a query to find a second source location for a second file. The second file has a second checksum value that is equivalent to the first checksum value. Additionally, the second file is located at the second source location. A determination is made regarding whether to copy the first file from the first source location or the second file from the second source location. Thereafter, the first source file or the second source file is copied to the first target location based on the determining. | 08-12-2010 |
20100204961 | INTEGRATED SYSTEM DESIGN - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to integrate multiple engineering design systems in a computer aided design (CAD) system. A design generator is displayed and used to create an engineering design that has different worksheets. Each worksheet represents a different aspect of the design, has local design objects that represent functional aspects of a component that are independent from the component's physical representation, and relation objects that models constraints for properties of the design objects. The objects are organized into a functional layout document (FLD) that is stored in a data center/database that is shared by the worksheets. The FLD is then used to design an engineering design/model. | 08-12-2010 |
20100201710 | STABILIZING IMAGES - A method, apparatus, and computer readable storage medium provides the ability to stabilize a series of two or more still images (i.e., a clip). The clip of image data is obtained. The clip is then analyzed to produce a set of source curves that represent a global movement detected in the clip. Each of the source curves is filtered to compute result curves. The source and result curves are then exposed and displayed to the user who may modify/tweak the curves as desired. Automatically, without additional user input, and without reanalyzing the original clip, the result curves are recomputed based on the user's changes. The original clip is then transformed into a result clip/series based on the source and result curves. | 08-12-2010 |
20100185690 | DYNAMIC MANIPULATION OF ARCHIVE FILES - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to edit in-place a ZIP™ archive file. A file and a first file block (FFB) in a first block location are opened and modified. If the first block location can accommodate the modified FFB, the modified FFB is saved, in-place, in the first block location without rewriting the entire archive. However, if the first block location cannot accommodate the modified FFB, a second file block is copied from a second block location to a third block location located at an end of a file data section of the archives A portion of the second block location is marked as a free block and the modified FFB is saved without rewriting the entire ZIP™ archives The archive is then saved by updating and saving both the central directory and end of central directory. | 07-22-2010 |
20100145665 | SMART CONTENT AND PLACEMENT IN A COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN APPLICATION - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to manipulate a graphical representation of a real-world object in a computer drawing application. A semantic behavior is defined for the real-world object. A graphical representation of the real-world object (referred to as a subject object) is obtained. The semantic behavior is assigned to the subject object. The subject object is placed into a drawing. When placed, the subject object automatically, without additional user input, places itself into the drawing based on the semantic behavior. | 06-10-2010 |
20100138021 | MODELING SHEET METAL TRANSITIONAL SHAPES WITH MANUFACTURING INTENT AND RESULTS - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to generate a lofted sheet metal model. User input is accepted that obtains two input profiles. A triangulated lofted shape is generated that transitions between the two profiles. The triangulated lofted shape is adjusted to reflect a manufacturing process. A manufacturable lofted sheet metal shape is then generated based on the adjusted triangulated lofted shape. | 06-03-2010 |
20100134505 | Image Rendering - Systems, methods, and computer program products receive an image request identifying an image having a width and a height. A number of interleaved buffers is identified, each of the interleaved buffers operable to store data associated with the image. The image is split into each of the interleaved buffers on a computing device. An interleaved image is displayed corresponding to at least one of the interleaved buffers, where the interleaved image having substantially the same width and height of the image. | 06-03-2010 |
20100122201 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ILLUSTRATING PROGRESS IN ACHIEVING A GOAL IN A COMPUTER PROGRAM TASK - A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for illustrating progress in achieving a goal of a system modeled by a computer program. In one embodiment, the invention is evidenced by a method comprising the steps of displaying a widget wherein the widget comprises a center portion representing a category of data represented by the computer program and the category of data includes n data points that must be fulfilled to achieve the goal and an outer portion, comprising a segment representing each one of the n data points; and updating the widget to represent each of the n data points that has been fulfilled by delineating each segment representing a fulfilled data point requirement from each segment representing a non-fulfilled data point requirement. | 05-13-2010 |
20100118026 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR VISUALIZING A QUANTITY OF A MATERIAL USED IN A PHYSICAL OBJECT HAVING A PLURALITY OF PHYSICAL ELEMENTS - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture for illustrating progress in achieving a goal of a system modeled by a computer program. In one embodiment, the invention is evidenced by a method comprising the steps of displaying a widget wherein the widget comprises a center portion representing a category of data represented by the computer program and the category of data includes n data points that must be fulfilled to achieve the goal and an outer portion, comprising a segment representing each one of the n data points; and updating the widget to represent each of the n data points that has been fulfilled by delineating each segment representing a fulfilled data point requirement from each segment representing a non-fulfilled data point requirement. | 05-13-2010 |
20100106463 | CUSTOM EQUATIONS FOR THE UNFOLDING OF SHEET METAL - A computer implemented method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to utilize custom equations for the unfolding of sheet metal in a solid modeling application. A drawing model is obtained and defines a sheet metal object in the solid modeling application. User input is accepted that defines a custom equation for a first variable that is directly used to calculate a developed length for a bend in the sheet metal object. The custom equation is converted into a standard equation that produces the developed length and is accepted by a modeling kernel of the solid modeling application. The modeling kernel dynamically displays an unfolded version of the sheet metal object based on the standard equation and the calculated developed length without exposing the standard equation to the user. | 04-29-2010 |
20100043075 | LICENSING MANAGEMENT UTILITY - A computer implemented method, apparatus, and article of manufacture are used to activate multiple computer applications on a computer. A computer application is installed. Further, a single licensing management utility (LMU) that is shared by multiple computer applications is installed on the computer. The LMU determines if a license for the installed computer application exists and obtains the license if it does not. | 02-18-2010 |
20100031197 | DESIGN PACKAGE DATA FORMAT - A method, apparatus, and data structure provide the ability to author and maintain assets in a computer system. Assets belonging to disconnected applicative fields are defined and represented in a hierarchical structure. The structure includes data (i.e., physical resources), nodes that act as a container for the data and other nodes, and constructs that establish a template that defines a contextual structural view for the data and nodes. The constructs are bound to the data and nodes and access is provided to the assets to a user using a computer and display. | 02-04-2010 |
20100031196 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SELECTING AND HIGHLIGHTING OBJECTS IN A CLIENT BROWSER - A computer implemented method, apparatus, article of manufacture and storage medium, provide the ability to select and highlight objects. A rendered image (containing one or more rendered objects) is displayed in a client browser on a client computer. A run length encoded (RLE) selection buffer is received, from a server across a network, into the client browser. The selection buffer provides a mapping of each pixel from the rendered image to rendered objects. User input is accepted that identifies a location of a cursor with respect to the rendered image. A determination is made, on the client computer, regarding which of the rendered objects has been selected based on the user input and the RLE selection buffer. The selected rendered object is then displayed in a visually distinguishable manner. | 02-04-2010 |
20100023537 | UTILIZING AND MAINTAINING DATA DEFINITIONS DURING PROCESS THREAD TRAVERSALS - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for traversing a process tree in a digital video editing system. A process tree is loaded into a digital video-editing system. The process tree has parent nodes that are dependent on output data from child nodes. Each parent node and each child node represents a digital video processing task to be performed during a traversal of the process tree. Each parent node declares a data definition and data default values. The data definition defines a structure of the data used by that parent node. For each parent node processed, a determination is made regarding whether the data definition for the output data received from a dependent child node is compatible with the data definition declared for that parent node. If the data definition is incompatible, the parent node utilizes the data default values. | 01-28-2010 |
20090222726 | DYNAMIC ACTION RECORDER - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture obtain user input during a playback of a macro. A series of user actions are recorded in the form of a macro. A representation of the user actions is displayed. The representation provides nodes that each represent the user actions. One of the nodes is selected and configured by the user to request additional user input relating to a parameter of the selected node during playback of the macro. The macro is played back and automatically pauses at the selected node. User input is obtained and the macro automatically continues execution utilizing the user input for the parameter of the selected node. Additionally, one or the user actions includes a selection of objects. As part of the recorded macro, references to the selected objects are stored in a non-graphical manner. During playback, objects are selected based on the stored references. | 09-03-2009 |
20090201295 | ASSOCIATIVE FILLET - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to update a filleted curve in a computer graphics application. A drawing having a first input curve and a second input curve is displayed. The first and second input curves are selected. A fillet curve is calculated, created, and displayed between the two input curves. A property of the first input curve is modified. Automatically, without additional user input, the fillet curve is recalculated based on the modified property. The recalculated fillet curve is displayed. | 08-13-2009 |
20090189888 | Procedure and Device for the Texturizing of an Object of a Virtual Three-Dimensional Geometric Model - A procedure for texturing an object of a virtual three-dimensional geometric model represented by three-dimensional geometric model data comprised of a three-dimensional object data associated with the object. Facet data is created out of three-dimensional geometric model data representing object surfaces of an object and which will be assigned 3D object data. Texture data is created representing a surface texture of the object surfaces of each object and which is assigned facet data. The three-dimensional object data, facet data and texture data are used to create a textured, three-dimensional representation of the object. | 07-30-2009 |
20090122078 | GRAPHICS PROCESSING METHOD AND SYSTEM - The embodiments discussed herein involve flood filling a region with anti-aliasing. In forming a fill region, a candidate pixel can be included in the region based on a color of the pixel and also a color of a neighbor of the point. The inclusion basis may be a color distance between a seed color and the points, and a color distance between the seed color and the point's neighbor. Points in the region may be weighted according to their color distance relative to the seed color, where the color distance can also take into account alpha values. Flood filling may be anti-aliased by assigning alpha values to pixels in gaps between corners of the fill region, where an alpha value may be proportional to a point's contribution to the gap. Dimples in a fill region may be tested for and used to determine which of two flood fill algorithms to use. | 05-14-2009 |
20090122077 | GRAPHICS PROCESSING METHOD AND SYSTEM - The embodiments discussed herein involve flood filling a region with anti-aliasing. In forming a fill region, a candidate pixel can be included in the region based on a color of the pixel and also a color of a neighbor of the point. The inclusion basis may be a color distance between a seed color and the points, and a color distance between the seed color and the points neighbor. Points in the region may be weighted according to their color distance relative to the seed color, where the color distance can also take into account alpha values. Flood filling may be anti-aliased by assigning alpha values to pixels in gaps between corners of the fill region, where an alpha value may be proportional to a point's contribution to the gap. Dimples in a fill region may be tested for and used to determine which of two flood fill algorithms to use. | 05-14-2009 |
20090122072 | GRAPHICS PROCESSING METHOD AND SYSTEM - The embodiments discussed herein involve flood filling a region with anti-aliasing. In forming a fill region, a candidate pixel can be included in the region based on a color of the pixel and also a color of a neighbor of the point. The inclusion basis may be a color distance between a seed color and the points, and a color distance between the seed color and the point's neighbor. Points in the region may be weighted according to their color distance relative to the seed color, where the color distance can also take into account alpha values. Flood filling may be anti-aliased by assigning alpha values to pixels in gaps between corners of the fill region, where an alpha value may be proportional to a point's contribution to the gap. Dimples in a fill region may be tested for and used to determine which of two flood fill algorithms to use. | 05-14-2009 |
20090122071 | GRAPHICS PROCESSING METHOD AND SYSTEM - The embodiments discussed herein involve flood filling a region with anti-aliasing. In forming a fill region, a candidate pixel can be included in the region based on a color of the pixel and also a color of a neighbor of the point. The inclusion basis may be a color distance between a seed color and the points, and a color distance between the seed color and the point's neighbor. Points in the region may be weighted according to their color distance relative to the seed color, where the color distance can also take into account alpha values. Flood filling may be anti-aliased by assigning alpha values to pixels in gaps between corners of the fill region, where an alpha value may be proportional to a point's contribution to the gap. Dimples in a fill region may be tested for and used to determine which of two flood fill algorithms to use. | 05-14-2009 |
20090119071 | INTERCONNECTED OBJECTS SLOPE MODIFICATION TOOL - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to update a slope of a run in a system in a computer drawing application. A system run (i.e., an interconnected series of objects) is selected in a computer drawing application. The objects in the interconnected series are part of the same system and the series has a starting point and an ending point. A property for a slope of the system run is specified. The slope of the system run is updated across all of the interconnected series of objects based on the specified property. | 05-07-2009 |
20090100368 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ACCESS TO AND WORKING WITH ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS ON THE INTERNET - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide access to architectural documents in a network based on-line web based system. Servers that are accessible from the Internet maintain persistent multiple architectural documents of different media types. An online user is provided, from the servers via the Internet, a set of basic virtual design tools that have persistent properties and may be copied. The virtual design tools may also be utilized to work with the architectural documents. A workspace is also provided for viewing, accessing, and modifying the architectural documents. | 04-16-2009 |
20090100366 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides allows a user to place a point on a model surface that is used as a focus point for tool operations. The focus point is a geometry sphere that shows orientation and relative position of the view in the scene. | 04-16-2009 |
20090094557 | SUN-SHADOW SIMULATION IN A GEOSPATIAL SYSTEM - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to display a sun and shadow simulation in a 3D system. A 3D view of a real world scene is displayed, using a 3D graphics application, on a display device. A plug-in is installed into the application. A calendar period (e.g., a month, day, and year) is defined by the user. A timeline arc is displayed with the calendar period defining a radius of the arc, and starting stopping endpoints of the timeline arc defining an interval of time during the calendar period. A timeline slider is displayed on the arc that indicates a time of day within the calendar period. A visualization is displayed, in the 3D view, of shadows cast by a sun on objects in the 3D view. A position of the sun is based on the calendar period and the time of day. | 04-09-2009 |
20090094556 | USER DEFINED SCENARIOS IN A THREE DIMENSIONAL GEO-SPATIAL SYSTEM - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to store user defined scenarios in a three-dimensional system. A 3D view of a real world scene is displayed, using a three-dimensional (3D) graphics application. Plug-ins are installed into the 3D graphics application. A user selects a subset of the plug-ins, defines settings for the subset of plug-ins, and defines a visualization trait for each plug-in in the subset. The user associates an identification of the selected subset, the settings, and the visualization trait with a scenario bookmark that is saved. The bookmark can be selected by a user to display a visualization of a scenario based on the selected subset, settings, and visualization trait. | 04-09-2009 |
20090089270 | TAXONOMY BASED INDEXING AND SEARCHING - A method, apparatus, and computer program product provide the ability to locate and display data in a taxonomy. A canonical taxonomy is defined (that is not exposed to a user that is searching for parts) by defining canonical categories and canonical attributes in a hierarchical structure. Mapping taxonomies are defined that define mapping categories that map to both canonical categories and canonical categories plus canonical attributes. Part data is processed based on the mapping taxonomies during which the data is mapped to a canonical category. A search request is specified in a particular mapping taxonomy format and results are returned (and displayed) that include data from multiple different taxonomies. | 04-02-2009 |
20090085911 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides safe navigation features including tool clustering, orientation indicators in the scene, slider indicating scene position, motion warning graphics and other features that help in navigating the scene. | 04-02-2009 |
20090083678 | Navigation system for a 3D virtual scene - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides cursor wrapping around the view id the 3D scene with continued motion of the cursor in the direction of movement by the user. | 03-26-2009 |
20090083673 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system allows a user to move up and down within a scene relative to an up axis of the scene without the user being displaced horizontally. A scale is provided that shows the user the relative position of the current view in the vertical bounding box of the scene. | 03-26-2009 |
20090083672 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system allows a user to walk the view along a horizontal plane in the view where a dead zone is provided in which no motion occurs when the cursor is in the zone and motion direction and speed is controlled by the relative position of the cursor with respect to the zone. | 03-26-2009 |
20090083671 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system allows a user to designate a point on a model and the system moves the view toward that point. A perspective scale is provided that shows the user the relative position of the current view from the starting point of the view to the surface point. | 03-26-2009 |
20090083669 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides a focus point that can be positioned on a model surface and with respect to which the tools of the system operate. The point is a geometry sphere that can have axial rings that show the orientation of the scene and the relative position of the view in the scene based on sphere size. | 03-26-2009 |
20090083666 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides a set of mini navigation wheels for experienced users that include all of the function of the larger wheels in pie shaped wedges and that acts as a cursor. | 03-26-2009 |
20090083662 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides a first contact tool graphic that introduces a user to the types of navigation tools, their uses and the capabilities of their action tools. A graphical user interface is played on a display when a user initially starts navigation operations for navigating a three dimensional scene. The tool selection graphic includes a text graphic describing navigation tool behavior, a first graphic showing selectable navigation tools for new users, a second graphic showing selectable navigation tools for experienced users, tool description graphic selectable from the first and second graphics showing action tool details for a selected navigation tool comprising navigation tool shape, action tool location on the a circular tool position shape and tool functions, nd an associated tool graphic positioned adjacent the tool description graphic allowing selection of other tools of a set of task based tools associated with the tool description graphic. | 03-26-2009 |
20090083645 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides scale GUIs that are positioned in the view and show the view position in the scene. | 03-26-2009 |
20090083628 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides a walk tool GUI that has a quite motion zone in which a cursor can be moved without causing view motion and arrow cursors that control direction and speed when positioned relative to the zone. | 03-26-2009 |
20090083626 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides a rewind function where view waypoints are stored as navigation occurs and the user can move the view back to one of the rewind points. | 03-26-2009 |
20090079740 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides a zoom tool that allows a user to designate a target point in a scene and zoom relative to that target point. | 03-26-2009 |
20090079739 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system allows a user to designate a point on a model in a scene and the point is moved to the center of the view. | 03-26-2009 |
20090079732 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system locks a cursor to a model point in a scene during panning and controls panning speed relative to a bounding box size of the scene. | 03-26-2009 |
20090079731 | NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR A 3D VIRTUAL SCENE - A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides a set of GUI tracking menus for different navigation tasks where each navigation tool has action tools associated with the navigation task. The action tools are arranged in rings with the most used tools on an outside. | 03-26-2009 |
20090060305 | SLICE VIEW - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture display multiple slices of a three-dimensional body in a computer drawing application. A first view of a 3D body is displayed. One or more slice sketches are defined on the first view. A single slice view of the three dimensional body is displayed. The single slice view simultaneously depicts all of the slices with a zero-depth representation of each slice. | 03-05-2009 |
20090051684 | DYNAMICALLY ADJUSTED BRUSH FOR DIRECT PAINT SYSTEMS ON PARAMETERIZED MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SURFACES - A system that implements a “tangent space brush,” allowing a user to paint directly onto a parameterized object, for example a three dimensional object. A tangent space brush projects coordinates from an input device to the world-space point on the surface of the 3D object. A normal is determined at that point and a brush image is projected from that point, along the normal, to the underlying surfaces. The system is implemented by providing a system that implements selecting a selected area of a displayed object, and projecting a brush directly onto a surface of the selected area. | 02-26-2009 |
20090005899 | PUNCH REPRESENTATION FOR PUNCH GEOMETRY - The present disclosure includes, among other things, systems, methods and program products for representing punch geometry and associated manufacturing information. | 01-01-2009 |
20080278514 | DYNAMICALLY ADJUSTED BRUSH FOR DIRECT PAINT SYSTEMS ON PARAMETERIZED MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SURFACES - A system that implements a “tangent space brush,” allowing a user to paint directly onto a parameterized object, for example a three dimensional object. A tangent space brush projects coordinates from an input device to the world-space point on the surface of the 3D object. A normal is determined at that point and a brush image is projected from that point, along the normal, to the underlying surfaces. The system is implemented by providing a system that implements selecting a selected area of a displayed object, and projecting a brush directly onto a surface of the selected area. | 11-13-2008 |
20080266309 | EDGE EFFECT - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide the ability to render an edge effect for an object. An object is obtained in a computer-generated rendering having vector geometry. An interior geometry is created for a fill of the object. Contour geometry is created for an outline stroke that covers an edge of the object. A proximity to the edge of the object is calculated for each pixel of the object and each pixel of the contour geometry. An effect is then rendered based on the proximities. | 10-30-2008 |
20080252663 | SOLVING NETWORKS OF GEOMETRIC CONSTRAINTS - Systems, program products and program products for accepting a request to move a first geometric entity that is constrained to other geometric entities in a drawing that may contain both one-way and two-way geometric constraints. A set of affected geometric entities that need to be repositioned or otherwise changed as the result of moving the first geometric entity is identified. The affected geometric entities and the geometric constraints are classified into groups which are solved using a variational geometric constraint solver. If the geometric constraints cannot be satisfied, the movement of the first geometric entity is restricted. Otherwise the affected geometric entities are updated. | 10-16-2008 |
20080248820 | Location Based Messaging - Systems and methods are provided for messages, such as short messages and multi-media messages. In one implementation a message is received from a sender, a location of the sender is determined, the message is modified to include the location of the sender, and the modified message is transmitted to a recipient. | 10-09-2008 |
20080244463 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING A PRESUMPTIVE DRAFTING SOLUTION - A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for providing a presumptive drafting solution. Input from a cursor control device is received, wherein the input reflects a movement in a computer drawing program of a cursor over a drawing having one or more geometric entities (having one or more geometric attributes). In one or more embodiments, a relevant geometric entity is identified based on how the cursor is moved over the drawing. A presumptive drafting solution is then provided based on the identified relevant geometric entity. In addition, prior drawing solutions (having one or more solution attributes) are obtained and compared to the one or more geometric attributes. A drawing solution having one or more solution attributes similar to the one or more geometric attributes may be provided to the user. | 10-02-2008 |
20080243456 | CONSTRAINT REDUCTION FOR DYNAMIC SIMULATION - Methods, program products and systems for preparing a mechanical model for a dynamic simulation. A first plurality of bodies in a mechanical model are identified including at least one grounded body and at least one free body, each of the bodies in the first plurality of bodies being related to at least one other body in the plurality of bodies by at least one constraint that removes or limits at least one degree of freedom for that body in relation to another body. The bodies in the first plurality of bodies are merged into a minimum number of rigid groups needed for a dynamic simulation where the minimum number of rigid groups includes at least one grounded group and at least one mobile group. Constraints that relate bodies within a group are removed from each of the rigid groups. | 10-02-2008 |
20080238918 | VIEW-SPECIFIC REPRESENTATION OF REINFORCEMENT - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for representing reinforcement. A three-dimensional (3D) solid object in a computer aided design (CAD) model is identified. The solid object has a volume. A reinforcement element is associated with the solid object. The reinforcement element defines a path within the volume, occupies no space in the volume, and has a width value greater than zero. The reinforcement element is rendered as a ribbon having a width and having no volume. The width of the ribbon is the width value of the reinforcement element. A view of the solid object, including a view of the ribbon, is presented. The width of the ribbon is orthogonal to a direction of the view of the solid object. | 10-02-2008 |
20080235171 | GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR GRAPHICAL SIMULATIONS - A system is described that treats a solver as an ordered sequence of steps involving the different objects that have to be simulated and relationships between them. Tasks and the order of the tasks are obtained from each object and relationship. The tasks are merged into a sorted list. The solver traverses the list and passing each task to a corresponding object and relationship where the objects are interleaved during processing. The object or relationship then executes the task. | 09-25-2008 |