Collaborative virtual mechanical routing development system and method

A method comprising:

• through operation of at least one processor:
• receiving user inputs provided through at least one input device from a user interaction with a graphical user interface;
• generating a design for a routing run, in response to the user inputs, comprised of a set of elements and causing a distributed routing path corresponding to the routing run to be stored in a data store, which distributed routing path is comprised of data that specifies two end elements and a plurality of routing path links that specify connections between a plurality of intermediate elements and between each end element and a respective one of the intermediate elements,
• wherein the data store further includes data representative of the physical structures of the end elements and the intermediate elements that are specified by the routing path links of the distributed routing path, including computer-aided-design (CAD) data,
• wherein each routing path link includes handle data that specifies which CAD objects in the CAD data for pairs of elements specified in each routing path link are connected together;
• determining which elements to load and where to place and connect pairs of elements to dynamically assemble a virtual 3D representation of the routing run, based on the pairs of elements specified in the routing path links, the handle data included in the routing path links, and configurations of the elements defined in the CAD data for the elements specified by the routing path links;
• dynamically assembling the virtual 3D representation of the routing run according to the determination;
• and
• displaying the virtual 3D representation of the routing run on a display device.

A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with executable instructions that when executed, cause at least one processor to carry out a method comprising:

• receiving user inputs provided through at least one input device from a user interaction with a graphical user interface;
• generating a design for a routing run, in response to the user inputs, comprised of a set of elements and causing a distributed routing path corresponding to the routing run to be stored in a data store, which distributed routing path is comprised of data that specifies two end elements and a plurality of routing path links that specify connections between a plurality of intermediate elements and between each end element and a respective one of the intermediate elements,
• wherein the data store further includes data representative of the physical structures of the end elements and the intermediate elements that are specified by the routing path links of the distributed routing path, including computer-aided-design (CAD) data,
• wherein each routing path link includes handle data that specifies which CAD objects in the CAD data for pairs of elements specified in each routing path link are connected together;
• determining which elements to load and where to place and connect pairs of elements to dynamically assemble a virtual 3D representation of the routing run, based on the pairs of elements specified in the routing path links, the handle data included in the routing path links, and configurations of the elements defined in the CAD data for the elements specified by the routing path links;
• dynamically assembling the virtual 3D representation of the routing run according to the determination;
• and
• causing a display device to output the virtual 3D representation of the routing run.