Method and System for Converting Engineering Data into 3D Modeling Data
AssigneeHNTB Holdings Ltd
InventorsBrian W. Trotta, Christopher C. Wills, Juan A. Uribe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for converting data generated in an computer engineering design software component to an alternate format usable by a variety of alternate software components is provided. Engineering data from a project having a plurality of objects is provided. Objects are selected from the project for conversion and transportation to one of the alternate software components. The selected objects are converted to an alternate format, transported to the alternate software component and regenerated by the alternate software component in its own environment.
Claims20
Computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, cause a computing device to perform a method of transferring engineering data to 3D models, the method comprising:
- obtaining engineering data in a first electronic format from a computer aided design software component;
- selecting a plurality of objects associated with the engineering data;
- assigning an object type to each of the plurality of objects;
- converting the engineering data to object type data for each of the assigned object types;
- transporting the object type data to a 3D modeling software component via an interfacing component;
- formatting the object type data to a second electronic format compatible with the 3D modeling software component;
- and
- creating a 3D model according to the object type data for each of the plurality of objects via the 3D modeling software component.
A computer-implemented method of transferring data between a first computer having an engineering computer aided design (CAD) software component and a second computer having a 3D modeling software component, the computer-implemented method comprising:
- connecting the engineering CAD software component to the 3D modeling software component via a communications link between the first computer and the second computer, the 3D modeling software component comprising a connection handler pool;
- selecting a plurality of objects represented by engineering data in a first electronic format from the engineering CAD software component;
- assigning an object type to each of the plurality of objects;
- converting the engineering data to an associated object type data for each of the assigned object types;
- streaming the converted object type data from the first computer to an assigned connection handler from the connection handler pool;
- formatting the object type data to a second electronic format;
- and
- constructing a 3D model from the formatted object type data for each of the plurality of objects via the 3D modeling software component in the second computer.
A computer-implemented method for utilizing engineering data from a computer-aided design (CAD) software component to generate technically accurate 3D models in connection with a 3D-modeling software component of a computer system, the computer-implemented method comprising:
- receiving engineering data in a first electronic format from the CAD software component, the engineering data defining a plurality of triangle objects which form a surface of a meshed object;
- scanning a vertex of each of the plurality of triangle objects;
- generating a transfer set comprising a command header and a count of vertices and faces of the triangle objects;
- converting a mathematical data reference to a second electronic format from the first electronic format, the mathematical data reference utilizing a vertex array of the scanned vertices and the transfer set;
- handling the converted mathematical data reference via a connection handler;
- and
- generating a 3D model of the meshed object from the converted mathematical data reference via a graphical user interface of the 3D-modeling software component of the computer system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.