System and method employing variable size mechanical binding elements in virtual rendering of a print production piece

A print document production visualization system, comprising:

• a controller;
• a print product definition;
• a directly proportional size binder requirement specification;
• and
• a plurality of directly proportional sized 3D binding elements and associated meta-data managed by the controller, the controller configured to transform the binding elements and associated meta-data, as specified by the binder requirement specification, into a directly proportional sized 3D binder display model for inclusion in the transformation of the print product definition into a print product display model displayed as a virtual 3D rendering of the print product and directly proportional size binder by rendering on a graphical user interface.

A method of operating a computer system for generation of a three dimensional virtual rendering of a document, the computer operating under the programmatic control of computer program code stored on medium read by the computer, the method comprising:

• receiving a print product definition;
• receiving a directly proportional sized 3D binder requirement specification;
• in response to the binder requirement specification retrieving, from a binder base model repository stored in computer memory, at least one directly proportional sized 3D binding element and meta-data associated therewith;
• transforming the directly proportional sized 3D binding element and associated meta-data into a directly proportional sized 3D binder display model as specified by the binder requirement specification;
• and
• transforming the print product definition into a 3D display model including the directly proportional sized 3D binder display model as a 3D virtual rendering of the print product definition and at least one directly proportional sized 3D binder on a graphical user interface.