Tabbed user interface for lightweight viewer

A system for generating a tessellated model comprising:

• a computing device including one or more processors coupled to memory;
• wherein the computing device is operable to execute a modeling environment, and the modeling environment is operable to:
• access a computer-aided design (CAD) model associated with geometry;
• generate one or more geometric objects that establish a tessellation of the geometry;
• generate a plurality of content objects;
• generate a tessellated model including the one or more geometric objects and the content objects;
• wherein the one or more geometric objects are operable to display the tessellation of the geometry in a viewing window of a user interface;
• and
• wherein the content objects are operable to establish an information window of the user interface, the content objects are associated with respective layers of the tessellated model that occupy a common display region of the user interface, and the content objects are operable to selectively display information associated with the tessellated model in the common display region.

A method of establishing a tessellated model comprising:

• generating one or more geometric objects that establish a tessellation of geometry stored in a computer-aided design (CAD) model, wherein the one or more geometric objects are operable to display the tessellation of the geometry in a viewing window of a user interface;
• generating a plurality of content objects, wherein the content objects are operable to establish an information window of the user interface, and the content objects are associated with respective layers that occupy a common display region of the user interface;
• assigning information associated with the geometry to the content objects, wherein the content objects are operable to selectively display the respective information in the common display region;
• and
• generating a tessellated model including the one or more geometric objects and the content objects.