Method and apparatus for designing duct work and for producing patterns for conduit sections in the designed duct work

In a method for automatically producing patterns for the sides of a three dimensional product which can be fabricated from sheet material, such as a ventilating duct fitting, said patterns being produced in response to the inputting of actual dimensional and pattern type data relating to said product, the improvement comprising the steps of:

• storing, in digital form in memory means, configurations and dimensional requirements of basic product types from which all possible variations of the three-dimensional product may be produced;
• entering input data into a computer operatively connected to said memory means, said input data including product type and dimensions of said product, the entered dimensions corresponding to dimensional requirements, stored in said memory means, of the product type entered;
• electronically deriving in said computer actual dimensional and pattern type data for each side of said product from the entered product type and dimensions of said product;
• storing in said memory means said actual dimensional and pattern type data;
• and producing patterns for the sides of said product in response to said actual dimensional and pattern type data stored in said memory means.

Apparatus for partially automatically designing a heating and ventilating network and automatically producing patterns of the closed sides of conduit sections in the designed network, said patterns being utilizable to produce conduit section sides from sheet material blanks, said apparatus comprising:

• memory means for storing in digital form generic dimensional requirements of basic conduit sections from which substantially all conduit networks can be constructed and for storing in digital form the configurations of a group of basic pattern types having nominal dimensions from which the sides of all conduit sections in the heating and ventilating network can be constructed;
• means for entering input data including the section type and dimensions of at least one conduit section in said heating and ventilating network, the entered dimensions of said one conduit section corresponding to the dimensional requirements, stored in said memory means, of the section type of said one conduit section;
• means including a computer for electronically deriving actual dimensional and pattern type data for each side of said one conduit section from the entered dimensions and section type thereof, said computer being operatively connected to said memory means and said means for entering input data;
• means for transmitting to said memory means for storage therein said actual dimensional and pattern type data;
• means for generating, from said actual dimensional and pattern type data, the pattern on each side of said one conduit section, each of said patterns developed from selected ones of said basic pattern types in response to said actual dimensional and pattern type data;
• means for positioning said developed patterns in a series of groupings;
• means for determining which of said groupings yields a minimum surface area so as to provide for optimum material usage and means for generating digital data representing said optimum grouping;
• means for supplying the digital data representing said optimum grouping to an X-Y plotting table, said data being in block format and including digital data representing the starting point for each pattern in X-Y format and sequential digital data in X-Y format representing the contour of each pattern;
• and means for plotting said patterns in accordance with said digital data on a sheet of material on said plotting table.

In an apparatus for automatically producing patterns for the sides of a three-dimensional product which can be fabricated from sheet material, such as a ventilating duct fitting, said patterns being produced in response to the inputting of actual dimensional and pattern type data relating to said product, the improvement comprising

• memory means for storing in digital form configurations and dimensional requirements of basic product types from which all possible variations of the three-dimensional product may be produced;
• a computer operatively linked to said memory means;
• means for entering into said computer input data including product type and dimensions of said product, the entered dimensions corresponding to dimensional requirements, stored in said memory means, of the product type entered;
• means including said computer for electronically deriving actual dimensional and pattern type data for each side of said product from the entered product type and dimensions of said product;
• storage means for at least temporarily memorizing said actual dimensional and pattern type data;
• and
• means for producing patterns for the sides of said product in response to said actual dimensional and pattern type data stored in said memory means.