US 6,542,937 B1 · Apparatus and method for transferring and editing sheet metal part data

Abstract

An apparatus and method are disclosed for transferring part data, such as sheet metal part data, between computer-based application or CAD environments and for editing such part data. The application environments may include a 2-D CAD program environment and an object oriented bend model program environment. An interface is provided through which a 2-D CAD system may access data from the object oriented bend model system and by which data may be transferred between the systems to permit editing and updating of the part model within and from both applications. The interface may be implemented through a library or set of application program interface (API) functions and a message-based protocol (such as dynamic data exchange (DDE)) to facilitate the exchange of sheet metal part data. Various editing capabilities or tools may also be provided to enable, for example, the attachment of faces of the part or the shifting of one face relative to another face of the part.

Claims45

Dependent claims

An interface for transferring part data between two application environments, one of said application environments including a computer-aided design (CAD) program that processes 2-D part data and the other of said application environments including an object oriented bend model program that is capable of processing 2-D part data and 3-D part data, said interface comprising:

an inter-process communication system that establishes an inter-process communication path between said CAD program and said object oriented bend model program;
and
a library of application program interface (API) functions that may be called by said CAD program and said object oriented bend model program to transfer and exchange part data through said inter-process communication path.

A method for transferring part data between two application environments, one of said application environments including a computer-aided design (CAD) program that processes 2-D part data and the other of said application environments including an object-oriented bend model program that is capable of processing 2-D and 3-D part data, said part data including data defining a sheet metal part, said method comprising:

establishing an inter-process communication path between said CAD program and said object oriented bend model program;
defining a library of application program interface (API) functions to transfer part data through said inter-process communication path;
determining a set of input data for one of said API functions of said library;
calling said one of said API functions and providing, as input to said one of said API functions, the set of input data;
and
transferring, with said inter-process communication path, the set of input data between said CAD program and said object oriented bend model program in accordance with said one of said API functions that was called from said library.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Apparatus and method for transferring and editing sheet metal part data

Life of this patent

Apparatus and method for transferring and editing sheet metal part data

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims45