Computer aided design associative design process

A computer system having a computer memory operable with a computer aided design (CAD) software for designing components, the system being configured to:

• create a three-dimensional relationship among the components through the use of the computer;
• identify common areas between the components through the use of the computer;
• extend the identified common areas through the use of the computer;
• traverse the common areas with at least one parallel division plane;
• trim the components to the at least one parallel division plane through the use of the computer;
• store the components in the computer memory as a first product layout and a second product layout;
• and
• integrate the first and second product layouts through the use of an architectural layout function thereby reducing the occurrence of infinite looping by the CAD software.

A method of associative computer aided design for designing a device having a first and a second mating component through the use of a computer having computer aided design (CAD) software and a computer memory, the method comprising the steps of:

• creating a three-dimensional relationship among the first and second mating component through the use of the computer;
• identifying common area(s) between the first and second mating component through the use of the computer;
• extending the common area(s) between the first and second mating component through the use of the computer;
• traversing the common area(s) with a first parallel division plane, a second parallel division plane, and a third parallel division plane;
• trimming the first and second mating component to the first parallel division plane and the second parallel division plane;
• storing the trimmed first and second mating component to the computer memory in separate files as a first product layout;
• trimming the first and second mating component to the third parallel division plane and the second parallel division plane;
• storing the trimmed first and second mating component to the computer memory in separate files as a second product layout;
• and
• integrating the first and second product layouts in the computer memory through the use of an architectural layout function thereby reducing the occurrence of infinite looping by the CAD software.