Rule based parametric design apparatus and method

Claim 1

A method of automatically resizing a design, the design being of the type created by a CAD system, comprising the steps of: (a) entering a design, the design including a plurality of draw primitives having predetermined relationships to one another, each draw primitive having at least one point locating the draw primitive, wherein each point has coordinates and at least one parent draw primitive; (b) entering a set of rules related to resizing the design, wherein the rules form a hierarchical structure; whereby placement of certain draw primitives in the design occurs first and allows placement of other draw primitives within the hierarchical structure; and (c) resizing the design automatically in accordance with the rules, wherein the design is reconfigured to a different two-dimensional size without operator intervention, wherein the resizing step includes the step of placing the draw primitives based upon the hierarchical structure formed by the rules, the placing step including the steps of: (1) placing a coordinate of a point on a first draw primitive; and (2) notifying each other parent draw primitive of the point on the first draw primitive of the placement of the coordinate; whereby common points on different draw primitives are collectively updated.

Claim 2

A method of automatically resizing a design, the design being of the type created by a CAD system, comprising the steps of: (a) entering a design, the design including a plurality of draw primitives having predetermined relationships to one another, each draw primitive having at least one point locating the draw primitive, wherein each point has coordinates and at least one parent draw primitive; (b) entering a set of rules related to resizing the design, wherein the rules form a hierarchical structure; whereby placement of certain draw primitives in the design occurs first and allows placement of other draw primitives within the hierarchical structure; and (c) resizing the design automatically in accordance with the rules, wherein the design is reconfigured to a different two-dimensional size without operator intervention, wherein the resizing step includes the step of placing the draw primitives based upon the hierarchical structure formed by the rules, the placing step including the steps of: (1) placing a coordinate of a point on a first draw primitive; and (2) notifying each other parent draw primitive of the point on the first draw primitive of the placement of the coordinate; whereby common points on different draw primitives are collectively updated.

Claim 11

A method of resizing an art glass design for frames of differing sizes from a predetermined art glass design, the design of the type which may include arcs, circles, lines, and complex objects each having known geometrical relationships to one another, the method comprising the steps of: a) selecting a desired art glass design; b) selecting a desired frame size; and c) determining the placement of the complex objects, arcs, circles and lines within said selected frame size automatically in accordance with a rule based software program operating in a hierarchical fashion, whereby placement of the arcs, circles, lines, and complex objects occurs in accordance with predetermined rules to maintain manufacturability and aesthetics.

Claim 12

A method of resizing an art glass design for frames of differing sizes from a predetermined art glass design, the design of the type which may include arcs, circles, lines, and complex objects each having known geometrical relationships to one another, the method comprising the steps of: a) selecting a desired art glass design; b) selecting a desired frame size; and c) determining the placement of the complex objects, arcs, circles and lines within said selected frame size automatically in accordance with a rule based software program operating in a hierarchical fashion, whereby placement of the arcs, circles, lines, and complex objects occurs in accordance with predetermined rules to maintain manufacturability and aesthetics.

Claim 18

An apparatus for automatically generating resized art glass designs from an original art glass design, the apparatus comprising: (a) memory means for storing an art glass design in a computer memory location, the design including one or more draw primitives and wherein associated with the draw primitives is data representative of the spatial relationship between the draw primitives in the design; (b) first processor means for applying a set of predetermined rules to the draw primitives in said memory means, wherein the draw primitives are ranked relative to one another; and (c) second processor means for visiting the ranked draw primitives and for resizing the ranked draw primitives to create a resized design, wherein operator intervention is not required.

Claim 19

An apparatus for automatically generating resized art glass designs from an original art glass design, the apparatus comprising: (a) memory means for storing an art glass design in a computer memory location, the design including one or more draw primitives and wherein associated with the draw primitives is data representative of the spatial relationship between the draw primitives in the design; (b) first processor means for applying a set of predetermined rules to the draw primitives in said memory means, wherein the draw primitives are ranked relative to one another; and (c) second processor means for visiting the ranked draw primitives and for resizing the ranked draw primitives to create a resized design, wherein operator intervention is not required.