Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-04
2004-07-20
Mizrahi, Diane D. (Department: 2175)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06766331
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to electronic graphics having embedded access to parts information and, more particularly, to a method, computer program product and system that provide automated transformation of graphics into an enriched electronic display containing related reference designation links and access to information associated with the parts depicted in the graphic.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Complex and detailed illustrations, such as parts catalogs and other technical drawings, are commonly depicted in a hard copy form consisting of multiple pages of drawings. Alternatively, the separate drawings may be depicted in electronic graphic form. The drawings contain large amounts of information regarding the parts depicted in the drawings or graphics and the connections and relationships among the parts. Some of the information contained in the drawings or graphics is explicit, such as labels or other text. Other sources of drawing or graphic information are implicit, such as the symbols or configurations.
When a user needs information concerning a specific part depicted in the drawings or graphics, the user must manually search through each page of a large set of drawings or a catalog, either on paper or on-line. For example, in industries that depend on complex technical drawings, manuals and parts catalogs for information about its systems, users must manually search many pages of drawings or catalogs before they can perform maintenance or troubleshoot the system. This typically becomes a lengthy process because the user must study the drawings or graphics to determine the way in which the drawings relate to each other and ensure he has all the drawings concerning the particular part of the system at issue. For instance, a part from one drawing or graphic may also be depicted on one or more of the other drawings or graphics. Thus, the drawings or graphics may have multiple references to the same part, both graphically and in the textual information associated with the part. Searching the hard copies of the parts catalogs and/or manuals to find all of the graphical and textual references to a specific part is very difficult, tedious and time-consuming because of the massive amounts of information they contain. Even if the parts catalogs and/or manuals are on-line, the user nevertheless must repeatedly “pan” and “zoom” to find the exact information that they need.
Once users collect all of the drawings, parts catalogs and manuals necessary to provide a comprehensive view of the system upon which they plan to work, they must carry the drawings, catalogs and/or manuals with them to perform the work. Otherwise, the user runs the risk of having to repeatedly return to the central repository of the drawings, catalogs and manuals. If the user realizes he needs drawings and information regarding another part of the system while working, then he must again commence the lengthy searches described above.
As the above discussion illustrates, the process of manually locating and attaining drawings or textual information for a specific part from a large set of drawings, parts catalogs or manuals is a daunting task, even for an experienced user. The process gets much more complicated when the user must also obtain all of the drawings or textual information related to the specific part that is provided by parts catalogs or other manuals. For example, finding each occurrence of a particular part number, detail label or text in a parts catalog generally becomes a very lengthy process because the user must consult large indices of information associated with the parts and determine which reference refers to the particular part at issue. Thus, manually searching large sets of drawings, parts catalogs or manuals for particular parts of a system and obtaining all of the drawings and/or textual information related to that part, is an inefficient, error-prone and expensive endeavor.
For the reasons discussed above, there exists a need for a system that processes complex graphic files to provide users with fast and accurate access to information contained in large sets of drawings, parts catalogs and/or manuals. More particularly, the need is for a system that efficiently performs automated transformation of graphics into an enriched electronic display containing reference designation links and information associated with the parts depicted in the graphic.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with this invention, a method, computer program product, and system for creating and viewing an intelligent graphics file including information associated with the parts of at least one article are provided. The method, computer program product, and system automatically transform graphics into a format that provides enriched electronic display of the graphic containing reference designation links and access to information associated with the parts depicted in the graphic. Relationships among the reference designations and the ability to access textual information associated with the reference designations of the plurality of parts depicted in the graphic are embedded in the intelligent graphics file. The method, computer program product, and system of the present invention therefore automatically display the particular part and the textual information for that part when the reference designator associated with the part is selected. As such, the present invention automatically produces an intelligent graphics file that allows a user to quickly and accurately find, view and navigate among the parts depicted in a graphic and access the information associated with the parts. The present invention is advantageous because it does not require the user to manually search through large parts manuals. Moreover, the present invention does not require the system builder to manually re-author electronic drawing sets. Therefore, the method, computer program product, and system of the present invention provide an efficient and accurate approach to creating and viewing intelligent graphics files including information associated with the parts depicted in the graphic file that completely avoids the time-consuming and expensive steps of the conventional approaches.
In general, the method, computer program product, and system of the present invention create an intelligent graphics file that includes the ability to access information associated with the parts of the article or articles depicted in the graphics file. Once a graphic representation of the parts of the article and information identifying the reference designations for the parts are provided, the present invention constructs a computer readable object defining the related reference designations. The computer readable object contains the position and content of the reference designations and indicates the related reference designations. The related reference designations are labels that refer to common parts depicted in different portions of the graphic file. The computer readable object then may be combined with the graphic representation to create the intelligent graphics file. The intelligent graphics file therefore may contain both graphic representations of the parts of the article and embedded data structures that define the related reference designations associated with the graphic representations of the same part.
The method, computer program product, and system of the present invention also may provide access to textual information associated with the parts depicted in the graphic representation. The computer readable object may identify the textual information corresponding to a respective part of the article and when the computer readable object is combined with the graphic representation, the resulting intelligent graphic file contains graphics and embedded data structures that identify the textual information. Additionally, the method, computer program product, and system of the present invention may include a database to store the textual information associated with the parts depicted in the graphic representation from which text
Boose John H.
Shema David B.
Alston & Bird LLP
Mizrahi Diane D.
Mofiz Apu
The Boeing Company
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