Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Computer graphics processing – Three-dimension
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-26
2001-03-06
Nguyen, Phu K. (Department: 2772)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Computer graphics processing
Three-dimension
Reexamination Certificate
active
06198487
ABSTRACT:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
A portion of the disclosure of this patent contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reverse all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the area of computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) software, and more specifically to methods for enabling the transfer of three-dimensional data between CAD/CAM software applications.
Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Overview
Within the office environment, one method that has been developed to enable “cutting” and “pasting” of data between software applications is “object linking and embedding (OLE). OLE defines standardized interfaces and functions enabling users to transfer “objects” between software applications. The following section is an abbreviated overview of some of the concepts used in OLE version 2.0, from Microsoft Corporation of Belleview, Wash., and defines some of the terms that will be used in the disclosure. Further information and details about OLE may be obtained from “Inside OLE 2” by Kraig Brockschmidt, 1994, Microsoft Press, hereby incorporated by reference.
An example of cutting and pasting data between software applications is illustrated in FIG.
1
.
FIG. 1
illustrates a two-dimensional object
1
created in a first software application being transferred into a second software application. The first and second software applications (not shown) are commonly specialized software applications such as spread-sheets, word processors, or graphics programs. Once two-dimensional object
1
has been transferred, the second software application can manipulate its own data, two-dimensional object
2
, so that two-dimensional object
2
interacts with two-dimensional object
1
. The resulting document is then output to the user.
OLE provides a set of “interfaces”, or groups of functions, which when combined provide the mechanics enabling the user to transfer data between programs.
FIG. 2
illustrates the convention for representing an OLE interface
10
, for an object
11
and a “consumer”
12
of the object. Object
11
is said to have an “interface implementation”, including interfaces
13
and
14
, that are analogous to an object oriented programming “class.” Interfaces
13
and
14
include member functions
15
and
16
, respectively, that are analagous to object oriented programming class “instances”.
Consumer
12
receives data from object
11
by calling functions of interface
13
and/or interface
14
. In some cases the consumer may only be aware of one of several interfaces available in an object. In response to the function calls, object
10
may return specific data about itself to the consumer
12
. Object
10
, however maintains exclusive control of its own data
17
. As further illustrated in
FIG. 2
, IUnknown is an interface available to all object, that when queried for specific interfaces, returns pointers to the requested interface. For example, assuming consumer
12
knows which functions are available in interface
13
, consumer
12
can ask and receive a pointer to interface
14
. Then, once consumer
12
receives a pointer to interface
14
, consumer
12
can call member functions
16
.
The functions provided in the currently available OLE standardize the transfer of placement and size information, of objects between software applications. Two type of “transferring” objects from a first software application to a second software application include “linking” and “embedding”.
“Linking” an object that is created in a first software application to a second software application is when the object maintains its existence separate from the second software application, although the second software application can “use” and reference the object. Linking also allows the user to modify and edit the object with the first software application without having to invoke the second software application.
“Embedding” a first data object into a second software application is when the object is actually integrated with the data stored and used by the second software application. Embedding allows the user to modify and edit the object only after first invoking the second software application.
“Linking” an object is commonly preferred when the linked object includes a large quantity of data. One drawback to linking however, includes maintaining and remembering the particular path or directory of the linked object in the computer memory. “Embedding” an object is commonly preferred when the positioning and relationship of the embedded object to other data within the second software application is important to maintain. One drawback to embedding however, includes that the embedded object cannot be edited or modified by the user without invoking the second software application.
Two other commonly used OLE terms are “servers” and “containers”. As illustrated in
FIG. 2
, the data
17
actually is only a portion of the object
10
. The functions
15
and
16
serve to manipulate data
17
and to convey this data to the consumer
12
. Because object
10
“serves” and manages the data, it is often called a “server”. A “container” is defined as the user of the information contained within the server. In
FIG. 2
, the container is consumer
12
. In a macroscopic scale, in the example in
FIG. 1
, the server is the first software application which manages object
1
, and the container is the second software application. A container may access multiple servers, one for each object within the container's “environment” and further, containers and servers may be nested.
The term “In Place Activation” is another important term in OLE. “In Place” activation enables a first software application to be active within a second software application. As illustrated in
FIG. 1
, an object
1
created in a spreadsheet application is inserted into a document
2
created by a word processing application. Without In Place activation capability, once object
1
is inserted into document
2
, if the user wishes to revise the entries in object
1
, normally the user would have to quit the word processing application, enter the spreadsheet application, revise object
1
, reinvoke the word processing program and then transfer the revised object
1
. This indirect manner of editing transferred object occurs because the software application receiving the object only recognizes the object as a two-dimensional black box. With In Place activation, the user can directly invoke the spread sheet application from within the word processing application. OLE provides the interface capability for the two software applications so they can communicate with each other. As a result, the user can revise object
1
using the spreadsheet application without quitting the word processor application.
OLE version 2.0 is currently available with Microsoft Corporation's Windows™ operating system version 3.1. Currently many office environment software applications such as Microsoft Corporation's Excel and Word support OLE standards and interfaces. As was illustrated in
FIG. 1
, object
1
, created in a first software application such as a spread sheet, is transferred into a second software application such as a word processor. Among other variables passed between the software applications, the second software application needs to know the two-dimensional size of the object
1
so that it can make room for it in the document. The second software application obtains the two-dimensional size of first data object
1
by calling and relying on OLE functions. Based upon the two-dimensional size, the second software application can modify its own data, object
2
, to “wrap around” object
1
.
OLE is not limited to two-dimensional objects and is also used to incorporate and transfer audio and video data between software applications. Current OLE f
Fortenbery Mark D.
Patience Robert
Payannet Dominique J.
Stubbs Cameron M.
Intergraph Corporation
Nguyen Phu K.
Townsend and Townsend / and Crew LLP
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