Product design system and method

Abstract

A system for designing CAD assemblies and products over a network. The system includes a CAD system, and a design system. The design system includes an administration CAD adapter, an administration system, a scripting engine, a database, and a server CAD adapter. The administration CAD adapter communicates information between the administration system and the CAD system. The administration system is adapted to define relationships between separate CAD objects and Web objects. The scripting engine generates the assembly instructions and a product configuration form from the defined relationships. A client connects to the design system through a network and a server that is connected to the design system or is directly connected to the design system. The client receives the product configuration form, and a designer uses the form to generate a CAD product design. The product design form is structured so that fields on the form are automatically modified in response to entries on the form or other entries connected to the form. Once the completed form is submitted, the server CAD adapter generates assembly instructions, which are executed by the CAD system to generate the completed product design based on inputs from the product configuration form.

1 . A method of modifying a product configuration form, the method comprising the steps of: 
 receiving over a network a form modification request from a client computer;    generating in a design system an updated product configuration form in which at least one question-answer field is modified in accordance with the form modification request and permitted design configurations; and    sending the updated product configuration form over the network to the client computer.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of: 
 displaying the product configuration form on the client computer;    receiving an input corresponding to a modification to the product configuration form on the client computer;    sending the form modification request to the design system over the network;    receiving over the network the updated product configuration form from the design system; and    displaying the updated product configuration form on the client computer.    
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the steps of: 
 receiving on the design system a product configuration request and at least one output option from the client computer; and    generating at least one output in accordance with the product configuration request and the at least one output option.    
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the step of generating the at least one output includes the steps of: 
 retrieving product configuration information from a database;    loading at least one computer aided design object into a computer aided design system; and    modifying the at least one computer aided design object in accordance with the product configuration request and the product configuration information.    
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the step of generating the at least one output further includes the steps of: 
 generating assembly instructions from the product configuration request and the product configuration information;    sending the assembly instructions to the computer aided design system;    assembling the at least one computer aided design object in accordance with the assembly instructions; and    outputting an assembled computer aided design object in accordance with the output option.    
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the step of outputting the assembled computer aided design object includes the step of displaying a view of the assembled computer aided design object on the client computer.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the network includes an internet.