Method and system for enhancing engineering information
View Patent ↗A system and method for adding features to an electronic file is provided. The electronic file can be automatically examined to identify information that relates to features such as navigational aids or enhanced content. Certain information is defined to represent the navigational aids or enhanced content. When the information representing the navigational aid or enhanced content is located in the electronic file, the navigational aid or enhanced content is added to the electronic file. Bookmarks, internal links, web links, attachments, digital signatures and multimedia files are some examples of navigational aids and enhanced content that may be added to the electronic file, although other items may also be included.
1. A method, comprising:
receiving, at a computer, a computer-aided design (CAD) file that includes a plurality of data in a first format, the plurality of data including at least one of graphics or text;
comparing at least one of the graphics or text in the CAD file with a CAD drafting standard to identify graphics or text in the CAD file that corresponds to a defined feature in the CAD drafting standard;
extracting, with the computer, the identified graphics and/or text that corresponds to the defined feature from the CAD file;
interpreting, by the computer, the extracted graphics and/or text based on the defined feature to obtain enhanced feature information from the extracted graphics and/or text; and
creating with the computer, based on the CAD drafting standard, a second file in a second format, including:
the enhanced feature.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the enhanced feature is a link or bookmark.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
examining the data to determine a target of the link or bookmark; and
creating a link to the target.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data represent text and graphics.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second format is one of DWF, XPS or PDF.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the enhanced feature is one of audio or video instructions, bookmarks, internal document links, Web URL Links, or attachments.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving the definition of the feature.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the definition of the feature includes the definition of a detail reference.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the definition of the feature is defined by a script based on a scripting language, the script defining the graphics and text to be identified in the CAD file and defining the creation of the enhanced feature in the second file based on the enhanced feature information.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising persisting the enhanced feature in the second file.
11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a scripting language to perform the method.
12. A non-transitory computer readable medium including computer program code for causing a computer to perform the steps of:
comparing at least one of the graphics or text in a computer-aided design (CAD) file that includes a plurality of data in a first format with a CAD drafting standard to identify graphics and/or text in the CAD file that corresponds to a defined feature in the CAD drafting standard;
extracting, by the computer, the identified graphics and/or text that corresponds to the defined feature from the CAD file;
interpreting, with the computer, the extracted graphics and/or text based on the defined feature to obtain enhanced feature information from the extracted graphics and/or text; and
creating, with the computer, based on the CAD drafting standard, a second file in a second format, including:
the enhanced feature.
13. The computer readable medium of claim 12 , further comprising computer program code for causing a computer to perform the steps of:
determining the defined feature that corresponds to the identified graphics and/or text based on the definition of the feature.
14. The computer readable medium of claim 12 , further comprising computer program code for causing a computer to perform the steps of:
defining a scripting language for defining in the definition of the feature, the preselected graphics and text and the corresponding defined feature.