Device, system, and method of computer aided design (CAD)

1. A system of computer-aided-design (CAD), the system comprising:

a server to provide data of a CAD model to at least one client, wherein the server is capable of:

providing, to the client, section information defining a plurality of geometric sections of the CAD model, wherein the section information includes boundary information representing a plurality of boundaries defining the plurality of geometric sections, respectively, and a plurality of identifiers to identify the plurality of geometric sections, respectively;

distributing a plurality of geometric elements of the CAD model to the plurality of sections;

generating, for each section of the plurality of geometric sections, one or more files including geometric information of the geometric elements that are distributed to the section;

receiving from the client a request for one or more of the one or more files corresponding to at least one requested section of said geometric sections, wherein the one or more files include geometric information of one or more geometric elements of the CAD model that are included within the boundary of the requested section; and

providing to the client the one or more requested files.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the server comprises a stateless server to handle the request for one or more files independently from another request for one or more files.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of geometric sections are defined according to a pyramid scheme including one or more pyramid structures, wherein each pyramid structure includes one or more levels, and wherein each level includes at least one geometric section.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein at least one of said pyramid structures includes a plurality of levels, and wherein the number of sections in each level is at least two times the number of sections in an immediately-preceding level.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more files include at least one of a leading-points file including leading point data of the one or more elements, a rough-geometry file including rough geometry data of the one or more elements, a precision-geometry file including precision data of the one or more elements, and a metadata file including metadata corresponding to the one or more elements.

6. The system of claim 1 comprising said at least one client capable of generating the request based on the section information and on a requested view-port of the CAD model.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the server is capable of:

defining the plurality of geometric sections based on a number of the plurality of geometric elements;

distributing the geometric elements to the plurality of sections based on the size of a bounding rectangle of each of the geometric elements;

estimating a data size of each section based on the geometric elements distributed to the section; and

if the estimated data size of the section is greater than a predefined threshold, defining a plurality of additional sections, re-distributing to the additional sections one or more of the geometric elements, which were previously distributed to the section, and repeating the estimating and re-distributing for each of the additional sections until the estimated data size of each of the additional sections is equal to or less than the threshold.

8. The system of claim 1 comprising a compression module to spatially compress the geometric information of at least one section of the sections according to a predefined compression scheme, and to generate at least one of the files corresponding to the section including the spatially compressed geometric information and one or more parameters of the predefined compression scheme.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more parameters of the predefined compression scheme include a bits size of a compressed coordinate, which is less than a bit-size of a coordinate of the CAD model.

10. The system of claim 1 comprising a storage to maintain said one or more files, wherein based on the request, the server is to transfer the one or more files from the server to the client.

11. A method of computer-aided-design (CAD), the method comprising:

providing section information defining a plurality of geometric sections of a CAD model, wherein the section information includes boundary information representing a plurality of boundaries defining the plurality of geometric sections, respectively, and a plurality of identifiers to identify the plurality of geometric sections, respectively;

distributing a plurality of geometric elements of the CAD model to the plurality of sections;

generating, for each section of the plurality of geometric sections, one or more files including geometric information of the geometric elements that are distributed to the section;

receiving a request for one or more of the one or more files corresponding to at least one requested section of said geometric sections, wherein the one or more files include geometric information of one or more geometric elements of the CAD model that are included within the boundary of the requested section; and

providing the one or more files corresponding to the requested section.

12. The method of claim 11 comprising handling the request for the one or more files in a stateless manner independently from another request for one or more files.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of geometric sections are defined according to a pyramid scheme including one or more pyramid structures, wherein each pyramid structure includes one or more levels, and wherein each level includes at least one geometric section.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein at least one of said pyramid structures includes a plurality of levels, and wherein the number of sections in each level is at least two times the number of sections in an immediately-preceding level.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more files include at least one of a leading-points file including leading point data of the one or more elements, a rough-geometry file including rough geometry data of the one or more elements, a precision-geometry file including precision data of the one or more elements, and a metadata file including metadata corresponding to the one or more elements.

16. The method of claim 11 comprising generating the request based on the section information and on a requested view-port of the CAD model.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein distributing the plurality of geometric elements comprises:

defining the plurality of geometric sections based on a number of the geometric elements;

distributing the geometric elements to the plurality of sections based on the size of a bounding rectangle of each of the geometric elements;

estimating a data size of each section based on the geometric elements distributed to the section; and

if the estimated data size of the section is greater than a predefined threshold, defining a plurality of additional sections, re-distributing to the additional sections one or more of the geometric elements, which were previously distributed to the section, and repeating the estimating and re-distributing for each of the additional sections until the estimated data size of each of the additional sections is equal to or less than the threshold.

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein generating the one or more files for each section comprises:

spatially compressing the geometric information of at least one section of the sections according to a predefined compression scheme; and

generating at least one of the files corresponding to the section including the spatially compressed geometric information and one or more parameters of the predefined compression scheme.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the one or more parameters of the predefined compression scheme include a bit-size of a compressed coordinate, which is less than a bit-size of a coordinate of the CAD model.

20. The method of claim 11 comprising retrieving the one or more files from a storage based on the request.

21. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-useable medium that comprises an apparatus that stores a computer-readable program, wherein the computer-readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

provide section information defining a plurality of geometric sections of a CAD model, wherein the section information includes boundary information representing a plurality of boundaries defining the plurality of geometric sections, respectively, and a plurality of identifiers to identify the plurality of geometric sections, respectively;

distributing a plurality of geometric elements of the CAD model to the plurality of sections;

generating, for each section of the plurality of geometric sections, one or more files including geometric information of the geometric elements that are distributed to the section;

receive a request for one or more of the one or more files corresponding to at least one requested section of said geometric sections, wherein the one or more files include geometric information of one or more geometric elements of the CAD model that are included within the boundary of the requested section; and

provide the one or more files corresponding to the requested section.

22. The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein the plurality of geometric sections are defined according to a pyramid scheme including one or more pyramid structures, wherein each pyramid structure includes one or more levels, and wherein each level includes at least one geometric section.

23. The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein the one or more files include at least one of a leading-points file including leading point data of the one or more elements, a rough-geometry file including rough geometry data of the one or more elements, a precision-geometry file including precision data of the one or more elements, and a metadata file including metadata corresponding to the one or more elements.

24. The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein the computer-readable program causes the computer to:

spatially compress the geometric information of at least one section of the sections according to a predefined compression scheme; and

generate at least one of the files corresponding to the section including the spatially compressed geometric information and one or more parameters of the predefined compression scheme.