Patent ID: 7249005
Filing Date: 2007-07-24
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. In a computerized architectural design environment in which a design program is loaded in memory and processed at a central processing unit, a computer-implemented method of efficiently rendering realistic three-dimensional views of a user's design choices during run-time at least in part using previously-rendered blanks for one or more of the user's design inputs, wherein the rendering allows a user to navigate a real-world depiction of the design in a three-dimensional space, the method comprising: an act of creating a plurality of visual effect blanks for a design element in advance of any user design input, the plurality of visual effect blanks representing a visual effect for the design element at a corresponding plurality of different positions; an act of, after creating the plurality of visual effect blanks, receiving user design input regarding the positioning of a design element in a design space, the user input including one or more attributes associated with the design element; an act of determining which one or more of the plurality of visual effect blanks to apply to the design element based on the received positioning information; an act of retrieving the determined one of the plurality of visual effect blanks for the design element from a data store; and a step for providing an three-dimensional view of the user input at a display device through communication with a graphical processing unit, such that the graphical processing unit processes and provides to the display device visual effect data for the design element based on the received positioning information.