Abstract:
A system, method, and computer program for component scattering, comprising calculating a bounding box for each of a plurality of parts; calculating a centroid corresponding to each of said bounding boxes; placing a first part having a bounding box and a centroid at said start position, and; placing said plurality of parts in a pre-determined direction from said first part; whereby in a single operation said plurality of parts are logically added to an assembly view in a pre-determined manner, and appropriate means and computer-readable instructions.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is related to U.S. Ser. No. 12/051,029, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RADIAL COMPONENT SCATTERING” and U.S. Ser. No. 12/051,039, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD COMPONENT SCATTERING FROM A LIST”, both filed on Mar. 19, 2008. 
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The presently preferred embodiment of the innovations described herein relate generally to software applications. More specifically, the presently preferred embodiment relates to scattering components into a modeling assembly. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Common in the industry of computer aided drafting is the need for a user, or drafter, or designer, to place multiple objects close to a center. The placement of the multiple objects aides the designer when combining parts and sub-parts to form a larger assembly comprised of multiple components. The modeling of any assembly involves specifying all of its constituent parts and then adding them into the assembly. Traditionally, this process is typically done by specifying one part at a time and positioning the part into the assembly. The positioning can be time consuming and inefficient when a large number of parts are involved or if there are many instances of the same part that are members of the assembly. Alternatively, the addition of multiple parts may result in overlapping placement or illogical placement that could occur anywhere within the limits of the 3D modeling environment. Additionally, it is important that these parts don&#39;t overlap each other in the assembly space. 
     It is desirable to improve user experience and efficiency with logical and intuitive placement of parts in an assembly; adding multiple parts to the assembly in a single operation with efficiency and less effort can significantly reduce the time to model the assembly. What is needed is a system and method for adding multiple parts in an assembly in a single operation that overcomes the limitations of the known methods discussed above. 
     SUMMARY 
     To achieve the foregoing, and in accordance with the purpose of the presently preferred embodiment as described herein, the present application provides a computer implemented method for component scattering, comprising calculating a bounding box for each of a plurality of parts; calculating a centroid corresponding to each of said bounding boxes; placing a first part having a bounding box and a centroid at said start position, and; placing said plurality of parts in a pre-determined direction from said first part; whereby in a single operation said plurality of parts are logically added to an assembly view in a pre-determined manner. The method, wherein said placing occurs by placing said plurality of parts in a square matrix on a work view plane. The method, wherein said plurality of parts is spaced apart by a distance corresponding to a largest bounding box. The method, wherein said distance is 1.2 times of said part having said largest bounding box. 
     An advantage of the presently preferred embodiment is to provide a computer-program product tangibly embodied in a machine readable medium to perform a method for component scattering, comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to calculate a bounding box for each of a plurality of parts; calculate a centroid corresponding to each of said bounding boxes; place a first part having a bounding box and a centroid at said start position, and; place said plurality of parts in a pre-determined direction from said first part; whereby in a single operation said plurality of parts are logically added to an assembly view in a pre-determined manner. The computer-program product, wherein said placing occurs by placing said plurality of parts in a square matrix on a work view plane. The computer-program product, wherein said plurality of parts is spaced apart by a distance corresponding to a largest bounding box. The computer-program product, wherein said distance is 1.2 times of said part having said largest bounding box. 
     Another advantage of the presently preferred embodiment is to provide a data processing system having at least a processor and accessible memory to implement a method for component scattering, comprising means for calculating a bounding box for each of a plurality of parts; means for calculating a centroid corresponding to each of said bounding boxes; means for placing a first part having a bounding box and a centroid at said start position, and; means for placing said plurality of parts in a pre-determined direction from said first part. 
     Other advantages of the presently preferred embodiment will be set forth in part in the description and in the drawings that follow, and, in part will be learned by practice of the presently preferred embodiment. The presently preferred embodiment will now be described with reference made to the following Figures that form a part hereof. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the presently preferred embodiment. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       A presently preferred embodiment will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein like designations denote like elements, and: 
         FIG. 1  is a logic flow diagram of the method employed by the presently preferred embodiment; 
         FIG. 2  is an illustration of a windowed environment; 
         FIG. 3  is an illustration of a geometric object with a bounding box; 
         FIGS. 4   a  and  4   b  illustrate a windowed environment displaying a plurality of parts; and 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram of a computer environment in which the presently preferred embodiment may be practiced. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Computer System 
     The numerous innovative teachings of the present application will be described with particular reference to the presently preferred embodiments. It should be understood, however, that this class of embodiments provides only a few examples of the many advantageous uses of the innovative teachings herein. The presently preferred embodiment provides, among other things, a system and method for component scattering. Now therefore, in accordance with the presently preferred embodiment, an operating system executes on a computer, such as a general-purpose personal computer.  FIG. 5  and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in which the presently preferred embodiment may be implemented. Although not required, the presently preferred embodiment will be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a personal computer. Generally program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implementation particular abstract data types. The presently preferred embodiment may be performed in any of a variety of known computing environments. 
     Referring to  FIG. 5 , an exemplary system for implementing the presently preferred embodiment includes a general-purpose computing device in the form of a computer  500 , such as a desktop or laptop computer, including a plurality of related peripheral devices (not depicted). The computer  500  includes a microprocessor  505  and a bus  510  employed to connect and enable communication between the microprocessor  505  and a plurality of components of the computer  500  in accordance with known techniques. The bus  510  may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. The computer  500  typically includes a user interface adapter  515 , which connects the microprocessor  505  via the bus  510  to one or more interface devices, such as a keyboard  520 , mouse  525 , and/or other interface devices  530 , which can be any user interface device, such as a touch sensitive screen, digitized pen entry pad, etc. The bus  510  also connects a display device  535 , such as an LCD screen or monitor, to the microprocessor  505  via a display adapter  540 . The bus  510  also connects the microprocessor  505  to a memory  545 , which can include ROM, RAM, etc. 
     The computer  500  further includes a drive interface  550  that couples at least one storage device  555  and/or at least one optical drive  560  to the bus. The storage device  555  can include a hard disk drive, not shown, for reading and writing to a disk, a magnetic disk drive, not shown, for reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk drive. Likewise the optical drive  560  can include an optical disk drive, not shown, for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk such as a CD ROM or other optical media. The aforementioned drives and associated computer-readable media provide non-volatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, and other data for the computer  500 . 
     The computer  500  can communicate via a communications channel  565  with other computers or networks of computers. The computer  500  may be associated with such other computers in a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or it can be a client in a client/server arrangement with another computer, etc. Furthermore, the presently preferred embodiment may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices. All of these configurations, as well as the appropriate communications hardware and software, are known in the art. 
     Software programming code that embodies the presently preferred embodiment is typically stored in the memory  545  of the computer  500 . In the client/server arrangement, such software programming code may be stored with memory associated with a server. The software programming code may also be embodied on any of a variety of non-volatile data storage device, such as a hard-drive, a diskette or a CD-ROM. The code may be distributed on such media, or may be distributed to users from the memory of one computer system over a network of some type to other computer systems for use by users of such other systems. The techniques and methods for embodying software program code on physical media and/or distributing software code via networks are well known and will not be further discussed herein. 
     System for Component Scattering 
       FIG. 1  is a logic flow diagram of the method employed by the presently preferred embodiment. Referring to  FIG. 1 , a computer implemented method  100  determines component scatter. A bounding box for each of a number of parts is calculated (Step  105 ). A centroid for each of the bounding boxes is calculated (Step  110 ). A first part is placed at a start position (Step  115 ). The numbers of parts are logically placed in a pre-determined and intuitive manner from the first part (Step  120 ). The methods of component scattering in accordance with the presently preferred embodiment are set forth in more detail below. 
     Step 1 
       FIG. 2  is an illustration of a windowed environment. Referring to  FIG. 2 , a user places in a windowed environment  200  a number of geometric objects  205  by known means such as creating the geometric objects  205  or loading the geometric objects  205  from an already existing source. The user can select and set an orientation of the geometric objects  205  to a positive axis  210 . The positive axis  210 , orients and positions the geometric objects  205  on a XC-YC plane in this illustration, where the “C” refers to Component, but the user could have selected the orientation along the x-z plane or the y-z plane. Likewise, the user could have selected to orient the geometric objects  205  to an absolute X-Y axis. 
     Step 2 
       FIGS. 3   a  and  3   b  illustrate a geometric object with a bounding box. Referring to  FIG. 3   a , a bounding box  300  is calculated for the individual geometric objects  205 , respectively. Once the bounding box is calculated (Step  105 ), a centroid  305 , shown by the “X” in  FIG. 3   a , is also determined (Step  110 ) where the centroid  305  is the weighted center of the geometric object. Both Steps  105  &amp;  110  are calculated using common methods known in the industry, or by using CAD applications such as NX® sold by Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software, Inc., and will not be discussed further. It is understood that the geometric objects  205  can have a common bounding box  310 , and a common centroid  315 , both of which are illustrated in  FIG. 3   b.    
     Step 3 
     The user intends to add components, i.e., place identical instances of the geometric objects  205 , into the windowed environment  200  to create an assembly.  FIGS. 4   a  and  4   b  illustrate a windowed environment displaying a plurality of parts. Referring to  FIG. 4   a , the user selects all of the geometric objects  205  for a first part. In determining a start position point  400  of the reference object, the user selects the positive axis  210  that is oriented on a component in the geometric objects  205  (Step  115 ). Alternatively, the user could have selected a relative axis of the windowed environment  200  or any other point when determining the start position. For the example illustrated in  FIG. 4 , the user intends to add instances of the selected the four geometric objects  205 . Once the user has executed an “Add Components” command that provides a location to input the quantity of instances the user would like to add. For example, 24 instances of the selected geometric objects  205  are added to the windowed environment  200 , arranged according to the centroid  305  referenced in each geometric object  205 , as shown. One of the important points is the sequential placement of identical instances of the geometric objects  205 . Another key element is the geometric object with the greatest bounding box, or other calculated volume and/or mass, is placed closest to the start position  400 . In the illustration, the cube with dihedral symmetry in 3D would appear as a rectangle  405  in two dimensions is determined to have the largest volume and is placed closest to the starting point  400 . In decreasing volume is as a square  410 , a triangle  415 , and then a circle  420 , which are the 2D representations of a cube, a polyhedron with a triangle base, and a sphere, respectively. 
     Shifting views along another plane as illustrated in  FIG. 4   b , will highlight the placement of the numerous instances of the geometric objects  205 . Notable, is the bases of the rectangle  405 , square  410 , and triangle  415  objects are placed along the same path or otherwise invisible ray from the start point  400 . For the circle  420 , the center is placed along that same path. 
     Step 4 
     The placement of part is accomplished by placing all the instances of selected parts in a square matrix on a work view plane (Step  120 ). For example, if there are 100 parts selected to add, those parts would be scattered on a plane with 10 rows, each row with 10 components. This ensures that the parts do not overlap with each other. A distance between two consecutive parts was kept to 1.2 times the part with largest bounding box. The plane on which components were scattered was determined based upon the work view plane, according to Table 1: 
     
       
         
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                 TABLE 1 
               
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 Work View Plane 
                 Scatter View 
                 3 rd  Coord Direction 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 Top 
                 XY 
                 +z 
               
               
                   
                 Front 
                 XZ 
                 −y 
               
               
                   
                 Right 
                 YZ 
                 +x 
               
               
                   
                 Back 
                 XZ 
                 +y 
               
               
                   
                 Bottom 
                 XY 
                 −z 
               
               
                   
                 Left 
                 YZ 
                 −x 
               
               
                   
                 Iso 
                 XY 
                 +z 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     Position of all the existing parts was determined to choose the scatter center. For example, to scatter parts in XY plane the z-coordinate position of scatter center was determined based upon what is the farthest placed part in positive z-direction. The scatter center&#39;s z-coordinate was set at offset of 1.2 times the largest bounding box of the parts to be placed from the farthest placed part in positive z-direction. Also whether the z coordinate of the scatter center is taken in positive z-direction or negative was based upon view plane. 
     Parts (components) are placed according to the methods provided herein by the presently preferred embodiment to intuitively provide placement of multiple instances of similar objects to improve modeling speed and experience because larger objects are placed close to the center of the display while smaller objects are placed further away 
     CONCLUSION 
     From Step 1 through Step 3, the presently preferred embodiment has disclosed complete solution for of component scattering. The presently preferred embodiment may be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or in combinations thereof. An apparatus of the presently preferred embodiment may be implemented in a computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device for execution by a programmable processor; and method steps of the presently preferred embodiment may be performed by a programmable processor executing a program of instructions to perform functions of the presently preferred embodiment by operating on input data and generating output. 
     The presently preferred embodiment may advantageously be implemented in one or more computer programs that are executable on a programmable system including at least one programmable processor coupled to receive data and instructions from, and to transmit data and instructions to, a data storage system, at least one input device, and at least one output device. The application program may be implemented in a high-level procedural or object-oriented programming language, or in assembly or machine language if desired; and in any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language. 
     Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory and/or a random access memory. Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructions and data include all forms of nonvolatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, such as EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM disks. Any of the foregoing may be supplemented by, or incorporated in, specially-designed ASICs (application 2-specific integrated circuits). 
     A number of embodiments have been described. It will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the presently preferred embodiment, such as drag and drop placement of multiple components so that there is no overlap and larger items are placed closer to the intended location. Therefore, other implementations are within the scope of the following claims.