Patent ID: 8554520

Claim:
A method for managing a batch of computer aided design (CAD) drawings, the method comprising: receiving with a first computing device a plurality of CAD drawings associated with a design of one or more structures, wherein the plurality of CAD drawings comprises at least one host drawing and a plurality of external reference drawings; storing a list of the plurality of CAD drawings in a memory; for each of the plurality of CAD drawings, accessing an external reference listing within the CAD drawing structured to identify one or more external reference drawings related to the particular CAD drawing, and if the external reference listing identifies no external reference drawings, storing an identification of the particular CAD drawing within a first database, otherwise, storing an identification of each of the one or more external reference drawings within a second database; identifying as external reference drawings, with a host manager module executing on the first computing device, first ones of the plurality of CAD drawings identified in the second database and storing the external reference drawings in a first location; identifying as stand-alone drawings, with the host manager module, second ones of the plurality of CAD drawings identified in the first database and storing the stand-alone drawings in a second location; identifying as host drawings, with the host manager module, third ones of the plurality of CAD drawings not identified in at least one of the first database and the second database and storing the host drawings in a third location; and outputting to a user interface an indication of the external reference drawings, the stand-alone drawings and the host drawings.