Patent ID: 7463263

Claim:
A method performed by a computer of generating a visual representation for a model representation, the method comprising: identifying a set of one or more model elements in the model representation; automatically generating at a data processing system an abstract representation for the model representation using a set of mapping rules, each mapping rule in the set of mapping rules providing a mapping of a model element type to a visual element type, the abstract representation comprising a set of one or more visual elements and associated one or more properties, the set of visual elements determined based upon the set of model elements and the set of mapping rules; automatically generating a first visual representation for a first graphics engine, the first graphics engine being a first type of graphics engine, based upon the abstract representation, the first visual representation comprising a set of one or more graphic elements determined based upon (i) the set of visual elements and their associated properties and (ii) the first type of graphics engine; displaying the first visual representation to a first user via a first output device; automatically generating a second visual representation for a second graphics engine, the second graphics engine being a second type of graphics engine distinct from the first type, based upon the abstract representation, the second visual representation comprising a set of one or more graphic elements determined based upon (i) the set of visual elements and their associated properties and (ii) the second type of graphics engine, at least one of the graphic elements in the second visual representation being different than at least one of the graphic elements in the first visual representation because of a difference in graphical ability between the first and second types of graphics engines; and wherein automatically generating the first abstract representation comprises: identifying a first model element of a first type from the set of model elements; automatically determining a first mapping rule from the set of mapping rules that maps the first type to a first visual element type; and automatically creating a visual element of the first visual element type identified by the first mapping rule for the first model element.