Patent ID: 7240072

Claim:
A system for producing and manipulating objects, the system comprising: (a) a datastore containing datastore objects, the datastore being located on a server, the datastore being connectable to at least one tool for producing or manipulating objects; (b) a user interface, located on a client, the user interface being configured to display the datastore objects; (c) a client-server update path for transmitting an object update to the user interface in response to changes to the objects; wherein the client-server update path comprises: a virtual datastore, located on the client, the virtual datastore being initialized to contain a copy of the datastore objects; a server update handler for transmitting an object update from the datastore to the virtual datastore, the virtual datastore being configured to update the copy in response to the object update; and a client update handler for transmitting an object update from the virtual datastore to the user interface; and (d) a client-server command path for permitting a user to issue a command to the at least one tool.