Patent ID: 7620525

Claim:
A method of producing a CAD model of a part from a plurality of parts including a plurality of parts having similar components comprising the steps of: identifying series of parts from the plurality of parts that have similar components; providing a key for each identified series of parts and associating the key with each part in the series of parts; identifying the set of parameters necessary for generating a CAD model for each part of the plurality of parts; identifying a subset of distinguishing parameters from the set of parameters for each part in a series of parts that distinguishes the part from other parts in the series of parts; identifying a base part in each series of parts; utilizing a computer loaded with CAD model generating software of the type that generates a CAD model based on a table of parameter values and rebuilds the model when the value of parameters in the table of parameter values is changed, the CAD model generating software relying on a spreadsheet to develop the table of parameter values; configuring the spreadsheet to include (i) driving cells for receiving the subset of distinguishing parameters and (ii) driven cells; establishing formulas in each of the driven cells, the formulas using data located in at least one of the driving cells as an input to generate parameters used by the CAD model generating software to build a CAD model, driven cells generating all of the necessary parameters for building the CAD model; generating a CAD model of the base part for each series of parts by providing the distinguishing parameters of only the base part for each series as a default input to the table of parameter values and associating each generated model with the key; and generating a CAD model of a part in a series of parts other than the base part of the series of parts by supplying the key and the distinguishing parameters of the part to the CAD model generating software.