Patent ID: 7277836

Claim:
A computer system comprising: a processor; memory coupled to the processor; and an object-oriented software product stored in the memory, the software product configured to: provide an object-oriented extensible class hierarchy, the class hierarchy comprising a first set of generic classes representing a plurality of generic facility types and a second set of generic classes representing generic named attribute types for the generic facility types; provide a file that defines model facility types based on the first set of generic classes and that defines model named attribute types based on the second set of generic classes, wherein the file permits the addition of additional model facility types and additional model named attribute types without any modifications to the class hierarchy; and create facility instances from model facility types and named attribute instances from model named attribute types, wherein facility instances and named attribute instances are stored in memory and coupled in a facility network to simulate transport phenomenon using the facility instances and named attributes in a mathematical simulation of transport phenomenon.