Patent ID: 8200457

Claim:
A system for customizing a CAD model representing a mechanical design of an artifact comprising a set of parts with respective dimensions, a configuration model defining an exhaustive range of ways to customize the CAD model by changing a subset of said dimensions, the system including components controlled by a programmed computer, the components comprising: a model translation module arranged to convert the configuration model into: (i) a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) representing all possible customizations defined by the configuration model, the CSP being defined by: (a) a set of integer variables, wherein each variable may attain a finite number of different values, and (b) a set of constraints restricting which variable values that are simultaneously possible for the variables in the set of variables based on a particular variable in the set of variables being assigned a particular value from the finite number of different values, (ii) a set of CSP variable-dimension pairs, and (iii) a set of CSP variable-parameter pairs, a configuration engine arranged to: calculate a solution to the CSP, the calculated solution being optimal with respect to a value assigned to each variable in the CSP relative to a predefined optimizing criterion, and assign a parameter value for each CSP variable-parameter pair, the assigned parameter value corresponding to the value assigned to the CSP variable in the optimal solution, and a CAD interface arranged to assign a dimension in the CAD model for each CSP variable-dimension pair, said assigned dimension corresponding to a value assigned to the CSP variable in the optimal solution.