Patent ID: 8712858

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, the method performed on at least one computer system including at least one processor, the method comprising: receiving a first file in a first format, said first file comprising information associated with an item, the information associated with the item including graphical information representing a two-dimensional or three-dimensional design or model of at least a portion of the item; determining the first format of the first file; translating the first file to a second file having a second format using a converter based on the first format, wherein the second format comprises a neutral file format, and wherein the content of the second file is viewable without using a native software application used to generate the content in the first file; automatically determining, by the at least one processor, descriptive data comprising at least one of the following: an item attribute, an item physical property, an item feature, an item entity, or any combination thereof, based at least in part upon the graphical information representing the two-dimensional or three-dimensional design or model of the at least a portion of the item; automatically determining, by the at least one processor, data associated with at least one manufacturing process required to produce the item based at least in part upon the descriptive data; establishing at least one capability profile associated with at least one supplier in a database, wherein the at least one capability profile associated with the at least one supplier includes data associated with at least one manufacturing process; and automatically mapping, by the at least one processor, the item to the at least one capability profile associated with the at least one supplier if the at least one capability profile of the at least one supplier includes the data associated with the at least one manufacturing process required to produce the item.