Patent ID: 8823751

Claim:
A method for generating a computer-aided design (CAD) drawing of a utility network performed by a computer system programmed to generate the CAD drawing by executing a CAD application, the method comprising: receiving, from a user-input device, a command to add a component to the CAD drawing, wherein a representation of the CAD drawing is displayed in a graphical user interface (GUI) of the CAD application executing on the computer system; selecting, by the CAD application without requiring a user to redraft the CAD drawing, a first display representation to use in rendering a display of the component when a size associated with the component is greater than a user-specified size setting; selecting, by the CAD application without requiring the user to redraft the CAD drawing, a second display representation to use in rendering the display of the component when the size associated with the component is less than the user-specified size setting; parsing, by the CAD application, the CAD drawing to determine that the size associated with the component is greater than the user-specified size setting; displaying, by the CAD application, the component on a display screen using the first display representation; receiving a modification that modifies either the user-specified size setting or the size associated with the component; in response to receiving the modification, parsing, by the CAD application, the CAD drawing to determine that the size associated with the component is less than the user-specified size setting; and displaying, by the CAD application, the component on the display screen using the second display representation.