Patent Document ID: 8725466
Application ID: 12578521
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-aided design (CAD) system, comprising: an electronic device comprising a processor and a memory, the memory comprising: a first module configured to represent computer-aided design objects in a virtual environment using two types of objects: a first of the two types of objects comprising: a plurality of sections defining a shape of an object for rendering, each section defining the shape of the object for rendering being configurably defined as one of a complex surface, at least one complex polygon, a polygon, or an array of triangles or quads; information defining collective characteristics of the plurality of sections; and information interconnecting at least two neighboring sections of the plurality of sections; wherein the first module is configured to represent a first section of the plurality of sections as the complex surface, wherein the first module is configured to represent a second section of the plurality of sections as the at least one complex polygon, wherein the first module is configured to represent a third section of the plurality of sections as the polygon, and wherein the first module is configured to represent a fourth section of the plurality of sections as the array of triangles or quads, and wherein the first module is configured to store the first section, the second section, the third section, and the fourth section in the memory; wherein the first module is configured to represent the object for rendering in a first resolution and a second resolution, wherein the second resolution is lower than the first resolution, and wherein the first type of object comprises a low resolution function to represent the object for rendering in the second resolution:, and a second of the two types of objects storing information referencing a common object in the virtual environment and one or more transformations for at least a section of the common object, wherein the second module is configured to represent a plurality of objects of the second type that store information referencing the same common object such that the same common object is stored once, and wherein the plurality of objects of the second type store are configured to store different transformations for at least a section of the same common object; wherein the first module is configured to dynamically store objects of the first type and dynamically store objects of the second type; a second module configured to render the computer-aided design objects in three dimensions; wherein the processor is configured to execute the first module and the second module.