Patent Document ID: 5379225
Application ID: 07904006
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. In a system for simulating the changes to the topography of a work piece during the manufacturing process, said work piece including one or more material layers, each layer represented by a material solid, a method for determining movement of vertex points of said material solid as a result of a manufacturing process step, said method comprising the steps of: a) identifying a first plane, a second plane and a third plane that approximate all the planes that are adjacent to a vertex point to be moved; b) constructing a first observation vector; c) creating a set of advanced virtual planes, including the following steps, creating a first virtual plane between said first plane and said second plane, creating a plurality of second virtual planes between said first virtual plane and said third plane, advancing said plurality of second virtual planes, identifying one of said plurality of advanced second virtual planes that intersects said observation vector at a furthest point, storing said identified one of said of said plurality of advanced second virtual planes in said set of advanced virtual planes; d) constructing a second observation vector; e) identifying a furthest intersection point of one of said planes in said set of advanced planes and said second observation vector; and f) moving said vertex point to said furthest intersection point identified in step e).