DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 5, 7, 8, 11 and 17 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claims 1, 8 and 17, Examiner suggests correction of “the respective information” to read as “the assigned information” consistent with terminology used previously in each claim;
In claims 5 and 11, Examiner suggests correction of “but not by selection any of the one or more geometric objects” to read as “but not by selection of any of the one or more geometric objects”;
In claim 7, Examiner suggests spelling out the term “CAD” for proper claim term definition.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by “Mapping of GD&T information and PMI between 3D product models in the STEP and STL format” (hereinafter “Hallman”; applicant-submitted prior art, published 2019).
Regarding claim 1, Hallman discloses a user interface for a lightweight viewer (Hallman, p.295-301, Section 3 – 3.5, Fig. 10; “The proposed method is implemented in a graphical user interface (GUI) called ‘‘GD&T eXchange’’. It allows a user-friendly mapping of the GD&T information from STEP files to the tessellated surface model in the STL format.”) comprising:
a viewing window operable to display geometry established by one or more geometric objects of a tessellated model, wherein the one or more geometric objects are associated with respective edges of the geometry, one or more annotation objects of the tessellated model are assigned information associated with the respective edges, and the one or more annotation objects are operable to depict the respective information as a graphical annotation in the viewing window (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 2, Fig. 10; “After the recognition of the features in the tessellated surface model, the mapping of the 3D annotations can be performed. Since the recognition of the feature in the previous step is based on the geometry information from the STEP file, the determined STL feature corresponds to the reference IDs of the associated STEP feature. In this way, the dimensional and geometric tolerances can be assigned to the respective features of the surface mesh, which serve both as toleranced and datum features.” The STEP file contains boundary and edge information, the dimensional and geometric tolerances of which are displayed along with the tessellated surface model on the GUI.); and
wherein one or more curve objects of the tessellated model are associated with the respective one or more annotation objects and include respective curves dimensioned to follow the respective edges of the geometry (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Figs. 4, Fig. 10; “To define the edges of a planar feature in the part model in the STL format, all points from the surface model that lie on the edges must be identified. As it is shown in Fig. 5, a distinction must be made according to the used geometry element to determine the edge between the start point S and end point E” wherein “In this way, closed polylines can be determined which define the outer and inner contours of a plane feature.” The STEP file contains boundary and edge information, the dimensional and geometric tolerances of which are displayed along with the tessellated surface model on the GUI.), and
the one or more curve objects are operable to selectively depict the respective edges of the geometry in the viewing window in response to selection of the respective annotation object (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 10; “By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI. As it can be seen in Fig. 10, the different colors highlighting the faces relevant for the assigned tolerances enable a clear assignment of the tolerance.”).
Regarding claim 2, claim 1 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the one or more curve objects are operable to visually enhance respective segments of the one or more geometric objects associated with the respective edges (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 10; “By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI.”).
Regarding claim 3, claim 1 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein selection of the one or more annotation objects causes the viewing window to highlight a boundary of the respective one or more geometric objects (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 10; “By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI.”).
Regarding claim 4, claim 3 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the one or more geometric objects are operable to depict the boundary by a set of triangles established by tessellation of the geometry (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 10; “By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI.”).
Regarding claim 5, claim 1 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the one or more curve objects are selectively activated by selection of the respective one or more annotations but not by selection any of the one or more geometric objects in the viewing window (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 10; “By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI.” As can be seen in Fig. 10, only the selection of the tolerance (i.e., “annotation”) activates the highlighting of the associated feature).
Regarding claim 6, claim 1 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein each of the one or more curve objects is operable to depict the respective curve as a straight line, an arc, or a complex curve in the viewing window (Hallman, Section 3.3, Figs. 4-6, Fig. 10; “To define the edges of a planar feature in the part model in the STL format, all points from the surface model that lie on the edges must be identified. As it is shown in Fig. 5, a distinction must be made according to the used geometry element to determine the edge between the start point S and end point E.” Identification of all points from the tessellated surface model corresponding to each edge of a planar surface results in the accurate depiction of the feature in the GUI upon selection of its associated tolerance annotation.)
Regarding claim 7, claim 1 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the tessellated model excludes any CAD model that establishes the geometry (Hallman, Fig. 1, Section 3.5; “pushing the ‘Export’ button creates the combined data model. Compared to the common STL file, it represents the surface mesh split into the individual features. Furthermore, it includes the GD&T information from the STEP file, which is associated to the recognized STL features.” While the features of the CAD model are incorporated into the combined tessellated data model, the CAD model itself is not part of the tessellated model).
Regarding claim 8, Hallman discloses a system for generating a tessellated model (Hallman, p.294-301, Sections 2-3, Fig. 1) comprising:
a computing device including one or more processors coupled to memory; wherein the computing device is operable to execute a modelling environment, and the modeling environment is operable to (Hallman, Section 3; “the implementation of the general framework in a prototype graphical user interface is demonstrated.”):
access a computer-aided design (CAD) model associated with geometry (Hallman, p.295-301, Fig. 1, Fig. 9, Section 3.1 – 3.3; “At first, the STEP file is imported”);
generate one or more geometric objects that establish a tessellation of the geometry in the CAD model (Hallman, p.295-301, Fig. 1, Fig. 9, Section 3.1 – 3.3; “For this purpose, the triangular surface mesh is divided into individual features using a novel feature recognition approach based on the geometric information from the STEP file”);
generate one or more annotation objects assigned information associated with the respective one or more geometric objects (Hallman, p.295-301, Fig. 1, Fig. 9, Section 3.1 – 3.4; “After the recognition of the features in the tessellated surface model, the mapping of the 3D annotations can be performed. Since the recognition of the feature in the previous step is based on the geometry information from the STEP file, the determined STL feature corresponds to the reference IDs of the associated STEP feature. In this way, the dimensional and geometric tolerances can be assigned to the respective features of the surface mesh, which serve both as toleranced and datum features.”);
extracting edges of the geometry in the CAD model as a set of curves that differ from the tessellation of the geometry (Hallman, p.297-299, Section 3.3; “To define the edges of a planar feature in the part model in the STL format, all points from the surface model that lie on the edges must be identified”);
generating one or more curve objects; assigning the set of curves to the respective one or more curve objects, the one or more curve objects associated with the respective one or more annotation objects (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Figs. 4, Fig. 10; “To define the edges of a planar feature in the part model in the STL format, all points from the surface model that lie on the edges must be identified. As it is shown in Fig. 5, a distinction must be made according to the used geometry element to determine the edge between the start point S and end point E” wherein “In this way, closed polylines can be determined which define the outer and inner contours of a plane feature.” The STEP file contains boundary and edge information, the dimensional and geometric tolerances (“annotation objects”) of which are displayed along with the tessellated surface model on the GUI.);
generate a tessellated model including the one or more geometric objects, the one or more annotation objects and the one or more curve objects (Hallman, Fig. 1, Combined data model, p.295-300, Section 3 – 3.5; “pushing the ‘Export’ button creates the combined data model. Compared to the common STL file, it represents the surface mesh split into the individual features. Furthermore, it includes the GD&T information from the STEP file, which is associated to the recognized STL features”);
wherein the one or more geometric objects are operable to display the tessellation of the geometry in a viewing window of a user interface (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Figs. 9-10; “the tessellated STL geometry which is directly derived from the CAD system or created by external meshing software is imported”);
wherein the one or more annotation objects are operable to depict the respective information as a graphical annotation in the viewing window (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Figs. 9-10; “the annotations are shown for the part model in the STEP format in the GUI to allow a visual verification of the STEP import.”); and
wherein the one or more curve objects are operable to selectively depict the respective edges of the geometry in the viewing window in response to selection of the respective annotation object (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 10; “By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI. As it can be seen in Fig. 10, the different colors highlighting the faces relevant for the assigned tolerances enable a clear assignment of the tolerance.”).
Regarding claim 9, claim 8 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the one or more curve objects are operable to visually enhance a boundary of the respective geometry (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 10; “By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI.”).
Regarding claim 10, claim 9 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the one or more geometric objects are operable to depict the boundary by one or more triangles established by the tessellation of the geometry (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 10; “By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI.”).
Regarding claim 11, claim 8 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the one or more curve objects are selectively activated in response to selection of the respective one or more annotation objects but not in response to selection any of the one or more geometric objects in the viewing window (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 10; “By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI.” As can be seen in Fig. 10, only the selection of the tolerance (i.e., “annotation”) activates the highlighting of the associated feature).
Regarding claim 12, claim 8 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the one or more annotation objects include a plurality of annotation objects, the one or more curve objects include a plurality of curve objects associated with the respective annotation objects, and each of the curve objects is operable to deactivate a remainder of the curve objects in response to selection of the respective annotation object (Hallman, p.299-301, Sections 3.4 –3.5, Fig. 10; “After the recognition of the features in the tessellated surface model, the mapping of the 3D annotations can be performed. Since the recognition of the feature in the previous step is based on the geometry information from the STEP file, the determined STL feature corresponds to the reference IDs of the associated STEP feature. In this way, the dimensional and geometric tolerances can be assigned to the respective features of the surface mesh, which serve both as toleranced and datum features...By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI.” As can be seen in Fig. 10, the selection of a single tolerance (i.e., “annotation”) activates the highlighting of only the associated feature).
Regarding claim 13, claim 8 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein each of the one or more curve objects is operable to depict the respective curve as a straight line, an arc, or a complex curve in the viewing window (Hallman, p.297-301, Section 3.3, Figs. 4-6, Fig. 10; “To define the edges of a planar feature in the part model in the STL format, all points from the surface model that lie on the edges must be identified. As it is shown in Fig. 5, a distinction must be made according to the used geometry element to determine the edge between the start point S and end point E.” Identification of all points from the tessellated surface model corresponding to each edge of a planar surface results in the accurate depiction of the feature in the GUI upon selection of its associated tolerance annotation.)
Regarding claim 14, claim 8 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the modeling environment is operable to: store the tessellated model in a file readable by a lightweight viewer (Hallman, p.300, Section 3.5; “Finally pushing the ‘Export’ button creates the combined data model. Compared to the common STL file, it represents the surface mesh split into the individual features. Furthermore, it includes the GD&T information from the STEP file, which is associated to the recognized STL features.”)
Regarding claim 15, claim 14 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the file excludes the CAD model (Hallman, Fig. 1, p.300, Section 3.5; “pushing the ‘Export’ button creates the combined data model. Compared to the common STL file, it represents the surface mesh split into the individual features. Furthermore, it includes the GD&T information from the STEP file, which is associated to the recognized STL features.” While the features of the CAD model are incorporated into the combined tessellated data model, the CAD model itself is not part of the tessellated model).
Regarding claim 16, claim 14 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the modeling environment is operable to: store code in the file that is operable to cause one or more functions associated with the tessellated model to execute in the lightweight viewer (Hallman, p.295-297, Section 3.2; “The corresponding export model may contain a variety of computer readable content, such as 3D shape, GD&T information, kinematics or assembly constraints”).
Claim 17 recites a method having features which correspond to the elements recited in system claim 8, the rejection of which is applicable here.
Regarding claim 18, claim 17 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein the one or more curve objects are operable to visually enhance respective segments of the one or more geometric objects associated with the respective edges (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 10; “By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI.”).
Regarding claim 19, claim 17 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses wherein selection of the one or more annotation objects causes the viewing window to highlight a boundary of the respective one or more geometric objects, and the one or more geometric objects are operable to depict the boundary by a set of triangles established by the tessellation of the geometry (Hallman, p.295-301, Sections 3 –3.5, Fig. 10; “By selecting single tolerances from the drop-down list, the corresponding tolerance data including the toleranced feature as well as the datum reference feature are shown in a table. In addition, this information is visualized in the mapped model according to the legend on the right-hand side of the GUI.”).
Regarding claim 20, claim 17 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses further comprising: storing the tessellated model in at least one file that excludes the CAD model (Hallman, Fig. 1, p.300, Section 3.5; “pushing the ‘Export’ button creates the combined data model. Compared to the common STL file, it represents the surface mesh split into the individual features. Furthermore, it includes the GD&T information from the STEP file, which is associated to the recognized STL features.” While the features of the CAD model are incorporated into the combined tessellated data model, the CAD model itself is not part of the tessellated model).
Regarding claim 21, claim 20 is incorporated, and Hallman further discloses further comprising: displaying the tessellated model in a lightweight viewer (Hallman, p.300-301, Section 3.5, Fig. 10; “The proposed method is implemented in a graphical user interface (GUI) called ‘‘GD&T eXchange’’. It allows a user-friendly mapping of the GD&T information from STEP files to the tessellated surface model in the STL format”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The additional references provided pertain generally to CAD model viewing and editing.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAMAH A BEG whose telephone number is (571)270-7912. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9 AM - 5 PM.
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/SAMAH A BEG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2676
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