The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 27, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 18, 1999
Brian D. Gantt, Travis County, TX (US);
Autodesk, Inc., San Rafael, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method of interactively determining and displaying geometric relationships between three dimensional (3D) objects includes the steps of and apparatus for detecting the position of an input device, moving a selected 3D graphic object relative to a graphic pointing symbol in a 3D representation based on position of the input device, determining if the selected graphic object is moved to occlude an underlying 3D graphic object, and positioning and displaying the selected graphic object with respect to the underlying graphic object according to predetermined geometric constraints and the position of the input device. The system and method further dynamically moves and displays the selected graphic object according to movement of the input device and the predetermined geometric constraints while the selected graphic object occludes the underlying graphic object. The selected graphic object clings to the underlying graphic object, and is moved about the underlying graphic object corresponding to movement of the input device. The selected object may be a logical object, such as a logical camera or light source. For example, a camera object is placed based on a geometric element, and the display is changed to the viewpoint of the camera. The operator then interactively changes the display simply by moving the input device, where the display is automatically updated based on movement of the camera object.