Product design system and method

Abstract

A system for designing CAD assemblies and products over a network. The system includes a CAD system, and a design system. The design system includes an administration CAD adapter, an administration system, a scripting engine, a database, and a server CAD adapter. The administration CAD adapter communicates information between the administration system and the CAD system. The administration system is adapted to define relationships between separate CAD objects and Web objects. The scripting engine generates the assembly instructions and a product configuration form from the defined relationships. A client connects to the design system through a network and a server that is connected to the design system or is directly connected to the design system. The client receives the product configuration form, and a designer uses the form to generate a CAD product design. The product design form is structured so that fields on the form are automatically modified in response to entries on the form or other entries connected to the form. Once the completed form is submitted, the server CAD adapter generates assembly instructions, which are executed by the CAD system to generate the completed product design based on inputs from the product configuration form.