Automated Graphic Mapping for Custom Structure Production
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for producing custom structures lack efficiency in translating user-designed three-dimensional components into actionable manufacturing instructions for CNC cutting systems, leading to inefficiencies in production and assembly.
Innovation Solution
A system that receives user designs electronically, maps graphics onto two-dimensional manufacturing drawings, and sends these instructions to a CNC cutting system for production, allowing for the creation of custom structures from cuttable sheets of material.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual translation methods are used to convert user designs into manufacturing instructions, then flexibility in design is maintained, but production efficiency and accuracy deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical translation processes with an automated computer-based system that electronically converts user designs into manufacturing instructions. This substitution eliminates human error in translation while maintaining design flexibility, directly resolving the contradiction between production efficiency and translation accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a computer-based intermediary system that acts as a mediator between user design inputs and CNC manufacturing outputs. This intermediary automatically translates designs into precise manufacturing instructions, ensuring both high productivity and accurate translation without requiring manual intervention.
2Loss of time
If complex manual processes are used for design translation, then flexibility is maintained, but device complexity and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex manual translation processes with automated electronic conversion, dramatically reducing design-to-production time. The computer-based system handles the complexity internally while presenting a simple interface to users, effectively resolving the time-loss issue without increasing perceived process complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-service by automatically translating user designs into manufacturing instructions without requiring manual intervention. This automation eliminates time-consuming manual steps while keeping the process simple for the user, who only needs to provide the original design input.
3Ease of operation
If custom designs are produced using traditional methods, then design flexibility is maintained, but assembly difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses automated computer-based generation of manufacturing instructions to ensure precise fabrication of custom components. This precision ensures that even highly flexible custom designs are produced with accurate dimensions and tolerances, making assembly easier while maintaining design versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates precise digital copies of user designs and translates them into manufacturing instructions, ensuring that the manufactured components exactly match the intended design. This accurate copying enables complex custom designs to be produced with such precision that assembly becomes straightforward, resolving the contradiction between design flexibility and assembly ease.
Data Source
AI summary
One aspect of the technology relates to a method for production of components of a custom structure. A design is electronically received remotely from a client, where the design has a structure having one or more three-dimensional components, and a graphic positioned on the structure. At least one two-dimensional manufacturing drawing is acquired from a database corresponding to each three-dimensional component, where each manufacturing drawing defines a cut location. In response to acquiring the at least one two-dimensional manufacturing drawings, the graphic is mapped to the two-dimensional manufacturing drawing consistently with the position of the graphic on the structure. Each acquired manufacturing drawing and the mapped graphic is electronically sent to a computer numeric control (CNC) cutting system.