Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F30/00—Computer-aided design [CAD]
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F2111/00—Details relating to CAD techniques
  • G06F2111/10—Numerical modelling

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a computerized system, which is suitable for implementing methods for designing and estimating electrical and/or fluid- based networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to a computerized system, which allows achieving a faster execution of calculations and an effective management of considerable amounts of data, which can also be performed remotely. Various methods are known in the state of the art for designing and estimating electrical and/or fluid-based networks.
• electrical and/or fluid-based network is to be understood in its broadest sense: for example, this term can describe the electrical network of an industrial plant or a gas distribution network or civil waterworks.
• Known design and estimation methods generally require the acquisition of large amounts of data, followed by the processing of the acquired data in order to perform basic design, cost assessment and executive design activities.
• these stages are generally implemented with the aid of automatic processing systems, which adopt various computerized systems.
• One of the main characteristics of these computerized systems, which are widely known and used, is the fact that they have a processing topology, which adopts a centralized computer structure, which is suitable to manage both data processing and the user interface. It is known that one of the main drawbacks of centralized computer structures of this kind is their poor flexibility.
• the aim of the present invention is to provide a computerized system for implementing methods for designing and estimating electrical and/or fluid- based networks, which is highly flexible and configurable according to the requirements of the electrical and/or fluid-based network, which should be designed and estimated.
• an object of the present invention is to provide a computerized system, which allows achieving a high degree of separation between the data processing function and the user interface function.
• Another object of the present invention is to provide a computerized system, which allows easy connection to remote users.
• Another object of the present invention is to provide a computerized system, which does not directly affect the overall processing speed of the data processing systems.
• the present invention provides a computerized system for designing and estimating an electrical and/or fluid-based network, characterized in that it comprises: a) first computerized means for acquiring and managing data related to an electrical and/or fluid-based network, said first computerized means comprising one or more first configurable processing environments for processing said data and storing said data according to virtual data structures; b) second computerized means for processing data related to said electrical and/or fluid-based network, said second computerized means adopting processing procedures that are configured according to object-oriented processing models and that establish dependency links among said virtual data structures; c) third configurable computerized means for managing a user interface.
• Figure 1 is a schematic view of the general structure of the computerized system according to the present invention
• Figure 2 is a schematic view of a virtual data structure used by the computerized system according to the invention
• Figure 3 is a schematic view of the structure of computerized means included the computerized system according to the present invention
• Figure 4 is a schematic view of the structure of additional computerized means included in the computerized system according to the present invention.
• the general structure 1 of the computerized system according to the present invention is now described with reference to Figure 1.
• the structure 1 provides first computerized means 2 for acquiring and managing data related to an electrical and/or fluid-based network.
• the first computerized means 2 comprises one or more first configurable processing environments, which are suitable to execute a first processing of the acquired data and to store the acquired data according to virtual data structures 5.
• Each one of said virtual data structures 5 comprises one or more virtual nodes 50 for managing commonly required operations, such as for example acquiring and/or storing and/or writing and/or deleting and/or providing information related to the stored data.
• An example of the virtual data structures 5 that can be included in the first computerized means 2 is described with reference to Figure 2.
• the node VNODE DATA can contain the list of the nodes 50 that constitute the virtual data structure 5.
• the node LINKED NODE can contain information for identifying, given a reference node, the correlated nodes according to a predefined relation.
• the node VNODE ATTRIBUTE can comprise all the information related to the relevant attributes of the virtual data structure 5.
• the node VNODE BLOCKS can be used to extend the information storage capability.
• one of the particularities of the processing environments is the fact that they can be configured according to the requirements of the application.
• the processing environments can have various levels of management of data. Therefore, further a "physical" management level, understood as a set of information tables, there can be a “virtual” management level, understood as a configured set of virtual data structures 5 such as those described, and a “logical” management level, understood as a structured set of functional data, such as for example plant data or catalog data or configuration data.
• the first computerized means 2 can be advantageously constituted by one or more commercially available databases, such as for example the Oracle DBMS version 8.x database. They can also be replicated locally so as to have multiple data sources, which are geographically spaced but mutually consistent.
• the computerized system furthermore provides second computerized means 3 for processing data related to the system to be designed and estimated.
• the second computerized means 3 adopts processing procedures that are configured according to object-oriented processing models and that establish dependency links among the virtual data structures 5. This is particularly advantageous, since it allows performing data processing by introducing the dependency links among the various parts that compose a project.
• the activation of processing extends from the node VNODE also to the nodes listed in the LINKED NODE and from each one of the nodes 50 to the other linked nodes. Accordingly, the processing activation for one component can cause successive processing on the linked nodes, until a complete cycle of calculations that are required by the logic systems for designing and estimating the various parts of the electrical and/or fluid-based network has been performed.
• the configurability of the processing models furthermore allows the processing procedures to perform batch-type or single-item processing. In practice, if for example an electrical network comprises a large number of devices having similar characteristics, the processing procedures do not process the data of each device by process the data related to the entire set of devices, as if it were a single object.
• the second computerized means 3 can be physically constituted by one or more computers connected to each other in a network or ring structure.
• the second computerized means can comprise first processing means 6, which are suitable to manage the processing procedures used.
• the processing means 6 can advantageously comprise computer programs, written for example by means of a programming language such as Visual C++.
• the second computerized means 3 can furthermore comprise second processing means 7 for managing communication between the processing procedures in progress and third processing means 8 for supporting the processing procedures.
• the processing means 7 and 8 allow segregating the processing procedures in progress.
• the requests that arrive from the user therefore does not interrupt the processing flow but are managed by the processing means 7 and 8.
• the third processing means 8 comprise fourth processing means 14 for interfacing the processing procedures in progress with the computerized means 2.
• the processing means 14 can be constituted, for example, by an interface of the OCI (Oracle Computer Interface) type.
• the third processing means 8 can furthermore comprise fifth processing means 15 for interfacing the processing procedures in progress with the third computerized means 4 of Figure 1.
• the processing means 15 can be constituted, for example, by an interface of the TCP/IP type, which can be configured for example with a FORTH programming language. It is therefore possible to configure one or more HTML pages, which can be accessed by the user by browsing.
• the means 15 are particularly advantageous, since they allow providing a remote connection between the user and the processing means 6.
• Sixth processing means 16 for interfacing the processing procedures in progress with the operating system in use can furthermore be comprised within the third processing means 8.
• the sixth processing means can be constituted by groups of libraries required for the correct execution of the processing procedures or by programs written, for example, by using the SQL programming language.
• the operating system used can be one of the commercially known operating systems, such as for example the Windows NT (R) operating system.
• the computerized system provides for third computerized means 4 for user interface management.
• the third computerized means 4 preferably comprise seventh processing means 21 for supporting the editing and/or transmission of data to the processing procedures.
• the third computerized means 4 can further comprise eighth processing means 22, which are suitable to support the interactive reception and/or presentation of data processed by the processing procedures.
• the processing means 21 and/or 22 preferably comprise one or more graphical media in order to further facilitate interaction between the user and the data processing means. These graphical media can be advantageously constituted by dedicated icons and windows, available for example in the form of toolbars, or by dedicated external programs.
• the processing means 21 and/or 22 can comprise a browsing structure, which allows managing design according to Internet- and/or Intranet- type criteria.
• the processing means 21 and/or 22 might comprise one or more HTML pages generated by means of a FORTH language programming.
• ninth configurable processing means 25 which are suitable to manage services for interfacing with the operating system in use.
• tenth configurable processing means 26 which are suitable to manage one or more auxiliary computer systems, such as for example external design tools or libraries.
• the configurable processing means 26 can comprise, for example, one or more SW programs, which allows to managing, transparently from the user's viewpoint, external design programs and/or data. This allows performing a virtual modulation, according to the different operating requirements, of the computing potential of the computerized system according to the invention.
• the adopted structure allows performing substantially in parallel the management of the processing procedures and the management of the user interface. This fact considerably increases the processing speed obtainable on the same devices. The processing speed in fact depends exclusively on the specifications of the processing devices used.
• the adopted structure furthermore also allows easily establishing remote links between the user and the processing means, for example by means of an Internet and/or Intranet link. This allows to drastically increase the flexibility of the implemented design and estimation methods while reducing the costs for installation and management of the processing systems used.
• the characteristics of configurability and flexibility of the computerized system according to the invention allow building up large and distributed design and estimation networks (also known as "groupware systems"). This can be achieved by connecting, for example with parallel/series methods, multiple computerized systems according to the invention. In practice, from the HW/SW viewpoint, design activity is fully scalable according to the requirements.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
• Evolutionary Computation (AREA)
• Geometry (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Information Retrieval, Db Structures And Fs Structures Therefor (AREA)
• Computer And Data Communications (AREA)
• Small-Scale Networks (AREA)
• Lubricants (AREA)

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Cited By (1)

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• 1999
  • 1999-10-15 IT IT1999MI002165A patent/IT1314049B1/it active
• 2000
  • 2000-09-28 EP EP00967837A patent/EP1224580A2/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2000-09-28 WO PCT/EP2000/009680 patent/WO2001029713A2/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2000-09-28 AU AU77857/00A patent/AU7785700A/en not_active Abandoned

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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