Methods and apparatuses for placing a flexible drop in a CAD drawing
Number of patents in Portfolio can not be more than 2000
United States of America Patent
Stats
-
Jul 17, 2012
Grant Date -
Dec 11, 2008
app pub date -
May 1, 2008
filing date -
May 1, 2007
priority date (Note) -
In Force
status (Latency Note)
![]() |
A preliminary load of PAIR data current through [] has been loaded. Any more recent PAIR data will be loaded within twenty-four hours. |
PAIR data current through []
A preliminary load of cached data will be loaded soon.
Any more recent PAIR data will be loaded within twenty-four hours.
![]() |
Next PAIR Update Scheduled on [ ] |

Importance

US Family Size
|
Non-US Coverage
|
Patent Longevity
|
Forward Citations
|
Abstract
The present invention is directed to methods, systems, and apparatuses for automatically placing flexible drops in a computer automated design application, and more particularly to automatically placing and drawing flexible connections between sprinkler heads and sprinkler system pipes within a CAD drawing. The present invention allows a user to automatically place and draw flexible drops from numerous sprinkler heads to sprinkler system piping simultaneously based upon a set of user-chosen flex drop parameters. The present invention may also be utilized in other applications, such as automatically placing and drawing flexible electrical connections or flexible piping connections in non-sprinkler applications.

First Claim
Family

- 15 United States
- 10 France
- 8 Japan
- 7 China
- 5 Korea
- 2 Other
Patent Owner(s)
Patent Owner | Address | Total Patents |
---|---|---|
M.E.P. CAD, INC. | RENO, NV | 13 |
International Classification(s)
Inventor(s)
Inventor Name | Address | # of filed Patents | Total Citations |
---|---|---|---|
Hoeft, Shane | Centennial, US | 7 | 113 |
Reghetti, Joseph P | Reno, US | 15 | 178 |
Cited Art Landscape
Patent Info | (Count) | # Cites | Year |
---|---|---|---|
|
|||
4700318 Project construction with depiction means and methods | 82 | 1984 | |
4964060 Computer aided building plan review system and process | 151 | 1985 | |
4811243 Computer aided coordinate digitizing system | 148 | 1985 | |
4774658 Standardized alarm notification transmission alternative system | 79 | 1987 | |
5139044 Fluid control system | 100 | 1991 | |
5255207 Method for designing and detailing cabinets | 63 | 1992 | |
5414408 Emergency action plan display | 23 | 1994 | |
5546564 Cost estimating system | 44 | 1994 | |
5517428 Optimizing a piping system | 42 | 1994 | |
5627763 System and method for construction guidance and control | 23 | 1994 | |
5557537 Method and apparatus for designing and editing a distribution system for a building | 44 | 1995 | |
5977872 Building emergency simulator | 29 | 1998 | |
5877683 Home alarm system | 20 | 1998 | |
6081196 Apparatus and method for multipurpose residential water flow fire alarm | 21 | 1998 | |
6446053 Computer-implemented method and system for producing a proposal for a construction project | 116 | 1999 | |
6266396 Digital control of a security system | 16 | 1999 | |
6333689 Apparatus and method for water flow fire alarm | 20 | 1999 | |
6239708 Apparatus for water flow measurement | 18 | 2000 | |
6535121 Fire department station zoned alerting control system | 91 | 2000 | |
6333695 Apparatus for flow detection, measurement and control and method for use of same in a fire sprinkler system | 18 | 2000 | |
2001/0047,251 CAD system which designs 3-D models | 104 | 2001 | |
2001/0052,908 Method and apparatus for computer aided building specification generation | 11 | 2001 | |
2003/0074,164 Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning design apparatus and method | 20 | 2001 | |
6778081 Fire department station zoned alerting control system | 13 | 2002 | |
|
|||
2002/0183,982 Design and estimating tools for the design of communication infrastructure in a structure | 14 | 2001 | |
|
|||
5111392 Design system for creating furniture layouts | 117 | 1989 | |
|
|||
4700317 Automatic layout planner and a method for automatically creating a layout plan | 93 | 1984 | |
4789944 Design support method and apparatus therefor | 39 | 1986 | |
4831546 Method and apparatus for assisting layout design | 74 | 1987 | |
4992953 Computer assisted design method and apparatus | 19 | 1988 | |
|
|||
5920849 Systems and methods for evaluating building materials | 35 | 1997 | |
|
|||
5021779 Security device | 58 | 1989 | |
|
|||
2004/0073,410 Computerized system and method of collaborative structural frame development | 26 | 2002 | |
|
|||
5334970 Alarm system | 27 | 1992 | |
|
|||
6604126 Structural data presentation method | 28 | 2001 | |
|
|||
5299307 Controls for drawing images on computer displays | 142 | 1990 | |
|
|||
2005/0102,051 Apparatus for processing parts information in a three dimensional CAD system and method thereof | 8 | 2004 | |
|
|||
5708798 Method and apparatus for configuring systems | 184 | 1995 | |
|
|||
6272447 Fabrication and design of structural members | 40 | 1999 | |
|
|||
7062532 Method and apparatus for drawing collaboration on a network | 85 | 2000 | |
7047180 Method and apparatus for providing access to drawing information | 16 | 2000 | |
2007/0174,026 Synchronized physical and analytical representations of a CAD model | 21 | 2006 | |
2007/0174,027 Synchronized architectural and structural CAD models | 32 | 2006 | |
2007/0179,759 Transferring load information and result information between analysis and design software | 16 | 2006 | |
|
|||
5668736 Method for designing and illustrating architectural enhancements to existing buildings | 30 | 1995 | |
|
|||
6879941 Process for producing a conductor comprising at least one cable bundle | 12 | 2000 | |
|
|||
4985855 Method for producing installation instructions for three dimensional assemblies | 37 | 1987 | |
5109337 Conceptual design tool | 101 | 1987 | |
|
|||
7096165 Method for configuring an electrical installation and corresponding configuration device | 11 | 2001 | |
|
|||
6331982 Connection control system and method in a switch | 13 | 1996 | |
6304790 System design/evaluation CAD system and program storage medium | 75 | 1998 | |
6636774 CAD supporting apparatus, and CAD supporting program storage medium | 15 | 2001 | |
7106330 Drawing comparison apparatus | 13 | 2004 | |
|
|||
7085697 Method and system for designing or deploying a communications network which considers component attributes | 50 | 2000 | |
|
|||
5103214 Auxiliary alarm | 35 | 1990 | |
|
|||
4551810 Method and apparatus for designing duct work and for producing patterns for conduit sections in the designed duct work | 72 | 1983 | |
|
|||
6236409 Method and apparatus for computer aided building specification generation | 45 | 1998 | |
|
|||
6567772 System for dynamic analysis of hydraulic performance in a CAD fire sprinkler system model | 22 | 1999 | |
|
|||
5987458 Automated cable schematic generation | 17 | 1996 | |
|
|||
5227983 Method and apparatus for designing a distribution system for a building | 34 | 1992 | |
5808905 Method and apparatus for designing and editing a distribution system for a building | 31 | 1996 | |
|
|||
5761674 Integrated construction project information management system | 105 | 1997 | |
|
|||
7176942 Collaborative design | 21 | 2001 | |
|
|||
6141924 Restaurant and hotel combination | 18 | 1998 | |
|
|||
6760638 Method and apparatus for resolving overlaps in a layout containing possibly overlapping designs | 21 | 2000 | |
|
|||
5189394 Fire alarm display | 58 | 1990 | |
|
|||
5655087 CAD system capable of calculating costs during CAD operation | 34 | 1995 | |
|
|||
5260883 Interactive data entry system and method for the design, engineering and manufacture of meter tubes | 31 | 1992 | |
|
|||
* 6119784 Support system for fire protection sprinklers | 29 | 1999 | |
|
|||
4744658 Wavefront sensor | 20 | 1987 | |
|
|||
6853299 Automatic alarm system | 12 | 2002 | |
|
|||
5608375 Synchronized visual/audible alarm system | 45 | 1995 | |
|
|||
5021968 Graphics-based wire-cable management system | 33 | 1989 | |
|
|||
7047168 Method and system for providing constraint-based guidance to a designer in a collaborative design environment | 33 | 2002 | |
|
|||
5329464 Utility layout design system | 111 | 1992 | |
|
|||
5398277 Flexible multiprocessor alarm data processing system | 79 | 1992 | |
|
|||
6457165 Wiring harness arrangement designing apparatus and method therefor | 33 | 1999 | |
|
|||
4885694 Automated building control design system | 238 | 1987 | |
|
|||
2004/0080,520 Methods and apparatus for generating a data structure indicative of an alarm system circuit | 11 | 2003 | |
|
|||
6275160 Multi-mode waterflow detector with electronic timer | 58 | 2000 | |
|
|||
4464719 Off-line method of depicting piping items of pipe specification files of a computer-aided graphics system, without duplications occurring | 18 | 1982 | |
|
|||
4427974 Local control apparatus for central station alarm system | 28 | 1982 | |
|
|||
6064982 Smart configurator | 106 | 1997 | |
|
|||
5812394 Object-oriented computer program, system, and method for developing control schemes for facilities | 369 | 1995 |
Patent Citation Ranking
Forward Cite Landscape
Patent Info | (Count) | # Cites | Year |
---|---|---|---|
|
|||
* 8886348 Fabrication and tracking | 0 | 2012 | |
* 2012/0303,149 FABRICATION AND TRACKING | 2 | 2012 | |
9298180 Fabrication and tracking | 0 | 2014 | |
9886024 Fabrication and tracking | 0 | 2016 | |
|
|||
8818924 Automated solar collector installation design | 1 | 2010 | |
* 2010/0217,639 AUTOMATED SOLAR COLLECTOR INSTALLATION DESIGN INCLUDING EXCEPTIONAL CONDITION MANAGEMENT AND DISPLAY | 25 | 2010 | |
* 2010/0217,566 AUTOMATED SOLAR COLLECTOR INSTALLATION DESIGN INCLUDING ABILITY TO DEFINE HETEROGENEOUS DESIGN PREFERENCES | 7 | 2010 | |
* 2010/0217,724 AUTOMATED SOLAR COLLECTOR INSTALLATION DESIGN INCLUDING VERSION MANAGEMENT | 20 | 2010 | |
8712745 Automated solar collector installation design including ability to define heterogeneous design preferences | 0 | 2012 |
Maintenance Fees
Fee | Large entity fee | small entity fee | micro entity fee | due date |
---|---|---|---|---|
7.5 Year Payment | $3600.00 | $1800.00 | $900.00 | Jan 17, 2020 |
11.5 Year Payment | $7400.00 | $3700.00 | $1850.00 | Jan 17, 2024 |
Fee | Large entity fee | small entity fee | micro entity fee |
---|---|---|---|
Surcharge - 7.5 year - Late payment within 6 months | $160.00 | $80.00 | $40.00 |
Surcharge - 11.5 year - Late payment within 6 months | $160.00 | $80.00 | $40.00 |
Surcharge after expiration - Late payment is unavoidable | $700.00 | $350.00 | $175.00 |
Surcharge after expiration - Late payment is unintentional | $1,640.00 | $820.00 | $410.00 |
Full Text

Legal Events

Matter Detail

Renewals Detail

Note
The template below is formatted to ensure compatibility with our system.
Provide tags with | separated like (tags1|tags2).
Maximum length is 128 characters for Customer Application No
Mandatory Fields * - 'MatterType','AppType','Country','Title','SerialNo'.
Acceptable Date Format - 'MM/DD/YYYY'.
Acceptable Filing/App Types -
- Continuation/Divisional
- Original
- Paris Convention
- PCT National
- With Priority
- EP Validation
- Provisional Conversion
- Reissue
- Provisional
- Foreign Extension
Acceptable Status -
- Pending
- Abandoned
- Unfiled
- Expired
- Granted
Acceptable Matter Types -
- Patent
- Utility Model
- Supplemental Protection Certificate
- Design
- Inventor Certificate
- Plant
- Statutory Invention Reg
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Recipient Email Address

Recipient Email Address

Comment
Recipient Email Address

Success
E-mail has been sent successfully.
Failure
Some error occured while sending email. Please check e-mail and try again!
PAIR load has been initiated
A preliminary load of cached data will be loaded soon. Current PAIR data will be loaded within twenty four hours.
File History PDF
Thank you for your purchase! The File Wrapper for Patent Number 8224628 will be available within the next 24 hours.
Add to Portfolio(s)
To add this patent to one, or more, of your portfolios, simply click the add button.
This Patent is in these Portfolios:
Add to additional portfolios:

Last Refreshed On:
Changes done successfully
Important Notes on Latency of Status data
Please note there is up to 60 days of latency in this Status indicator for certain status conditions. You can obtain up-to-date Status indicator readings by ordering PAIR for the file.
An application with the status "Published" (which means it is pending) may be recently abandoned, but not yet updated to reflect its abandoned status. However, an application filed less than one year ago is unlikely to be abandoned.
A patent with the status "Granted" may be recently expired, but not yet updated to reflect its expired status. However, it is highly unlikely a patent less than 3.5 years old would be expired.
An application with the status "Abandoned" is almost always current, but there is a small chance it was recently revived and the status not yet updated.
Important Note on Priority Date data
This priority date is an estimated earliest priority date and is purely an estimation. This date should not be taken as legal conclusion. No representations are made as to the accuracy of the date listed. Please consult a legal professional before relying on this date.
We are sorry but your current selection exceeds the maximum number of portfolios (0) for this membership level. Upgrade to our Level for up to -1 portfolios!.