Abstract: A product design server system which forms the heart of a design-to-order product community. The design-to-order product community is an on-line community that provides a dynamic environment in which community participants can interact on the fly and instantaneously respond to product changes. The architecture of the product design server system, and the special product definition data structure utilized thereby, is network-based (e.g., web-based). The product design server system of the present invention goes beyond web-enabled and IP-based architectures by providing a pure internet architecture approach. Interaction with the product definition data, and thus participation in the design-to-order product community, is enabled through browser-application service suites. These application service suites, described subsequently in more detail, enable community participants, as individuals or teams, to use a standard web browser to create, find, access, understand, manipulate, and publish product information (e.

Abstract: A method for employing a hierarchical display list in global rendering comprises the steps of traversing the display list and extracting selected primitives and attributes. A bounding volume is defined for selected primitives, and data indicative of the selected primitives, attributes, and bounding volumes are stored in a global database. Global rendering may be performed by either ray tracing or radiosity based upon the data in the global database. In the event that global rendering is performed by radiosity, then a plurality of surface elements for each selected primitive is defined and also stored in the global data base. Shading attribute data for each of the surface elements is defined upon application of a radiosity rendering algorithm to the global database. An alternative display list may be defined from the global database, if desired.