Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for automating a draw order of entities output from a computer. A drawing output from a computer (e.g., on a display device) is obtained by a drawing program and examined to identify two or more entities that overlap/intersect. The drawing program then automatically determines the drawing order for the two or more entities based on a set of one or more predefined rules.

Abstract: One or more embodiments of the invention comprises a collection of techniques to infer the real construction of a collection of graphical elements. Typically the underlying graphical elements of a physical object have a parent-child relationship in the graphical display and picking database. The invention examines the children of a parent seeking relationships like co-linear, closed polygon, etc., and then answers “hit” detect queries for areas that are not specifically stroked, but are also inferred to be “real”, e.g., spaces in a dashed or patterned line, the area of a closed polygon, etc. Certain allowances and flexibility must be taken into account in this process. For example, one or more embodiments do not include “text” children on a stroke by stroke basis, but instead may look to the bounding box of the text for selection. One or more embodiments of the invention obtain a selection request from the user.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for automating a draw order of entities output from a computer. A drawing output from a computer (e.g., on a display device) is obtained by a drawing program and examined to identify two or more entities that overlap/intersect. The drawing program then automatically determines the drawing order for the two or more entities based on a set of one or more predefined rules.

Abstract: A computer-implemented graphics program provides affinitive placement of objects by proximity, wherein two or more objects are automatically placed in a drawing relative to one another using similarly-situated and previously-placed objects as examples for the suggested placement of the objects.

Abstract: A user-selectable option for preserving draw order upon selection of an object displayed on a monitor. Once the object is selected from among a plurality of objects displayed on the monitor, at least a portion of an area displayed on the monitor is redrawn in a manner that visually identifies the selected object while preserving a draw order of the objects displayed on the monitor.

Abstract: A computer-implemented graphics system processes one or more objects stored in a database to create a graphical image and then delivers the graphical image to an output device. Each of the objects includes constructive geometric data stored therein. The constructive geometric data identifies at least one constructive system, and the constructive system identifies at least one constraint on the processing of the objects by the image engine.

Abstract: A computer-implemented graphics program performs visual annotative clipping, wherein the graphics objects in a document that include one or more clear zones are identified and collected into a clear zone list, and then all graphics objects in the document are compared to the identified graphics objects in the clear zone list to determine what elements of the compared graphics objects should be clipped because they extend into the clear zones.