Method and apparatus for providing access to drawing information

1. A computer implemented system for providing access to a drawing comprising:

a server computer having one or more server component applications;

one or more drawing files created by a first drawing application, wherein said one or more drawing files are stored on the server computer;

a search server component application executing on the server computer, wherein the search server component application is configured to provide a query engine that allows a property and tag based query of the one or more drawing files to locate one or more of the drawing files containing one or more specified search parameters; and

a conversion server component application executing on the server computer, wherein the conversion server component application is configured to dynamically convert one or more of the located drawing files containing the one or more specified search parameters into a drawing file format viewable by a client application executing on a client computer, wherein the one or more server component applications are configured to provide the one or more drawing files that have been dynamically converted to the client computer.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising an information extraction server component application executing on the server, wherein the information extraction server component application is configured to provide information relating to the one or more drawing files for display on the client computer.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the search server component application is configured to locate data based on search parameters supplied by a user on the client computer.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the search server component application is configured to locate data based on attributes of the one or more drawing files.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the client application is a web browser.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more drawing files that have been converted are stored in cache.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more drawing files are stored in a file format for a Computer Aided Design (CAD) application.

8. A method for providing access to a drawing comprising:

a first drawing application creating one or more drawing files and storing said one or more drawing files in a first format on a server computer;

providing a query engine, on the server computer, that allows a property and tag based query of the one or more drawing files to locate one or more of the drawing files containing one or more specified search parameters;

dynamically converting the one or more located drawing files containing the one or more specified search parameters into a drawing file format viewable by a client application executing on a client computer; and

providing the one or more drawing files that have been dynamically converted to the client computer.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising providing information relating to the one or more drawing files for display on the client computer.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein data is located based on search parameters supplied by a user on the client computer.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the data is located based on attributes of the one or more drawing files.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the client application is a web browser.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the one or more drawing files that have been converted are stored in cache.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more drawing files are stored in a file format for a Computer Aided Design (CAD) application.

15. An article of manufacture embodying logic accessible from a computer-readable device for performing a method for accessing a drawing over a network, the method comprising:

a first drawing application creating one or more drawing files and storing said one or more drawing files in a first format on a server computer;

providing a query engine, on the server computer, that allows a property and tag based query of the one or more drawing files to locate one or more of the drawing files containing one or more specified search parameters;

dynamically converting the one or more located drawing files containing the one or more specified search parameters into a drawing file format viewable by a client application executing on a client computer; and

providing the one or more drawing files that have been dynamically converted to the client computer.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, the method further comprising providing information relating to the one or more drawing files for display on the client computer.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein data is located based on search parameters supplied by a user on the client computer.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the data is located based on attributes of the one or more drawing files.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the client application is a web browser.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the one or more drawing files that have been converted are stored in cache.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 1 wherein the one or more drawing files are stored in a file format for a Computer Aided Design (CAD) application.