1. A method for configuring detailed manufacturing knowledge for fabricating an object, the method comprising: extracting design criteria from one or more design data files; parsing design criteria into elemental manufacturing building modules independent of the one or more design data files and storing to a database a meta-data file comprising the extracted design criteria and the elemental manufacturing building modules; incorporating into the meta-data file manufacturing criteria not contained in the one or more design data files; and accessing the database and extracting manufacturing knowledge, if any, for optimizing the manufacturing process of the object to be fabricated and incorporating the manufacturing knowledge into the meta-data file, wherein the meta-data file is independent of the one or more design data files from which the design criteria was extracted and wherein the meta-data file is capable directing the manufacturing of the object to be fabricated.