JP2000075984A - Graphic and window operating method and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it easy to select one arbitrary graphic out of graphics which are displayed one over another and to facilitate the operation for moving the graphic, etc., by displaying markers made to correspond to the graphics and selecting a displayed markers. SOLUTION: The markers 241, 202, and 242 corresponding to the indicated graphic 211 and graphics 210 and 212 overlapping the indicated graphic 211 are displayed. When the marker 242 for the graphic 212 is selected, the graphic which has been selected changes from the graphic 211 to the graphic 212. When the user moves the marker 242 for the graphic 212 through mouse dragging operation while the graphic 212 is selected, the graphic 212 also moves at the same time in the same direction as the moving direction of the marker by the same movement quantity as the marker. Thus, the graphic 212 which is completely hidden under the graphic 211 can be moved without moving the graphic 211.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a graphic processing apparatus such as a CAD system capable of displaying a plurality of figures on a display means and operating each figure individually or collectively on a plurality of figures and a display means. And a window system capable of displaying different windows and performing different operation processing for each window.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When graphics and images are collectively defined as "graphics", conventional graphics processing apparatuses allow overlapping of graphics when a plurality of graphics are displayed. Depending on the display position and size, some or all of the other figures may be hidden. As described above, even when the user attempts to select a target graphic in order to operate the target graphic when there are a plurality of graphics, the user cannot directly select a graphic entirely covered by other graphics. To select a shape that is completely covered by other shapes, select the shape that covers the shape you want to select, move it so that it does not cover the target shape, then select and operate the target shape, and operate After completion, the user must take steps to select the moved figure and move it to the original position again to operate the target figure. In the case of performing the same operation in the conventional window system, it is necessary to change the overlapping order of the windows, display and move the window to be operated at the top, and then change the overlapping order of the windows again. In order to solve the above problem, for example, a figure instruction operation support apparatus is described in JP-A-5-334415, and a window system is described in JP-A-8-7.
There is one described in, for example, JP-A-6960.

[0003] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-334415 discloses sequentially displaying graphic elements present in a display area on a screen designated by a user, and the user selects a desired graphic by a determination operation.
A device for indicating is disclosed. Further, JP-A-8-769
No. 60 discloses a window display and overlapping state by displaying a window graph in a state where the window is viewed from the horizontal and vertical directions and the horizontal and horizontal directions in an area different from the window display area, and operating the window graph. A device capable of operating an actual window is disclosed.

[0004]

However, in the apparatus disclosed in the above-mentioned invention, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-334415 has been disclosed.
In a device such as Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication, if a desired figure cannot be designated when selecting or designating a figure, or if the figure to be selected is incorrect, the above-described operation must be repeated many times, resulting in reduced operability. There is a problem. JP-A-8-
In an apparatus such as that described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 76960, it is necessary to separately provide an area for displaying a window graph. On a display apparatus having a limited area, there is a problem that the window display area becomes small.

[0005] Further, since the vertical and horizontal display in the horizontal direction are displayed separately, when the position and size of the window are changed, the vertical and horizontal operations must be performed separately. is there. Furthermore, since the window and the window graph are displayed at separate positions, if the number of displayed windows increases, the user can easily recognize the correspondence between the window and the display on the window graph corresponding to the window. There is a problem of disappearing.

An object of the present invention is to facilitate selection of an arbitrary figure or window from a plurality of figures or windows displayed on a screen of a display device in a figure processing apparatus or a window system. Another object of the present invention is to provide a graphic operation method capable of easily performing operations such as moving and resizing a selected graphic or window.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a graphic displayed at a position selected by a user by means of a pointing device or the like, and a plurality of graphics vertically overlapping the graphic. The marker corresponding to the pair 1 and the leader line connecting the marker and the graphic corresponding to the marker are displayed on the same screen as the graphic, and by selecting the displayed marker, the graphic corresponding to the selected marker is displayed. By setting the selected state, even a figure entirely covered by another figure can be easily selected without changing the overlapping order of the figures. At this time, since the marker for the graphic is displayed on the same screen as the graphic, the limited display area on the display device can be used to the maximum extent for displaying the graphic.

By operating the displayed marker, the moving operation of the figure corresponding to the marker not only in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction but also in the two-dimensional plane direction such as diagonal is changed, and the overlapping order of the figures is changed. This is made possible by one operation without performing.

[0009] In addition, the shape and design of the marker to be displayed are displayed in the form of a color, shape, characteristic of the figure and attribute information corresponding to the figure corresponding to the marker, or in a form in which the target figure is reduced. This makes it possible to easily recognize the figure indicated by the marker in combination with the leader line connecting. However, it is possible to easily recognize the figure indicated by the marker by using only one of the shape, the design, and the lead line of the marker.

Further, a graphic operation mark is displayed on the outer periphery of the displayed marker, and the user operates the displayed graphic operation mark by means of a pointing device or the like, so that the size of the graphic corresponding to the marker can be reduced. Indirectly, without changing the overlapping order of figures,
It is possible to change not only the dimensional direction but also a diagonal two-dimensional plane direction.

The above-described means has the same effect on a window by being applied to a window system.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a graphic processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, an input device 110 for inputting various information such as a pointing device, and a graphic operation device 12 for performing an operation on a desired graphic in accordance with an input from the input device 110
0, an overlap detection device 140 for detecting a figure overlapping a predetermined figure, a figure management apparatus 130 for managing a figure in accordance with an operation by the figure operating apparatus 120, and a desired form in response to an input from the input apparatus 110. A marker operating device 150 for performing an operation on the marker, a marker managing device 160 for creating a marker for the graphic detected by the overlap detecting device 140, and managing the marker in accordance with the operation by the marker operating device 150; The display device 170 is configured to display a figure 130 and a marker of the marker management device 160. Also in the window system, the present invention can be realized by changing the graphic operation device 120 to a window operation device and the graphic management device 130 to a window management device.

In this embodiment, a personal computer is used as the device, a mouse or keyboard is used as the input device 110, a display is used as the display device, and the graphic operation device 12 is used.
0, the figure management device 130, the overlap detection device 140, the marker operation device 150, and the marker management device 160 show an embodiment in the case of being realized by software realized in a memory and a CPU.

FIG. 2 shows four figures 210, 211, and 2 on a display 170 as a first embodiment of the present invention.
12 and the figure 213 are displayed in an overlapping manner. As for the overlapping order of the figures, the figure 210 is at the top and the figure 213 is at the bottom. Figures 210 and 21 for simplicity of description
It is assumed that the figure 1, the figure 212, and the figure 213 are rectangles whose insides are filled. In FIG. 2, for convenience, the figure 212 is drawn by dotted lines and hatching so that the figure 212 can be seen. However, generally, the figure 212 completely hidden below the figure 211 is not displayed at all.

A procedure for moving the figure 212 so that the figure 212 can be seen outside the figure 211 in the state of FIG. 2 is shown in accordance with the processing flow of FIG.

As a first stage of the processing, the position of the figure 212 in FIG. 2 is indicated by the cursor 220, and the figure at the cursor position is detected. In this embodiment, the cursor position is set to coordinates (80, 110). First, the cursor position is assigned to the coordinate variables (XC, YC) (3
10), a figure displayed at the position of the coordinate variable (XC, YC) is detected (400). FIG. 4 shows details of the graphic detection processing procedure. In order to detect the figure at the designated position, FIG. 5 is used in which the coordinates of the figure are sorted so that the overlapping order of the figures is from top to bottom. The counter variable I indicates the overlapping order in FIG. First, the determination is started from the one having the highest overlapping order (420), and the determination process is repeated until the number of figures reaches a constant Num (430). In this embodiment, since the total number of figures is four, the constant Num is four.

The order I = overlapping at the designated position (XC, YC)
It is determined whether the graphic 210 of the first plate is displayed (4
40) Then, since XC: X1 → 80 <110,
Figure 210 is not at the cursor position. Therefore, the counter variable I is incremented by 1 (450), and the next figure is determined. As in the case of the graphic 210, when the graphic 211 of the overlapping order I = second plate is determined, the cursor position is inside the graphic 211. Since we only need to detect the top figure at the cursor position,
The repetition processing for determination is interrupted, and the overlapping order I =
The detection process ends with the figure 211 of FIG. 2 as a detection result (460). If it is determined that there is no graphic displayed at the cursor position and the repetition is completed, the detection processing is terminated with no detected graphic (470).

When a figure is detected according to the result of the figure detection at the cursor position, a figure overlapping the figure at the cursor position is detected as the second stage of the processing. If no figure is detected, the process ends without doing anything (510). Please note that depending on the system, if no graphics are detected,
If a figure has already been selected, processing for deselecting the figure may be performed.

FIG. 6 shows a detailed procedure of a process of detecting a graphic overlapping the designated graphic. The detection of a figure overlapping the designated figure uses a coordinate list of all figures excluding the designated figure. FIG. 7 shows a list of figures other than the pointing figure 211. In FIG. 7, there is a flag indicating the overlap with the instruction graphic 211, and all of the table creations are initialized to OFF. The counter variable I in FIG. 6 indicates the row number in FIG. First, the determination is started from the column number 1 (610). The number of figures in FIG. 7 (Num-1)
The determination process is repeated twice (620).

Display coordinates (10, 10) of the instruction figure 211
-(150, 150) is compared with the coordinates of the graphic in the first row in the table of FIG. 7 to determine whether or not the graphics overlap each other (630). In the present embodiment, since all figures are limited to filled rectangles, it is possible to determine the overlap between figures by comparing simple coordinates. As a result of the determination, the instruction graphic 21
1 and the figure 210 on the I-th line in FIG.
The flag indicating the overlap is turned on (660), the counter variable I is increased, and the next figure is examined (650).

If the figures do not overlap, the overlapping flag is turned off (640). The processes from 620 to 650 are repeated, and the determination process ends when the counter variable I becomes (Num-1> 3).

As a result of the above processing, FIG. 7 becomes FIG.
From FIG. 8, it can be seen that the images overlapping the instruction graphic 211 are the graphic 210 and the graphic 212.

As a third step, the markers for the graphic 210 and the graphic 212 which overlap the graphic 211 and the graphic 211 are displayed (700), and the graphic 211 is selected (710). As a result, as shown in FIG. 9, the display lines 231 and marker 241 for the instruction figure 211, the leader lines 230 and 241 for the figure 210, and the leader lines 232 and 242 for the figure 212 are displayed on the screen.

Further, in the present embodiment, the figure selection frame 25 surrounding the designated figure 211 to indicate the selected state of the designated figure 211
0 is displayed, and leader lines and markers other than the instruction figure 211 for the figures 210 and 212 are displayed as dotted lines. In this embodiment, the marker is displayed so as to overlap the display graphic. However, it is considered that the operability of the marker is further improved by controlling the display position so as not to overlap the display image.

As a final step, the figure 212 is selected and moved. When the marker 242 for the graphic 212 is selected in the state of FIG. 9, the graphic in the selected state is changed from the graphic 211 to the graphic 212.
Then, the screen display shown in FIG. 10 is made. In FIG. 10, the figure 212 is displayed translucently so that the shape of the figure 212 in the selected state can be understood, and a dotted line surrounding the figure 212 indicating the selected state is displayed outside the figure 212. When the user moves the marker on the graphic 212 by mouse dragging while the graphic 212 is selected, the graphic 212 is moved in an amount equal to the amount of movement of the marker and in a direction equal to the moving direction of the marker.
Move at the same time (800). While the marker 242 is being moved by the mouse drag operation, the figure 212 is also moved following the movement of the marker 242, and the operability can be improved by making the position after the movement clearly understood. The movement of the marker started by mouse dragging ends when the mouse button is released.

As a result of the marker operation, the figure 212 is moved so as to be visible outside the figure 211 as shown in FIG.

According to the above processing procedure, as a result, FIG.
The figure 212 completely hidden under 11 is replaced with the figure 211
Could be moved without having to move. As described above, by using the present invention, a graphic hidden by another graphic can be directly moved without moving a graphic covering the graphic. In addition, the target figure can be operated without changing the overlapping order of the figures.

In this embodiment, the figures are all filled rectangles for simplicity of explanation. It may be a figure with only a frame. In this case, it is necessary to determine the shape of the display graphic and the presence / absence of filling in the determination of the cursor pointing graphic or the graphic overlapping the pointing graphic, so that a more complicated determination algorithm may be required. .

FIG. 12 shows, as a second embodiment of the present invention, a display example on a display device when a reduced figure of a figure corresponding to a marker is displayed. In FIG. 12, the marker 9
The shape and color of the figure 912 corresponding to 42 are displayed on the marker 942. By displaying the shape of the figure corresponding to the marker, the reduced image, the color, the characteristic of the figure, and the one indicating the attribute of the figure, it is possible to recognize the correspondence between the marker and the figure even when there are multiple figures displaying the marker. It will be easier.

FIG. 13 shows a display example on a display device when a graphic operation mark 980 is displayed on the outer periphery of a marker 974 as a third embodiment of the present invention. By manipulating the graphic operation mark 980 by an operation such as mouse dragging in the same manner as in the procedure for moving the graphic in the first embodiment, the size of the graphic 970 corresponding to the mark 974 changes in conjunction with the operation of the graphic operation mark. . This makes it possible to directly change the size of a graphic without moving the graphic to be covered, even if the graphic is entirely hidden by other graphics. In the case of changing the size, similarly to the case of moving the figure, during the mouse drag operation of the figure operation mark 980, the size of the figure 912 is changed by following the operation on the figure operation mark 980 to change the size of the figure 912. Since the size can be changed while checking the size and shape of the figure 912, the operability is further improved.

Further, by applying the above-described first to third embodiments to a window system, even in a window system, a window covering all windows hidden by other windows can be directly moved without moving a window covering the windows. Operations such as selection, movement, and size change can be performed. In a window system, unlike a graphics processing device, when a window is selected, by performing a process of changing the overlapping order in which the selected window is displayed at the top of the overlapping window, windows that are all hidden in other windows are displayed. It can be easily displayed at the top of the overlap.

Further, in both the graphic processing system and the window system, one mark is not always displayed on one figure or window, but a plurality of figures or windows grouped by user operation or the attributes of the figure or window are displayed. On the other hand, by displaying and operating one mark for each group, a plurality of figures or windows can be operated collectively.

[0034]

According to the present invention, as described above, any one figure or one window can be easily selected from a plurality of figures or windows displayed on the screen of the display device. In addition, there is an effect that operations such as moving and resizing the selected figure or window can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a graphic processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a display state on the graphic processing device before implementing the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of processing for moving a figure according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process of a graphic detection subroutine at a cursor designated position in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a diagram in which the coordinates of the graphics displayed on the graphics processing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention are arranged in the overlapping order of the graphics.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the processing of a subroutine for detecting a graphic overlapping the cursor pointing graphic in the processing flow of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a coordinate of a graphic excluding a cursor pointing graphic according to the first embodiment of the present invention and having an overlap flag with the cursor pointing graphic;

8 is a diagram showing the contents of FIG. 7 changed by the overlap detection subroutine processing of FIG. 6 in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing a display state on the display device after a figure is designated by a cursor in the first embodiment of the present invention.

10 is a plan view showing a display state on the display device when a marker for the movement target graphic 212 is selected from the state of FIG. 9 in the first embodiment of the present invention.

11 is a plan view showing a display state on the display device after the marker for the movement target graphic 212 has been moved from the state of FIG. 10 in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a plan view showing a display state on a display device after a figure is designated by a cursor in a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a plan view showing a display state on a display device after a figure is designated by a cursor according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

110: input device, 120: graphic operation device, 13
0: Graphic management device, 140: Overlap detection device, 150:
Marker operating device, 160: Marker management device, 170: Display device, 241: Marker, 942: Marker for displaying a reduced figure, 980: Graphic operation mark.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G09G 5/14 G09G 5/36 520N 5/377 G06F 15/62 320K F-term (Reference) 5B050 CA07 EA12 EA17 FA02 FA09 FA12 FA14 5C082 AA15 AA24 BA12 CA01 CA32 CA52 CA63 DA87 MM09

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A graphic processing apparatus comprising a central processing unit, a display device having a screen, a keyboard, and a pointing device for moving a cursor on the screen by a user operation. Investigation means for examining the overlapping state of the figures, a marker corresponding to the figure displayed at the position selected by the cursor and the figure vertically overlapping the figure, and a marker corresponding to the marker. A display means for displaying a leader line connecting the figure on the same screen as the figure, and a figure corresponding to the selected marker by selecting the displayed marker, to a selected state without changing the overlapping of the figures And a selecting means for performing a graphic operation. 2. A graphic operating means for moving a graphic corresponding to a marker by operating the displayed marker with a cursor on the screen without changing the overlapping of the graphics. The graphic operation method according to claim 1. 3. A display means for displaying the shape and design of the displayed marker as a color, shape, feature of the graphic and a shape indicating attribute information corresponding to the marker, or a reduced graphic of the target graphic. 3. The graphic operation method according to claim 2, wherein: 4. A display means for displaying a graphic operation mark on the outer periphery of the displayed marker, and a graphic corresponding to the marker by operating a graphic operation mark displayed on the outer periphery of the marker by a cursor on the screen. 4. The graphic operation method according to claim 2, further comprising a graphic operation means capable of indirectly changing an attribute of the graphic without changing the overlap between the graphics. 5. A window operating method, wherein the graphic operating method according to claim 1 is applied to various window systems. 6. A recording medium storing software for realizing the graphic operation method according to claim 1. Description: 7. A recording medium storing software for realizing a window operation method in which the graphic operation method according to claim 1 is applied to various window systems.