JP2001243270A - Device and method for designing board by using communication network - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To design a board from terminal equipment via a communication network. SOLUTION: A board designing device is provided with an input screen providing means 12 for providing information of a screen where board design information is inputted, a terminal information storing means 13 for storing information of terminal equipment C, a design information storing means 14 for storing design information, a design start identifying means 15, a design means 10 for designing the board based on design information which is inputted from the equipment C, a slip generating means 11 for generating a slip based on design information which is inputted from the equipment C and a design information display means 16 for displaying a design result in the equipment C. When the means 15 discriminates that whole information required for board design are stored, board design and slip generation are automatically started by the means 10 and 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a board design apparatus and a board design method for designing the interior of a board such as a distribution board or a distribution board for a house using a communication network such as the Internet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various devices have been proposed for automatic design and drawing equipment for products in which devices such as circuit breakers are arranged inside a panel (box) such as a distribution board or a distribution board for a house. Have been. For example, in a computer equipped with CAD software, a design drawing is created by inputting information on devices and boxes constituting a panel, information on attached members, and the like.

On the other hand, in recent years, the Internet (WWW) has been widely and widely used as a communication network.
Web created in HTML format from a personal computer
By browsing page b, not only characters but also data such as images and sounds can be transmitted.

[0004]

In the above-described conventional board designing apparatus and board designing method, it is necessary that the function of inputting design information and the function of creating a drawing be provided in one apparatus. Alternatively, some communication function is required between the two functions, and the system lacks expandability.

[0005] In a personal computer or the like, if a general-purpose browser software or free software is used and a board is designed on the server side via a communication network such as the Internet or a LAN, the system scale can be expanded.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a board design apparatus which enables a board to be designed from a terminal device such as a computer through a communication network, and a board design apparatus embodied in the board design apparatus. The purpose is to provide a board design method.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a board design apparatus using a communication network, comprising: Design boards such as switchboards and switchboards, and create drawings and reports.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a board designing apparatus, comprising: a database for storing design information;
Master file that stores information of standard products such as equipment and parts, drawing library that stores information of reference drawings in advance, form library that stores information of forms in advance, and board design information And storage means for storing information necessary for processing, such as information on a terminal device that is an input source of the information.

[0009] Here, a hard disk and the like are used, and a database, a master file, a drawing library,
A distinction is made between recording means such as a form library or the like and storage means such as a RAM.

[0010] An input screen providing means for providing the terminal device with information on a screen for inputting board design information, a terminal information storage means for storing information on the terminal device from which design information is input in a storage means, Design information storage means for storing design information input from the screen provided by the input screen providing means in the database, design start identification means for determining that all of the information required for board design has been stored in the database, Design means for designing a board based on design information input from the terminal device, form creation means for creating a form based on the design information input from the terminal device, and displaying the design result on the terminal device And design information display means.

When the design start identifying means determines that all the information necessary for designing the board is stored in the database, the designing means and the form creating means automatically perform the board design and the form creation. Start.

According to a second aspect, in the first aspect, a plurality of processing units having a design unit and a form creation unit are provided, and a board design and a form creation are performed in accordance with the operation status of each processing unit. It is characterized in that distributed processing is performed. Here, each of the plurality of processing devices is configured by a computer or the like, and includes a main processing device configuring a server and one or a plurality of sub-processing devices connected to the main processing device.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the storage means stores the information of the terminal device from which the design information is input by the terminal information storage means, and the operating status is dynamically determined for each terminal device. The client-specific information storage unit is stored in the terminal, the processing content is changed for each terminal device,
The display screen can be changed. This enables parallel operation for each terminal device (client).

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, when the design information input from the screen provided by the input screen providing means does not match the information of the standard product stored in the master file, the input screen providing means is provided. Thus, the terminal device displays the changed portion of the information.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, based on the design information stored in the database by the design information storage means, the master file is referred to, the amount required for manufacturing the board is calculated, and the form is created. The means creates a form. Therefore, the standard price, the production price, the discount price, and the like of the standard product are stored in the master file.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the design information storage means is provided when the design information inputted from the screen provided by the input screen providing means does not match the design information previously stored in the database. Judging that the design information has been changed, the time when the design information was input, the input user name, the input screen name, the database name, the information that did not match, and the like are stored in the storage unit as a change history file. It is characterized by making it.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, when a trouble occurs during board design in the terminal device, trouble information including information such as a screen name in which the trouble occurred, a trouble occurrence history, and a trouble name occurred is created. Then, the created trouble information is transmitted to a transmission destination registered in advance.

According to claim 8, in claim 1, the input screen providing means calculates a predetermined identification number from the master file based on at least information on the standard product stored in the master file, and Is searched for a device that can be mounted on the panel based on the device type, and the searched-for mountable device is displayed on the screen.

In a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the design means obtains information of the device from the design information stored in the database and, based on the information of the device, obtains a device corresponding to the device from a master file. The device type is obtained, and the attribute information of the device corresponding to the device type is obtained, and the arrangement of the device on the drawing is determined based on the attribute information.

In a tenth aspect, in the first aspect, the design means searches the master file for a predetermined identification number corresponding to the part number of the standard product stored in the database, and then searches the master file for the identification number corresponding to the searched identification number. It is characterized in that an outer frame of the board to be searched is searched.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect, when calculating the amount of money required for manufacturing the board, the estimated price calculating means determines a predetermined price determining factor stored in the master file from the design information of the database. It is characterized in that it is determined whether there is a corresponding factor, and if there is a corresponding factor, the factor is also considered.

According to a twelfth aspect, in the eleventh aspect, the estimated price calculation means stores the corresponding factor in a database, and if each factor is stored in the database a predetermined number of times, The design information is stored in a master file as new standard product information.

According to a thirteenth to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, a board design method using a communication network designs a board such as a distribution board or a distribution board from a terminal device via a communication network, and creates a drawing or a form. This is the board design method to be created.

According to the thirteenth aspect, when it is detected that all the information necessary for designing the board has been input from the terminal device, the drawing, name, arrangement, size, etc. of the equipment constituting the board are stored as an equipment configuration information file. It is characterized in that a board is designed and a form is automatically created based on the generated board.

According to a fourteenth aspect, in the thirteenth aspect, distributed processing of board design and form creation is performed according to the operating status of each of the plurality of processing devices.

According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, in the fourteenth aspect, each of the plurality of processing devices starts designing a board and creating a form by detecting that the constituent device information file is stored. I do.

[0027] In claim 16, claims 13 to 15 are provided.
In any of the above, when designing a board, a weight such as a drawing type and an area of each device is obtained by referring to a device configuration information file, and a drawing is created according to the weight.

According to a seventeenth aspect, in the sixteenth aspect, a drawing weight of each device is obtained, and when the drawings of all the devices do not fit on one page, a drawing divided into a plurality of pages is created according to the weight. It is characterized by.

[0029]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a board design device using a communication network.
A board design device having the function of the WWW server S and a terminal device C serving as one or a plurality of clients are connected via a communication network such as the Internet (WWW) or a LAN. By transmitting data from the device C via a communication network, boards such as a distribution board and a distribution board are designed, and drawings (see FIGS. 17 to 19) and forms (see FIG. 7) are created.

The board design apparatus includes a recording device 2 composed of a hard disk or the like, a database 20 for storing design information, and a master for storing information on standard products such as devices and parts necessary for designing the board in advance. File 21 and a reference drawing library 22 in which information of a reference drawing is stored in advance.
(Drawing library) and a form library 23 in which information of a form as a reference is stored in advance. Also, RAM
The storage device 3 is a storage unit that stores information necessary for processing such as information on a terminal device that is an input source of board design information.

The main processor 1 also provides an HTML-type input screen providing means 12 (input screen providing means) for providing screen information for inputting board design information to the terminal device, and a source of design information. A terminal information storage unit 13 for storing information of the terminal device C in the storage device 3, a design information storage unit 14 for storing design information input from a screen provided by the HTML type input screen providing unit 12 in a database 20,
Automatic design start identification means 15 (design start identification means) for judging that all information required for board design has been stored in the database 20, and board design based on design information input from the terminal device C. Automatic design means 10 (design means) for performing the above, a form creation means 11 for creating a form based on the design information inputted from the terminal device C, a design information display means 16 for displaying the design result on the terminal device C, , Terminal device C
And a trouble notifying means 17 for notifying a trouble that has occurred during the board design, and an estimated price calculating means 18 for calculating an amount required for the board design.

The main processing unit 1 includes an automatic design start identification unit 1
5 determines that all the information required for board design has been stored in the database 20, the automatic design means 1
0 and form creation means 11 automatically start board design and form creation. Thereby, the terminal device C
The board design process is started without performing any design start operation on both the main processor 1 and the main processor 1. In the main processing apparatus 1, the database 2 is stored by the design information storage unit 14.
Based on the design information stored in “0”, a design drawing can also be created by operating an operation means (not shown).

More specifically, when designing a board such as a distribution board or a distribution board for a house, the terminal device C accesses the server S side, and the HTML type input screen providing means 12 of the main processing device 1 Since a design information input screen is provided to the terminal device C, the part number listed in the catalog as a standard product is input on this input screen, and the automatic design start identification means 15 detects that all inputs have been made. Then, the automatic design means 10 refers to the master file 21 and creates a drawing such as an external view of the device, a layout drawing, and a wiring diagram.

The master file 21 stores the types, arrangements, wiring routes, and accessory member information of the group of circuit breakers and circuit breaker support parts arranged on the panel, corresponding to the product numbers of the respective devices. It is searched for information input from the terminal device C in these, and when information different from the standard product is input, a drawing is created based on this changed information. At the time of drawing creation, information on the reference drawing stored in the reference drawing library 22 is used. Then, the design result is displayed on the terminal device C side in HTML format by the design information display means 16.

Here, a plurality of sub-processing devices 4 (#
n), and each sub-processing device 4 includes a main processing device 1
In the same manner as described above, an automatic design unit 40 and a form creation unit 41 are provided. Thus, the main processing device 1 can perform a distributed process of designing a board and creating a form in accordance with the operation status of each of the processing devices 1 and 4. Each of the processing devices 1 and 4
Each is constituted by an independent computer or the like, and is connected by a transmission line or the like.

As described above, in the present invention, each of the processing devices 1
Since the processing is distributed to the processing apparatuses 4 and the distributed processing can be performed, no load is applied to only one processing apparatus 1 or 4.

Next, FIG. 2 shows a main configuration of the board designing apparatus. The storage device 3 includes a client-specific information storage unit 30.
The terminal information storage unit 13 stores the information of the terminal device C that is the input source of the design information and dynamically stores the operation status for each terminal device C (client). As a result, the processing content can be changed and the display screen can be changed for each terminal device C, and different parallel operations can be performed in each of the terminal devices C.

The client-specific information storage unit 30 stores, for example, a client identification ID, a client IP address, a client browser type, a client browser number, a user name, an access right, an article number to be processed, and a processing status description. . The browser type and browser number are referred to in order to change the screen creation program according to the function (browser) on the terminal device C side. The access authority is classified into a general user, a design manager, a system manager, and the like, which limits screens that can be accessed and functions that can be executed.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the above operation (S
1 to S6). First, when the WWW server S is accessed (S1), terminal information such as a client identification ID is obtained from the terminal device C (S2) and stored in the storage device 3. Next, each piece of information is read from the storage device 3, and a process according to the authority is performed (S3, S4), and the HTML
Create a screen (S5) and send a reply to the client (S5)
6). Here, for the process according to the authority, for example, automatic design can be performed by all users, but form creation cannot be performed by general users. Also, input on the screen is restricted according to the authority.

Next, another operation will be described. In the main processing unit 1, the design information input from the screen provided by the HTML-type input screen providing means 12 is compared with the information of the standard product stored in the master file 21. If they do not match, the HTML information input screen providing means 12 causes the terminal device C to display the changed information.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the operation at that time, in which the input information is one of the information of the master file 21.
If at least one of them does not match, the terminal device C is notified of the change (change items are indicated by oblique lines in the figure), and information on the change is stored in the database 20. Then, at the time of designing by the automatic designing means 10, a list L relating to changed portions is shown in the drawing.

Next, still another operation will be described with reference to the flowchart (S11 to S18) shown in FIG. Here, based on the design information stored in the database 20 by the design information storage means 14, the estimated price calculation means 18 refers to the master file 21 to calculate the amount of money required for manufacturing the board, and to create a form. Means 11 creates a form. Therefore, the master file 21 includes a price rule master 21a that stores a standard price, a manufacturing price, a discount price, and the like of a standard product.

The information on the constituent devices is read from the database 20 (S11), and a loop (S12 to S) corresponding to the number of constituent devices is performed.
16) is executed. An estimated price (S13), a production price (S14), and a discount price (S15) are calculated for each component device with reference to the price rule master 21a. Then, the result of calculating the total value of each price is stored in the database 20 as a final price (S17), and a form is created (S18).

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the price rule master 21a. Here, the standard price,
The manufacturing price, shipping fee, sales area, and maximum discount price are registered. The maximum discount price is a value according to the authority of the logged-in user (client).
It is taken out from and set. For the sales district, the district to which the logged-in user belongs is the master file 2
1 and set.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a form created in S18 of FIG. Here, the board design results
Listed with board name, board symbol, part number, box type, etc.

In this board design apparatus, the database 2 is assigned by the user who is authorized by the access authority described above.
0 can be changed, and this will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

That is, a user having an access right
When the component device information is input, the design information storage unit 14
Before storing the component device information input to the database 20, the component device information stored last time is stored in the database 2.
A search is made from 0 (S22), and loops for the number of constituent devices are executed (S23 to S26). For each component, it is determined whether or not there has been any change compared to the previously stored information (S24). If there is any changed information, the input user name, input screen name, and database 20 Information such as a name and a changed portion is written to the change history file 24 (see FIG. 1) and stored in the storage device 2 (S25).

The change history file created in this way can be referred to by the user authorized by the above-mentioned access authority, for example, the system administrator, at the terminal device C or the main processing device 1. It is possible to grasp which user changed which data and how.

During board design, unexpected troubles tend to occur. In order to deal with this, the present apparatus performs the following operation. This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The trouble notifying means 17 constantly monitors troubles which may occur in the entire system including the apparatus.
When a certain trouble occurs (S31), the user name during the board design and the screen name where the trouble occurred are acquired (S32).
Further, an error code corresponding to the trouble is acquired (S3
3). Then, a predetermined function name is added to the error message (S34), and trouble information including such information is created (S35).

The trouble information created by the trouble notifying means 17 is displayed on the trouble information transmission screen as shown in FIG. 10 by the HTML type input screen providing means 12 (S36). If the transmission button 12A is operated, the trouble notification means 17
In response to this, the trouble information displayed on the trouble information transmission screen is electronically transmitted to a mailing list transmission destination registered in advance in the trouble notification means 17 itself, for example, a terminal device C of a system administrator or a system developer. The data is transmitted in an e-mail format via the mail server M. FIG.
In addition to the trouble information 24 being displayed, the trouble information transmission screen shown in FIG. 0 allows the user to arbitrarily input a defect in design. Such input information is also displayed on the mailing list. It can be sent to the destination.

In the design of the board, as described above, it is necessary to input all the information necessary for the design of the board at the terminal device C. To assist this, the HTML type input screen providing means 12 is provided. Performs the operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, the HTML-type input screen providing means 12 receives the standard product number (S4).
1) As will be described later, a standard product configuration screen corresponding to the part number is created. At this time, a box size corresponding to the part number is searched from the part number master 21f (S42), and further, the box size corresponding to the part number is retrieved. The size of the main breaker to be executed and the maximum current value of the main breaker are searched from the device master 21g (S43).

Then, based on the searched box size and master breaker size, an I for judging a device that can be mounted on the board is determined.
D is obtained (S44), and the ID is corrected based on the searched maximum current value of the main breaker (S45). Further, the ID is corrected based on the base type (type of wooden board, iron plate, etc.) input on the standard product configuration screen (S46), and a mountable device type corresponding to the corrected ID is selected from the device type master 21h (S47). ), Based on the device type, retrieves the part number of the mountable device from the device master 21g (S48),
Display the retrieved part number in the pull-down menu on the standard product configuration screen.

FIG. 12 shows the device type master 21 described above.
2 shows a configuration example of h, and device types are assigned corresponding to each ID. FIG. 13 illustrates an example of the configuration of the device master 21g described above.
The device name and the device type described above are assigned.
In the processing in FIG. 11, when the ID is, for example, “1”, it is understood from the device type master 21 h that the mountable device types are “type_a”, “type_c”, and “type_d”. The device part number corresponding to the device type of “KIKI_HIN1” and “KIKI_HIN” is obtained from the device master 21g.
3 ”,“ KIKI_HIN4 ”,“ KIKI_HIN5 ”
It can be determined that the device having the product number of can be mounted on the board.

The automatic design means 10 and 40 automatically recognize the arrangement position when arranging the mounted equipment on the drawing, and this will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. That is, the automatic design means 10 and 40
On-board device information is acquired from the database 20 as design information (S51), and loops for the number of on-board devices are executed (S51 to S57). The device model number is acquired from the acquired mounted device information (S53), and the device type corresponding to the device model number is acquired from the device master 21g described above (S5).
4) Acquire the device attribute information file 21i corresponding to the device type (S55).

The device attribute information file 21i as described above
Has a configuration as shown in FIG. 15, and corresponds to the device type, and includes a device part number, a symbol file name, an X coordinate, and a Y coordinate.
Coordinates, Z-coordinates, symbol widths, and the like are registered. These information are stored in a text file such as “type_a” if the device type is “type_a”.
a. txt ".

Then, the acquired device attribute information file 2
1i, the attribute information corresponding to the device is acquired (S5).
6) Recognize the arrangement position on the drawing based on the attribute information, that is, information such as X coordinate, Y coordinate, Z coordinate, and symbol width.

When it is necessary to continuously paste a plurality of identical devices on the drawing, the operation of pasting the device with the symbol width shifted from the coordinates of the previously pasted device is repeated.

The automatic design means 10 and 40 also automatically draw an outer frame showing the appearance of the board when drawing the board. This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. That is, the automatic design means 10 and 40
The standard product number is searched from the database 20 (S6).
1) An ID corresponding to the searched product number is obtained from the aforementioned product number master 21f (S62).

The product number master 21f has a configuration as shown in FIG. 17, and a standard name and an ID are assigned to each product number of the standard product. Next, the automatic design means 10 and 40 open the outer frame master 21j (S63).

The outer frame master 21j has a configuration as shown in FIG. 18, and corresponds to each part number of a standard product, and includes, as outer frame information, a front view symbol file name, a top view symbol file name, and a side view. The symbol file names are registered, and the length, width, depth, and the like are registered corresponding to these file names.

Then, the outer frame information corresponding to the obtained ID is obtained from the outer frame master 21j (S64), and the outer frame of the board is drawn based on the information.

The estimated price calculating means 18 may not only calculate the amount of money required for manufacturing the board by the above-described processing (see FIG. 5), but may also be able to calculate by the following processing.

Therefore, the price rule master 21a is configured as shown in FIG. Price rule master 2
In 1aa, a standard price and a manufacturing price are registered for each board. In the price rule master 21ab, the factors of the price increase / decrease are defined as price determining factors, and the increase / decrease value is registered for each price determining factor. In the price rule master 21ac, a sales area and a maximum discount price are registered for each board. As the maximum discount price, a value corresponding to the authority of the logged-in user (client) is extracted from the master file 21 and set. In the sales district, the district to which the logged-in user belongs is extracted from the master file 21 and set.

The estimated price calculating means 18 performs the following processing using such a price rule master 21a. That is, among the component device information read from the database 20, the standard price and the production price corresponding to the board part number are calculated from the price rule master 21aa, and the read component device information corresponds to the price rule master 21ab. It is determined whether there is a price determining factor to be performed, and if so, the calculated standard price and manufacturing price are increased or decreased based on the corresponding increase / decrease value. Then, referring to the price rule master 21ac,
The final price is determined by the sales district and the discount authority assigned to the user.

Each time the estimated price calculating means 18 finds a price determining factor, it stores the factor in the standard part number data change frequency database 20c. Here, the factor storage count is also stored. When the factor count exceeds a predetermined threshold, the following operation is performed. This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

That is, the estimated price calculating means 18 calculates the price determining factor into the standard part number data change count database 20c.
Then, the number of times of storage, that is, the number of times of changing the component device information of the standard product is acquired (S71). If the number of times exceeds a predetermined threshold (S72), the database 20 Acquire device information (S7
3) The product number information is created based on the acquired mounted device information (S74), and the created product number information is registered in the product number master file 21f as new standard product information (S7).
5).

Next, a board design method using a communication network will be described. With the configuration shown in FIG. 1, a board such as a distribution board or a distribution board can be designed from the terminal device C via a communication network, and a drawing or a form can be created.

When it is detected that all of the information necessary for designing the board has been input from the terminal device C, the drawings, names, arrangements, sizes, etc. of the equipment constituting the board are generated as an equipment configuration information file. Based on this, the board design and form creation are performed automatically.

FIG. 21 shows the operation at this time. When the product number of the standard product is input (S81), the standard product master 21b of the master file 21 is referred to and the standard product as shown in FIG. An article configuration screen is created (S82). When there is a device change input on this screen (S83), device change registration is performed in the device information database 20a of the database 20 (S84). This is repeated until all the device information is collected (S83 to S85). The determination as to whether or not the device information has been completed is made with reference to the necessary information master 21c of the master file 21.

Next, the operation status data is read from the operation status database 20b of the database 20 (S8).
6), a processing device 1 in charge of automatic design based on the operation status
4 is determined (S87). When the responsible device is determined, the operation status data in the operation status database 20b is updated (S30).
88), and creates the component device information file 24 (S8).
9). If the drawing / form file 25 is created based on the component device information file 24, it is output to the terminal device C side (S90, S91).

FIG. 22 is a drawing corresponding to S90 in FIG.
It details the form creation process. When the component device information file 24 is created (S101), the master file 21
A drawing model file is created with reference to the drawing / form master 21d (S102). The drawing template file is a file composed of only data such as description columns and frames in the drawing.

Then, the component device information file 24 is read (S103), the automatic design program (automatic design means) is started (S104), and the form program (form form creation means) is started (S105). The created drawing / form document is recorded in the recording means 2 as a drawing / form file 25.

FIG. 24 shows the operation of performing the distributed processing of board design and form creation in accordance with the operating status of each of the plurality of processing devices 1 and 4 (S86 to S in FIG. 21).
88).

When there is an automatic creation request (S111), the main processing unit 1 reads the operation status data from the operation status database 20b (S112), and determines the devices 1 and 4 to execute the automatic design process (S113). Further, storage destination information of the component device information file 24 is obtained (S11).
4). When the component device information file 24 is created (S115), the operation status data is updated (S11).
6).

FIG. 25 shows the operation status database 20b.
3 shows an example of the configuration. The operation status data shown here is composed of a device name, an operation flag, a waiting number, and a storage destination of the component device information file 24. When the operation flag is “1”, it indicates that the operation is in progress,
“0” indicates “not operating”. The waiting number indicates the number of pages for which a drawing or a form has not been created or output. When the component device information file 24 is stored in the component device information file storage location, each of the processing devices 1 and 4 starts processing.

FIG. 26 shows an example of the operation of the determination processing (distributed processing) of the apparatus for performing the automatic design processing. From the operation status database 20b, the operation flag and the number of waiting sheets information are read for the design processing devices (S121 to S12).
5) If the operation flag indicates “not in operation”, the drawing process is started (S128), the operation status flag is updated to “in operation” (S129), and the number of waiting sheets is updated (S127).
On the other hand, if there is no idle device, the standby number is updated in order to perform drawing with the device having the minimum standby number (S
126, S127). That is, the number of figures to be newly drawn is added to the current waiting number.

Each of the plurality of processing devices 4 starts designing a board and creating a form by detecting that the constituent device information file 24 has been stored. Accordingly, each processing device 4 includes a storage unit for storing the component device information file 24 and a monitoring unit (program) for monitoring whether the component device information file 24 is stored in the storage unit.

FIG. 27 shows an example of the drawing processing operation in each of the processing devices 1 and 4. When the component device information file 24 is created (stored) (S131), the drawing name to be created is read from the component device information file 24 (S131).
132), the master drawing name is read (S133). The master drawing is read from the drawing / form master 25 and copied with the created drawing name (S134). The copied drawing is opened and a drawing process is performed (S135). When the drawing is completed, the component device information file 24 is deleted (deleted) (S136), and the operation status data is updated (S13).
7). Specifically, the number of waiting sheets is subtracted, and when the number of waiting sheets becomes “0”, the operation flag is set to “not operating”.

Next, another example of the board designing method will be described. When designing a board, weights such as the type of drawing and area of each device are obtained with reference to the device configuration information file 24, and drawings are created according to the weights. In addition, the weight of the drawing of each device is obtained, and when the drawing of all the devices does not fit on one page, a drawing divided into a plurality of pages is created according to the weight. For example, the weight is first determined by the type of the figure such as the front view or the side view.
Next, the weight increases as the area increases.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing the above operation. The device information database 20a is read (S141), and the area of the corresponding block on the drawing is calculated with reference to the block arrangement master 21e of the master file 21 (S142). Next, the blocks are sorted in order of weight (S143), and information on the devices constituting the blocks is obtained (S144). Then, the following processing is repeated for the number of constituent devices (S145 to S150).

First, the sum (S) of block area units is determined (S146). If the sum is equal to or larger than the maximum area (Max) that can be recorded on one page, a process of describing a page flag in the component device information file 24 is performed (S148), and the device information is stored in the component device information file 24. Otherwise, the device information is described in the component device information file 24 without describing the page flag (S149).

FIG. 29 shows an example of the configuration of the component device information file 24. Here, the information of each device includes a file name, coordinates to be arranged, a color, and the like.
In this drawing, the drawing is divided into two pages.

FIGS. 30 to 32 show examples of design drawings of the distribution board designed by the automatic design means 10. The design drawing shown in FIG. 30 includes an upper side view Z1, a processing view Z2,
It is composed of a front view Z3, a lateral side view Z4, an internal unit layout view Z5, a lower side view Z6, a wiring diagram Z7, and a replacement device list Z8.

When an attempt is made to add a load name diagram to the design diagram of FIG. 30, it cannot be accommodated on one page, so that it is divided into two page diagrams shown in FIGS. 31 and 32. FIG.
The design drawing shown in FIG. 1 is composed of an upper side view Z1, a machining view Z2, a front view Z3, a side view Z4, an inner unit layout view Z5, and a lower side view Z6, and the design shown in FIG. The figure includes a load name diagram Z9, a wiring diagram Z7, and a replacement device list Z8. In FIG. 19, the load name diagram Z9 corresponds to the wiring diagram Z7.
Since the weight is larger than that of the reconfigurable device list Z8, it is arranged above the wiring diagram Z7 and the reconfigurable device list Z8.

[0086]

As can be understood from the above description, in the board designing apparatus using the communication network according to the first to twelfth aspects of the present invention, the design start identifying means uses the database for designing the board. When it is determined that all the necessary information has been stored, the design of the board and the creation of the form are automatically started by the design means and the form creation means.
The board can be designed from a remote terminal device, the system can be expanded, and the terminal device can be designed without any kind of design start operation just by inputting data to the displayed screen. The design process can be executed automatically.

In particular, in claim 2, each of the plurality of processing devices is provided with a design means and a form creation means, and executes distributed processing of board design and form creation according to the operation status of each processing device. As a result, there is no load on the design device.

According to the third aspect, since the processing contents can be changed and the display screen can be changed for each terminal device, different operations for each terminal device can be performed in parallel. According to the fourth aspect, in the terminal device, a changed portion between the input information and the information of the standard product can be known, which is useful in designing.
According to the fifth aspect, it is possible to calculate the amount of money required for manufacturing the board and create a form to which this amount is added.

Further, when the input design information does not match the design information previously stored in the database, it is determined that the design information has been changed, and the design information is input. The time, the input user name, the input screen name, the database name, the information that did not match, etc. are stored in the storage means as a change history file, so that the system administrator or system developer
Which user has changed which data and how can be easily grasped.

According to the present invention, when a trouble occurs, trouble information including information such as the name of the screen in which the trouble occurred, the trouble history, and the name of the trouble occurred is transmitted to a pre-registered transmission destination. By registering a system administrator and a system developer, the system administrator and the system developer can easily confirm a trouble that has occurred during the operation of the apparatus and take an immediate action.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, a device that can be mounted on the board is searched for based on at least information on the standard product stored in the master file, and the searched device that can be mounted is displayed on the screen. The possible devices can be understood at a glance, and the change input of the device is extremely easy.

According to the ninth aspect, the arrangement of the device on the drawing is determined based on the attribute information of the device, so that the device can be arranged on the drawing at an optimum position.

According to the tenth aspect, since the outer frame of the board corresponding to the predetermined identification number corresponding to the part number of the standard product is searched, the front view and the side view of the board can be automatically drawn.

According to the eleventh aspect, when calculating the amount of money required for manufacturing a board, if there is a predetermined price determining factor from the design information of the database, the factor is also taken into consideration. Can be.

In the twelfth aspect, when a pricing factor is found in the eleventh aspect, the factor is stored in the database. If each factor is stored in the database a predetermined number of times, the design of the database is performed. Since the information is stored in the master file as new standard product information, the design information customized by the user can be handled as a new standard product.

The board designing method using the communication network according to any one of the thirteenth to seventeenth aspects is characterized in that when it is detected that all the information necessary for designing the board has been input from the terminal device,
A device configuration information file is generated, and based on this, a board design and a form creation can be performed automatically.

In particular, according to the fourteenth aspect, the distributed processing of board design and form creation can be performed according to the operating status of each of the plurality of processing devices, so that the load does not concentrate on one processing device. .

According to the fifteenth aspect, each of the plurality of processing devices starts designing the board and creating a form by detecting that the component device information file is stored, so that the distributed processing can be easily realized. .

In claim 16, a drawing is created according to the weight of the type, area, etc. of the drawing of each device. In claim 17, when the drawing of all devices does not fit on one page,
Since a drawing divided into a plurality of pages is created, a design drawing in a desired format can be created.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a board design apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a main part of the board design device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the board design device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another example of the operation of the board design device.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation of the board design device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a price rule master.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a form.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation example of a design information storage unit.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of a trouble notification unit.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a trouble information transmission screen.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an operation example of an HTML-type input screen providing unit.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a device type master.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a device master.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of an automatic design unit.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a device attribute information file.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the automatic design means.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a part number master.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an outer frame master file.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing another configuration example of the price rule master.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of an estimated price calculation unit.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the board design method.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation of the board design method.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a standard product configuration screen.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation of the board design method.

FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an operation status database.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation of the board design method.

FIG. 27 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation of the board design method.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation of the board design method.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a component device information file.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing an example of a board design drawing.

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing another example of the board plan.

FIG. 32 is a diagram showing another example of the board design drawing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main processing apparatus 10 Automatic design means 11 Report creation means 12 HTML type input screen providing means 13 Terminal information storage means 14 Design information storage means 15 Automatic design start identification means 16 Design information display means 17 Trouble notification means 18 Estimated price calculation means 2 Recording device 20 Database 21 Master file 22 Reference drawing library 23 Report library 3 Storage device 30 Client-specific information storage unit 4 Sub-processing device 40 Automatic design means 41 Report creation means C Terminal device (client)

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Daisuke Tomisaki 1048 Odakadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. Inventor Yoshimi Kamon 1048 Kadoma Kadoma, Kadoma-shi, Osaka Matsushita Electric Works F-term (reference) 5B046 AA07 CA06 DA02 KA02 KA05 KA06

Claims (17)

[Claims] 1. A terminal device via a communication network,
A panel design device that designs panels such as distribution boards and switchboards, and creates drawings and forms.A database that stores design information, and standard products such as equipment and parts required in advance for panel design File that stores the information of the reference drawing in advance, the form library that stores the information of the form in advance as the reference, and the terminal device that is the input source of the design information of the board Storage means for storing information necessary for processing, such as the information of the terminal, input screen providing means for providing information on a screen for inputting board design information to the terminal device, and information on the terminal device from which the design information is input Terminal information storage means for storing the design information input from the screen provided by the input screen providing means in the database; and design information storage means for storing the design information input from the screen provided by the input screen providing means in the database. Design start identifying means for determining that all necessary information is stored in the database; design means for designing a board based on design information input from the terminal device; A form creation means for creating a form based on the design information; and a design information display means for displaying a design result on a terminal device, wherein the design start identification means stores the information necessary for board design in the database. A board designing apparatus using a communication network, wherein when it is determined that everything is stored, board designing and form creation are automatically started by the designing means and the form creating means. 2. A system according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of processing devices having said design means and said form creation means, and performing distributed processing of board design and form creation in accordance with the operation status of each processing device. A board designing apparatus using the communication network according to claim 1. 3. The storage unit stores information on a terminal device from which design information is input by the terminal information storage unit, and the operating status is dynamically stored for each terminal device. The board designing apparatus using a communication network according to claim 1, further comprising an information storage unit, wherein a processing content can be changed and a display screen can be changed for each terminal device. 4. When the design information input from the screen provided by the input screen providing means does not match the information of the standard product stored in the master file, the input screen providing means changes the information. The board design apparatus using a communication network according to claim 1, wherein the location is displayed on a terminal device. 5. An estimated price calculating means for calculating an amount required for manufacturing a board by referring to the master file based on the design information stored in the database by the design information storing means, 2. The board designing apparatus using a communication network according to claim 1, wherein the form creation means creates a form. 6. The design information storage means changes the design information input from the screen provided by the input screen providing means to the design information when the design information does not match the design information previously stored in the database. Is determined, the time at which the design information was input, the input user name, the input screen name, the database name, the information that did not match, and the like are stored in the storage means as a change history file. A board designing apparatus using the communication network according to claim 1, characterized in that: 7. When a trouble occurs during board design in the terminal device, trouble information including information such as the screen name where the trouble occurred, the trouble occurrence history, and the name of the trouble occurred is created, and the created trouble information is saved. The board design apparatus using a communication network according to claim 1, wherein the board is transmitted to a pre-registered destination. 8. The input screen providing means calculates a predetermined identification number from the master file based on at least information on a standard product stored in the master file, and a device type corresponding to the identification number. 2. The communication network according to claim 1, further comprising: searching for a device mountable on the board based on the device type; and displaying the searched mountable device on the screen. Panel design equipment used. 9. The design means acquires device information from the design information stored in the database, and acquires a device type corresponding to the device from the master file based on the device information. 2. The communication network according to claim 1, wherein attribute information of the device corresponding to the device type is obtained, and the arrangement of the device on the drawing is determined based on the attribute information. Board design equipment. 10. The design means searches the master file for a predetermined identification number corresponding to a part number of a standard product stored in the database, and then searches an outer frame of a board corresponding to the searched identification number. 2. The board designing apparatus using the communication network according to claim 1, wherein the board design apparatus searches for. 11. When calculating the amount of money required for manufacturing a board, the estimated price calculating means includes a factor corresponding to a predetermined price determining factor stored in the master file from design information of the database. 6. The board designing apparatus using a communication network according to claim 5, wherein it is determined whether or not there is a corresponding factor. 12. The estimated price calculation means stores the relevant factor in the database.
12. The communication network according to claim 11, wherein if each factor is stored in the database a predetermined number of times, the design information of the database is stored in the master file as new standard product information. Panel design equipment using. 13. A board design method for designing a board such as a distribution board or a distribution board from a terminal device via a communication network to create a drawing or a form. When it is detected that all the necessary information has been input, the drawings, names, layouts, sizes, etc. of the devices that make up the board are generated as a device configuration information file, and based on this, the board is designed and a form is created. Automatically using a communication network. 14. A board design method using a communication network according to claim 13, wherein distributed processing of board design and form creation is performed in accordance with the operation status of each of the plurality of processing devices. . 15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein each of said plurality of processing devices starts designing a board and creating a form by detecting that said constituent device information file is stored. A board design method using the communication network described in the above. 16. When designing the board, a weight such as a drawing type and an area of each device is obtained by referring to the device configuration information file, and a drawing is created according to the weight. A board design method using the communication network according to claim 13. 17. When designing the panel, refer to the device configuration information file to determine the weight of the type, area, etc. of the drawing of each device, and if the drawing of all the devices does not fit on one page, 17. The board design method using a communication network according to claim 16, wherein a drawing divided into a plurality of pages is created according to the weight.