JP2002140345A - Method for supporting generation of component manual - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method which can accurately cover information to be entered in a manual according to the specifications of a product and is easily adaptive to design modifications, etc., and to provide a method which easily finds the most suitable existing original to be diverted by used without depending upon the experience, etc., of an original creator and allows the original prepares to effectively use the existing original. SOLUTION: To generate a manual of a product, itemized index data determined by the chapters, paragraphs, components, etc., of the manual are determined according to the specifications of the product. An original to be diverted corresponding to the index data is retrieved from an original database and displayed as manual original data on a display screen while the itemized index data and the related original data by groups are made to correspond to each other. When the manual original data are corrected, the original data may be corrected on the display screen by inputting correction data or the manual original data may be determined when no correction is needed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of using a manuscript for explaining a product, a method of supporting the preparation of a part description, a support system for preparing a part description, and a computer-readable program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the case of newly creating a part manual (manual) of a product, it is often effective to divert and refer to an existing manual in part. In such a case, a method is generally used in which an existing manual is referenced, supplemented, partially changed, etc., and incorporated into a part of a new manual.

[0003]

[0005] By the way, when searching for a document to be diverted or referred to from existing manuals, it depends on the individual experience and memory of the creator, and it is relatively experienced with the skilled person. There was a large difference from those who were shallow, and there was variation in the determination of the optimum diversion source and the work efficiency.
In addition, according to the conventional method, an existing manuscript to be diverted or referred to is copied on a paper basis, and the manuscript creator performs redline correction and the like. DTP to change the data to DTP data
An operator was required separately.

Conventionally, after collecting materials such as a specification of a product for which a manual is to be prepared, the specifications of the product are determined with reference to the material according to a destination, a grade, and the like. According to the specifications, a method of organizing information for creating a manuscript of a manual and determining contents to be covered on a paper basis has been performed. However, such a method requires specialized reading knowledge of the materials, and requires understanding of the relationships between the materials, and when these become complicated, it is possible to overlook the contents to be covered. . In addition, when a product design change or the like is performed after the information arrangement and the comprehensive content are determined, it is difficult to clarify the response, and the time required for creating a manual increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and a main object of the present invention is to provide a method and a production method capable of accurately covering information to be described in a manual and easily coping with design changes. Method that allows easy search for optimal existing data to be diverted or referenced without depending on the experience and memory of the author, and that the existing data can be used effectively by multiple authors, and furthermore, those methods And a computer readable program.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems and Action / Effect To solve the above problems, the present invention provides a computer system having at least character data for explaining the contents of a product, a handling method, and the like. The original data is stored in the original database in such a manner that the original data can be classified into a plurality of group-based data (hereinafter also referred to as group-based explanation data), and an original search condition for searching the group-based explanation data is input. Based on this, search / read-out of the group-by-group description data that satisfies the input document-search condition is performed in the document database, and further, at least a part of the read-out group-by-group description data is output. And a method of using a manuscript for explaining the product.

As described above, if the existing document data is stored in the storage means for each group, and the data can be read out by inputting the document search condition, the user can determine the purpose of use. Only by inputting related search conditions, group-specific original data corresponding to a use purpose or a similar group can be extracted. The products referred to here are vehicles, machine tools,
Electric appliances and other various industrial products can be targeted.

[0008] Specifically, the explanation data for each group is grouped for each of the parts constituting the product, and explains the matters related to the parts, such as the contents, the handling method, the precautions, etc. regarding each part. Manuscript data (hereinafter,
(Also referred to as component description data). In this way, if the manuscript data is grouped for each part,
The manuscript data can be handled in units of parts, so that the data can be easily arranged. Furthermore, based on the fact that at least one of a plurality of components is specified as the document search condition, the component description data of the specified component may be searched and read. By doing so, for example, if the user inputs a target component as a search condition, component description data of a component that satisfies the search condition can be easily retrieved, and the target data can be searched quickly and accurately. Becomes possible.

The component description data may include image data such as still image data, moving image data, CAD data, and the like, audio data, or composite data of the image data and audio data. As described above, if image data and the like relating to a part are provided in each part description data, a searcher (original creator or the like) looks at the image data provided in the searched part description data and is intended. Since it is possible to judge whether or not the content is a text or the like, it is possible to intuitively judge the content without reading the content. That is, the search speed can be further increased, and the component name is not well known (or the searcher is not very familiar with the field to be searched), and the search from the name is difficult. Even if there is, search becomes possible.

[0010] Furthermore, a keyword,
Based on input of search character string data such as key sentences, search / readout of group-based original data having a character string identical or similar to the search character string data can be performed. . Specifically, for example, in a plurality of group-based manuscript data, in a form corresponding to each group-based manuscript data, summary data summarizing the manuscript contents of the corresponding group-based manuscript data is provided in advance, and the manuscript is prepared. Based on the input of the search character string data as the search condition, the summary data of the document data for each group is searched, and the digest having the same or similar character string as the search character string data Searching / reading of group-specific original data corresponding to data can be performed. In this way, if the summary data summarizing the characteristics of the group-based document data is provided so that the data amount is smaller than that of the group-based document data, the search time is greatly reduced.

The summary data is character data mainly composed of a second language different from a language serving as a reference of character data in the original data (hereinafter also referred to as an original data reference language). Based on the input of the character string data, the respective summary data of the description data for each group is searched, and the group related to the summary data having the same or similar character string as the search character string data Another explanation data can be read. As described above, if the language used as the reference of the manual and the language of the summary data are set to different languages, for example, it is extremely effective for creating a database of foreign language manuscript data and searching for the manuscript data. The language used as the reference for the manual is the language that is the main body of the text data other than the summary data in the component description data. Specifically, for example, if the manual reference language is a language other than Japanese and the second language is Japanese, for example, in Japan, English, French, German, Spanish, and various other foreign languages other than Japanese This is extremely effective when a Japanese searcher searches for manuscript data mainly composed of words. In other words, even if the search conditions are entered in Japanese, the manuscript data in a foreign language can be easily retrieved, so that the searcher does not need to translate the search conditions and, of course, searchers who are not familiar with foreign languages Even if the searcher is familiar with foreign languages, the search efficiency will be extremely high. A parts description is any function that describes a product in parts, such as the function of each part of the product, the method of use for each part, precautions related to the parts, and explanations related to other parts. Include.

Further, a host device provided with a document database, and a host device connected to the host device via a communication network.
Or using a plurality of terminal devices, based on that the document search condition is input at the terminal device, search and read the group-based document data related to the document search condition,
At least a part of the read document data for each group may be transmitted to a terminal device that is a source of the document search condition. This allows information stored in the manuscript database to be shared by a plurality of remote terminal devices. For example, when a manufacturer that manufactures a product requests a plurality of manual manufacturers to create a manual, It is possible to unify and maintain sentence expressions and translation quality among others. Further, since the existing manuscript data can be effectively used among the makers, it is possible to realize cost reduction, period reduction, quality improvement and the like in manual preparation.

[0013] The specification data of the product is stored in the specification database in the form of index data of items to be described in the manual for each product specification type such as the destination and grade of the product. Further, when the specification search condition is input, it is possible to search the specification database and read and output the specification data relating to the input specification search condition. In this way, if a product specification type such as a destination and a grade is input as a search condition, items to be described (an index of contents to be covered, specifically, for example, an index of parts to be covered, etc.) can be entered. Since it is possible to obtain the specification data including the information, the labor for investigating the items to be described can be greatly reduced. For example, by specifying a product specification type as a specification search condition and displaying a list of indices of components required in a specification satisfying the specification search condition, a component required in the target specification can be identified. It is not necessary to collect materials for picking up and examine the relevance of the materials, which greatly contributes to labor saving in manual creation. Further, if the necessary parts are displayed in a list as described above, oversight of the parts to be covered can be effectively prevented.

A host device having a document database;
Using the host device and one or more terminal devices connected via a communication network, based on the input of the specification search condition at the terminal device, the host device transmits specification data relating to the specification search condition to the host device. , And at least a part of the specification data may be transmitted to a terminal device that is a source of the specification search condition.
By doing so, the specification database is shared by a plurality of terminals, and the manual creation cost can be reduced.

The manuscript data is composed of a plurality of data elements.
It is configured to include simple explanation document data for simple explanation as a simple manual or the like, and furthermore, at least a part of data elements is given an attribute to be used for the simple explanation document data, and the attribute Can be output as the simple explanation document data. In this way, if only a part of the document data is extracted and shared with the document data for simple explanation such as a catalog, the creation of a catalog or the like can be easily performed.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to examples shown in the drawings. FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a manual creation system (hereinafter, also simply referred to as a system) 1. System 1 is
A communication network 702 such as the Internet, a host device 700 connected thereto via a relay device 701 (modem, router, etc.) as a transmission / reception means, and a relay device 752 (modem, router, etc., also as a transmission / reception means (FIG. 2) )) And a plurality of terminal devices 703 (hereinafter, also simply referred to as terminals 703 or electronic terminals) connected through the terminal 703).

The host device 700 is configured as a computer, has an I / O port 11,
The ROM 13, the RAM 14, the fixed storage device 22 including a hard disk drive and the like, the CD-ROM drive 4, and the like are connected (output devices such as a monitor and a printer, input devices such as a keyboard and a mouse, and a calendar clock are connected). May be). The fixed storage device 22 includes an application program (hereinafter simply referred to as an application) 24 for realizing the functions of the manual creation system 1 on a computer, and an operating system program (OS) for forming an operating environment on the computer. 23, and a database 25 used for various processes for manual creation.

The programs 23 and 24 and the database 25 are supplied in the form of being recorded on, for example, a CD-ROM (or DVD, or other movable recording medium) as a recording medium, and are supplied to a CD-ROM as a reading device. By setting it in the ROM drive 4 and activating a predetermined installation program (not shown) by the CPU 12, it can be installed in the fixed storage device 22.
Further, the installation program may be distributed from another server connected to the host device 700 via a communication network. The ROM 13 stores various basic programs for controlling hardware of the computer. Further, the RAM 14 has a fixed storage device 22.
A work area for each program stored in the ROM 13 is formed.

As shown in FIG. 2, each terminal 703 has an I / O port 751 and a C / C connected thereto.
A computer including a PU 754, a ROM 755, and a RAM 756; a keyboard 2 and a mouse 3 (other pointing devices may be used) as input means; a printer 6 having a printer controller (not shown) as output means; and a monitor controller 20 Is I / O port 7
51. A monitor 21 as an output unit having a display screen is connected to the monitor control unit 20. The terminal 703 may be configured as, for example, a desktop computer, but may be a laptop computer, a laptop computer, or a palmtop computer (PDA) using a battery or the like as a power supply unit.

Then, information (data) necessary for each process by the user (for example, document search conditions, specification search conditions, etc.) is input from the terminal 703 connected via the communication network 702. The communication processing on the terminal 703 side is shown in FIG.
The communication program work area 75 of the RAM 756 shown in FIG.
6a, and is executed by a predetermined communication program.
Information input by the keyboard 2 or the mouse 3 on the terminal 703 side (document search conditions, specification search conditions, etc.)
Is sent to the host device 700 via the communication network 702, where various processes by the application program 24 are executed. Then, the result of the processing (document data, specification data, etc.) is transmitted to the accessed terminal 703 via the communication network 702, and output to the printer 6 or the monitor 21 of the terminal 703 there. In addition, I / O via the amplifier 757 together with visual information from a monitor or the like.
Audio may be output from a speaker 758 connected to the O port 751. Specifically, the monitor 21 of the terminal 703 displays a graphic user interface (G
A terminal-side operation / display program for forming an operation / display screen by UI) is sent from the host device 700 to the terminal device 703, and the program is executed on the work areas 756a and 756b. In addition, the terminal device 703
Further, a hard disk drive (hereinafter, also referred to as HDD) as a fixed storage device including an operating system 753a for managing the terminal device 703, a browser 753c for accessing the host device 700 from the terminal side via the Internet or the like, and the like. 753). Further, the HDD 753 includes a database 753d for storing various data downloaded from the host device 700, and an application 753b for performing various processes related to manual creation in the terminal device. Original data and the like from the host device 700 are stored in the data memory 756c (database 753d).
May be stored in the file).

As a matter of course, the system 1 of the present invention can be constituted by a single computer as shown in FIG. In this case, the application program for realizing the function of the system of the present invention includes:
When stored in a recording medium such as a CD-ROM 10, C
A reading device such as the D-ROM drive 4 can be installed in a computer. It is also possible to connect this computer to a communication network and download and install an application program distributed from another distribution source computer connected to the communication network.

Returning to FIG. 1, the application 24 of the host device 700 plays a role on the OS 23 to realize each part of the system as the following means described in the claims. CPU 12: search means, data creation means Monitor 21: display means Fixed storage device 22: storage means, data storage means

Next, the configuration of the database will be described. 4 and 5 show an example of a database configuration for realizing the present invention. In this embodiment, the database includes a specification database 25a in which specification data relating to the specification of the product is stored as shown in FIG. The specification data has a data structure in which index data of items to be described in a manual is set for each product specification type such as a destination and a grade of the product. For example, FIGS. ). Note that the data configuration is not limited to this.

FIG. 5 shows a case where a vehicle is targeted as a product. As shown in FIG. 5 (a), specification data is individually set for a plurality of vehicle types in the specification database 25a. For example, FIG.
As shown in the specification data for vehicle type 1 in (b), there are multiple destinations and grades for specific regions (for North America, Europe, etc.), specific countries (for UK, Germany, etc.) for each vehicle type. It can be set, and the type of parts and the number of parts to be installed differ for each destination or for each grade. The specification type is not limited to the destination and grade, and various specification types such as a body shape, a transmission specification, an engine specification, and the like can be set as setting conditions. Then, specification types are set so that items to be described in the manual are determined.

For example, when the destination 1 and the grade A are designated in FIG. 5B, specification data corresponding to the designated specification type (specifically, one-to-one correspondence) as shown in the figure. (Specification A1) will be selected. In addition,
Other specification types (body shape, transmission specification, engine specification, etc.) may be used as the conditions for determining the equipment. Further, such specification data is, as shown in FIG.
Equipment index data indicating what equipment is required is in a form set individually for each specification type,
When the specification data is determined, equipment to be described in the manual is determined in one-to-one correspondence with the determined specification data. The equipment index data can be configured, for example, as shown in FIGS. FIG.
An example in which the equipment index data is displayed on a display screen is shown. In this display screen, "INSTRUMENTS"
AND CONTROLS "," AIRCONDIT "
IONING AND AUDIO "
Indices of a plurality of sections (section-based indexes 103) are provided, and in each section, “Key and doors”, [switch
es], a related component index 105 provided for each related component. Further, “keys” and “Wireless remote” shown in FIG. 13 are made dependent on each related component index 105.
A configuration including a component-specific index 107 such as “e control transmitter” may be employed. Then, a specification database having specification data enabling such a data configuration is used in a specification data search process for determining a configuration of a manual. Hereinafter, the specification data search processing will be described.

First, an outline of a method of creating a manual (parts manual) will be described. In this method, when creating a part manual such as an instruction manual and a repair manual of each part in a unit product configured as an aggregate of a number of parts such as an automobile, each part of the part manual created in the past Documents, drawings, images and other parts explanation data for each
Each part description data is stored in a form including a search term that allows the search. Then, when creating a specific part description to be newly created, instead of writing down the part description from the beginning (to reduce the effort to write down), the part number of the part that is the same as or similar to the part description・ By inputting the name / characteristic and other parts search terms, the description data of the specific part is searched from the stored set of parts description data, and if there is a corresponding one, the data is copied. Then, it is used as it is or edited as necessary to obtain component description data to be created. On the other hand, if the corresponding item is not found, the description data of the particular part is newly written down, and the former or both of the newly written down part description data and the edited part description data are further written down. Is stored in a searchable form as part explanation data for creating a part description of the first part, and is accumulated as a database. For example, when the data shown in FIG. 14 is retrieved as the corresponding component description data, and when the component description data is used as it is, the component description data is newly created component description document data. In the case of correction, addition, etc., a part can be corrected or newly written down by inputting characters on a display screen as shown in FIG. By adopting such a method, a manuscript to be diverted when creating a component description can be quickly searched out, and the manuscript can be immediately started on a display screen using the manuscript. Also, if the created component description document data is registered again in the database (document database) as component description data, it will be useful for creating a later manual (component description).

FIG. 6 conceptually shows the flow up to the determination of the configuration of the manual. Specifically, the relationship between the above-mentioned specification database and a specification data search process for searching for specification data stored in the specification database is described. The outline of the specification data search process is as follows. First, specification determining element data for determining a specification based on a vehicle specification, drawing information, product number information (vehicle type code, etc.) is stored in the specification database in advance as specification data as shown in FIG. . Then, the specification database 25a (FIG. 5) is searched based on the input of the specification search condition by the searcher (for example, a document creator using an existing document), and the specification data relating to the input specification search condition is obtained. Is read out and output. As shown in FIG. 1, when a search is performed from the terminal device 703 via the communication network 702, the specification data relating to the specification search condition is input based on the input of the specification search condition at the terminal device 703. Host device 7
At 00, the search is performed and read, and at least a part of the specification data is transmitted to the terminal device 703 that is a source of the specification search condition.

Referring to the flowchart of FIG. 7, first, when a specification data search process is started in the application, a specification search condition input screen is displayed on the monitor 21 (FIG. 2 or 3). (S11
0). When specification element determination data such as a destination and a grade of a product (a vehicle in this embodiment) for which a manual is to be created is input as a specification search condition,
Proceeding to YES in S110, the specification database 25a (FIG. 4 (a)) based on the input specification search condition.
Search). Specifically, specification data matching the input destination, grade, and the like is searched (S130). Then, if there is a corresponding one, S14
At 0, the process proceeds to YES, and the specification data satisfying the specification search condition is read and output by the output device (monitor 21: FIG. 2, etc.) (S150). If there is no corresponding item, it outputs that there is no corresponding item (S160). In addition, if there is no corresponding item, the process may be terminated, but a configuration in which the search can be performed again may be performed. In FIG. 7, if there is a re-search from the searcher side, the process proceeds to YES in S170, returns to S110 again, and repeats the process.

FIG. 8 illustrates a method of searching for specification data from the terminal device 703 connected to the specification database 25a (FIG. 4) via the communication network 702 by using the network form as shown in FIG. ing. Referring to FIG. 8, the flow of the specification data search process will be described. A site that is a prerequisite for starting the process is provided in advance on the Internet, and the terminal device 703 as shown in FIG. When accessed (S
210: YES), the specification search condition input screen is displayed on the display device (monitor 21) of the accessed terminal device 703 via, for example, the browser 753c (S220). Various screen configurations are possible for the specification search condition input screen, but any configuration may be used as long as the specification search condition can be input from the terminal device side. For example, a format in which the specification search condition is input in a character information input box displayed via a browser may be used. In the specification search condition input screen, for example, a list of specification search conditions for each genre is displayed. May be selected. For example, a list of destinations and grades may be displayed, and one of the destinations and grades may be selected from the list.

When the specification search condition is input, the process proceeds to YES in S230, and in S240, specification data satisfying the input specification search condition is searched in the specification database 25a provided in the host device 700 (S24).
0). If there is one that matches the input specification search condition, the process proceeds to YES in S250, and the searched specification data is read and output to the terminal device 703 that is the source of the specification search condition (S260). . The output method is, for example, the output device of the terminal device 703 (the monitor 2
1, a printer 6, etc.), a storage device (HDD provided on the terminal device side without output by the output device or together with output from the output device)
753) may be stored as a data file.

As described above, when the manual configuration information serving as the skeleton of the manual is determined, then detailed data inside the manual is created. In order to create the detailed data, the present invention realizes a method in which existing document data is stored in a document database in advance, and the stored document data can be effectively used as needed. Hereinafter, a method of using existing document data will be described.

First, the data structure of the document data will be described. FIG. 15 shows the structure of product-specific document data for a manual document of product A. This product manuscript data is composed of the main data that constitutes the main body of the manual manuscript and incidental items related to the product (for example, the location information of the head office, sales office, dealer, etc. of the manufacturer handling the product, or the manufacturer's data). And the like, name information such as the representative name). In the example of FIG. 15, the tag “business office list” is illustrated, but the present invention is not limited to this. Various general questions when using a product (vehicle in this embodiment) as incidental data are described. And a response thereto (a frequently asked question from the consumer and a response thereto) may be provided in the document data as Q & A information, which may be tagged with a “Q & A” tag. Various remarks data can be added to the product manuscript data. Examples of the remark data include, for example, diversion source instruction data indicating which product the diversion source of the product manuscript data relates to. Further, as shown in FIG. 15, term explanation data to which an attribute called term explanation is added may be provided. The term explanation data can be data describing terms appearing in product manuscript data. In addition, bibliographic data describing the bibliography appearing in the manuscript data may be provided (in FIG. 15, a tag “bibliography” is added).

Further, FIG. 15 shows a configuration in which the main data is divided into a plurality of chapter-specific manuscript data, and the chapter-specific manuscript data has a plurality of part description data grouped for each of the parts constituting the product. An example is shown. In the example of FIG. 12, section-specific data is provided in a form corresponding to the section index 103, and component description data is provided in a form corresponding to each component index 107 as shown in FIG. In addition, the component description data is further grouped by related fields and grouped,
Related field-specific data may be configured. For example, as shown in FIG. 12, related component description data (for example, “Key and
For example, data that aggregates related component description data, such as data corresponding to “door”, may be used as data for each related field, and section-based document data (for example, “SE”) provided in correspondence with the section-based index 103.
The data corresponding to “CT1” may be used as the data according to the related field. In any case, by associating the component description data and assembling them, any related field data can be configured. Also, various manual configurations can be adopted. For example, one or a plurality of sections may be integrated as a chapter, or no section may be provided.

The details of the data structure will be described with reference to FIG. 16. The component description data is composed of character information, and includes text data forming the main text of the manual, and still image data or moving image data by actual photography or CG. Alternatively, the configuration includes image data such as CAD data. Furthermore, summary data summarizing the features of the parts is provided. In the example of FIG. 16, the summary data is provided as data different from the text data, but a part of the text data may be used as the summary data. Further, the text data includes language-specific text data in the language of each country. Specifically, in addition to the Japanese text data, English, German, French, and Western text data are provided. The language is not limited to this, and can be any language.

Although the original data for each product is configured in a hierarchical structure as described above, a group serving as a reference for handling information may be of any hierarchy. That is,
The unit of the group read when the data is searched may be a chapter, a section, or a part. The text data may be read in paragraph units, or the image data may be read in file units.

Further, the original data can be divided into a plurality of data elements, and each data element has attribute data defining its own attribute. In this embodiment, the manuscript data is XML (Extensible Markup Language).
e) It is described in a format, and a set of data is represented by DTD (Document Type Definition), and each data set has an attribute. In particular,
The document data of each chapter (document data for each chapter) is given a tag of “Chapter” to give an attribute of “Chapter”. Similarly, a tag for giving an attribute of “Part” in the component description data is provided. A tag "parts" is set in the description data. As described above, a method of giving a tag to a data set to have an attribute is known in, for example, XML, and thus the detailed description thereof is omitted. However, the method is not limited to “chapter” and “parts”. As shown,
Attributes such as "Japanese text", "English text", and "German text" must be further attributed to data with attributes such as "text", "image", "summary", or "text". Can be. In this way, by providing a plurality of language-specific character data for describing products by language in the product-specific document data, data can be easily diverted even for products with overseas specifications.

Further, each language-specific character data may have more detailed attributes. FIG. 17 shows a configuration in which English text data is further subdivided to have attributes. In other words, in each language character data, a descriptive sentence data consisting of explanatory texts of parts and the like is tagged with "explanatory text", a cautionary sentence that calls attention in the manual is tagged with "advisory text" The warning text that warns the manual user is provided with a tag “warning text”. On the other hand, in the image data, the still image data tag has the “still image” tag, the actual image data has the “real image” tag, the CG data has the “CG” tag, and the CAD data has the “CAD” tag. It is set and defines the attribute of each image data. The manuscript data is a narration of the character data, etc.
It has audio data such as sound effects such as CG data, and the audio data is tagged with “audio”. The audio data may be combined with actual image data, CG data, or other image data to form composite data. In this way, for example, in a manual of a vehicle, when a loud sound effect such as an airbag is described, it is possible to intuitively understand what kind of sound is generated and how loud the sound is. The status can be transmitted more accurately.

As to the document data to which the attribute is given as shown in FIGS. 15 to 17, when the attribute is specified as the search condition, data of only the specified attribute can be output. For example, when the attribute “Japanese text” is set as a search condition, only Japanese text data for each component is output. When the attribute “still image” is used as a search condition, only a still image is searched and output. Note that a search range can be narrowed by multiplying a plurality of attributes. As shown in the English text data of FIG. 17, the text data includes a plurality of paragraph data as data elements, and handles data in paragraph units. further,
The text data is composed of explanatory text data consisting of explanatory texts of parts, etc., cautionary text data consisting of cautionary statements when using the product, and warning text data consisting of warning texts when using the product. it can. For example, in FIG.
An example is shown in which a part of the document data for each product is output by an output device (the monitor 21, the printer 6, etc.). In this figure, paragraphs P ₂₁ and P ₂₄ indicate sentences based on cautionary sentence data, paragraph P ₂₂ outputs warning sentence data, and paragraph P ₂₃ outputs explanatory sentence data. The image data PIC2 is data to which still image data is output. The data configuration of the document data is not limited to the above example. In addition, a character string such as a predetermined word or idiom may have an attribute, and a character string to which the attribute is assigned (hereinafter, also referred to as an attribute-added character string) may be searched by attribute. For example, FIG.
In the case of the manual of the vehicle type AA, the word data (word W) of the part that becomes the vehicle type name includes, for example, “vehicle type name”
Tag can be given to have an attribute. In this way, for example, when this original data is applied to a manual of another model, the "model name"
It is possible to collectively convert the parts to which the tag is added to another vehicle type name, which is extremely efficient.

FIG. 9 conceptually shows the flow of examination and determination of a manual document. The outline of the process is as follows. First, image data such as illustrations and original data (text data,
The summary data) is stored in the manuscript database 25b (see FIG. 4A) in such a manner that it can be classified into data for each group as described above. Note that the phrase "can be classified into data for each group" means that the manuscript data can be handled for each predetermined data set, and any attribute may be used for the grouping. . Then, based on the input of the document search condition for searching the group-by-group description data, the search / search of the group-by-group description data satisfying the input document search condition is performed.
Reading is performed by the original database, and at least a part of the read description data for each group is output by a display device such as a monitor. The document data stored in the document database is stored in the XML format or in a file format that can be easily converted to the XML format. Various modes such as a CD-ROM and Internet contents can be easily handled.

Next, the flow of a document data search process in which a manual creator or the like searches for and obtains a document required for manual creation will be described with reference to FIG. With the start of the process, first, an input screen for inputting document search conditions is displayed on the display device (monitor 21) (S310). When a document search condition is input on the document search condition input screen, YE is determined in S320.
In S, the group database 25b is searched for group-based document data that satisfies the input document search condition (S330). For example, when the component description data is group-based document data as shown in FIG. 4, based on the fact that a component is specified as a document search condition, component description data relating to the specified component is searched. Further, in the search, if there is a document that satisfies the input document search condition, the process proceeds to YES in S340, and the corresponding group-based document data is read from the document database 25b (FIG. 4A), and the monitor 21 (FIG. 2 or FIG. 3) is output (S350). If there is no corresponding item in S340, "not applicable" is displayed on the monitor 21 (FIG. 2 or 3) (S360). In any case, when the response to the input document search condition is completed, in S370, the searcher determines whether or not it is desired to acquire another group-by-group description data (in other words, whether to end the search). When a response is received to end the search, the document data search process ends. Further, when searching, the process proceeds to NO in S370, and
The processing from 310 to S370 is repeated. FIG.
0 can be applied to a communication network configuration as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 or a single computer configuration as shown in FIG.

As the document search condition, various search methods can be applied. For example, when one of the components constituting the product is specified by the input device, the component description related to the specified component is specified. Data can be searched and read. In this case, the component description data is the group-specific description data. In the input of the document search condition (that is, the input of the designated component), the image data of a plurality of components is displayed as a list, for example, as a thumbnail image, and the image data of any component is designated as the document search condition. Based on this, search / readout of component description data related to the designated image data may be performed. Note that what is displayed in the list is not limited to a still image of a component, but may be image data such as CG, CAD, and actual photograph data. Alternatively, the component names may be displayed in a list without displaying the image data in a list, and the component names may be directly input as characters.

Further, the component description data is further grouped in a form grouped by related fields, and when any one of the related fields is designated, the related field data relating to the designated related field is searched and read. It may be. In this case, the related field data becomes the group description data. In addition, as described above, the related component index 1
When the related part description data provided in correspondence with the related part 05 (see FIG. 12) is set as the data according to the related field, any of the related parts (for example, “Key and door” or the like)
Is specified, related component-specific data corresponding to the specified related component is retrieved. Also,
When the section-based manuscript data provided in correspondence with the section-based index 103 (see FIG. 12) is set as the data related to the relevant field, information specifying any one of the sections (for example, part or all of the section title, etc.) ), It is possible to call up the section-specific original data according to the designation. In any case, the index and the description data for each group are displayed in correspondence with each other as shown in FIG. 14, and the document is corrected, added, and determined on the screen as described above.

Further, as a document search condition, a keyword,
Search character string data such as key sentences is configured to be inputtable, and search / read of group-based explanation data having the same or similar character string as the input search character string data Can be done. For example, the keyword "REMOTE CON CON
When "TROL" is input, the "R"
The document data for each group having the keyword "EMOTE CONTROL" (keyword K: FIG. 14) is output. The output unit is, for example, as shown in FIG.
4 may be output as a whole.
As the fourth paragraph P _12, it may be output to paragraph with the keyword.

Further, a configuration is provided in which summary data summarizing the features of components is provided for each component description data. Then, when the search character string data is input as the document search condition, the summary data of each component description data is searched based on the input search character string data, and the same summary data as the search character string data is searched. Alternatively, it is possible to search and read out component description data including summary data having similar character strings. The summary data can be configured with a smaller character data amount than the component description data. In addition, a configuration may be provided in which a search character string set in which a plurality of character strings such as a keyword and a key sentence of the part are set in association with the part description data. Then, when the above-described search character string data is input, by searching only the summary data of each part, the time required for full-text search can be greatly reduced. Further, even when the search character string set is searched when the search character string data is input, the same effect as the search of the summary data can be obtained.

Further, the summary data is character data mainly composed of a second language different from the language serving as the basis of the text data in the manuscript data (hereinafter also referred to as the manuscript data reference language). Based on the input of the character string data, it is also possible to read out the description data for each group related to the summary data having the same or similar character string as the search character string data. As a specific example, for example, the text data can be English text data mainly composed of English, and the summary data can be Japanese summary data mainly composed of Japanese. If the searcher is Japanese, if the text data is in a language other than Japanese, the search string must be translated and then input into the language of the text data, which causes time and technical problems. there is a possibility. Even if the text data is different from the language possessed by the searcher, the summary data can be easily searched by making it correspond to the language.

FIG. 11 illustrates a case where the above-described document data search processing is performed via a communication network such as the Internet. In this document data search process, a search process is performed using a communication network such as the Internet, similarly to the above-described specification data search process. First, when the site is accessed (S410YE
S), an original search screen is displayed on the monitor 21 of the terminal device 703 (S420). A document database (see FIG. 4A) is provided in the host device 700 as shown in FIG. 1, and a terminal device 703 connected to the host device 700 via a communication network such as the Internet is used as a document search condition. When the above-described data (part designating data, search character string data, etc.) is input, the process proceeds to YES in S430, where the group-specific explanation data relating to the document search condition is searched and read, and the read group is read. At least a part of the separate explanation data is transmitted to the terminal device 703 that is the source of the document search condition.
The output format of the group-based document data may be such that data as shown in FIGS. 14 and 18 may be displayed on a browser screen on the monitor 21 provided in the terminal device 703, or such document data may be displayed. For example, the data may be transmitted to the terminal device 703 in an XML format, and may be directly stored in a storage medium such as an HDD provided in the terminal device 703. In addition, the terminal device is charged based on the transmission of the document data to the terminal device 703 or the request for transmission of the document data from the terminal device 703 to the host device 700. You may. The above description relates to output of document data from the host device 700 to the terminal device 703. However, for example, document data in XML format is transmitted from the terminal device 703 to the host device 700, and the transmission is performed. The document data may be stored in the document database 25b (see FIG. 4A) provided in the host device 700 based on the document data. That is, the document data can be stored and registered from the terminal device side.

A part of the stored original data for each product may be provided on the Web as a catalog or a simple manual. At least a part of the data elements constituting the manuscript data for each product is provided with an attribute for use in the manuscript data for brief description, and the data element to which the attribute is provided is described in a simple description such as a catalog or a simple manual. It can also be output as original document data.
In other words, some data elements in the product-specific document data form simple description document data whose data amount is smaller than that of the product document data. Specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 19, a tag “catalog” is added in advance to some data elements of each body data and some data elements of image data to be converted into the simple explanation document data. deep. Then, in the product manuscript data, if only the data element having the tag of “catalog” is searched, paragraph data, still image data, moving image data, and the like to which the tag of the catalog is added are searched. . Such brief description document data is output to the monitor 21 of the requested terminal device via a browser when, for example, information for obtaining the brief description document data is input from the terminal device 703. You can do it. The original data is written in VRML (Virtual Reality), which is a language specification for describing 3DCG.
ity ModelingLanguage) can be used on the Internet. By using this, in addition to 3D spatial representations such as coordinate data and shape data represented by polygons, light sources, viewpoint information, and textures, audio, video,
Can express text at the same time. In addition, it is possible to add various movements to the objects in the scene and to provide interactivity.

Further, a part of a plurality of data elements in the manuscript data for each product is provided with an attribute as a trouble diagnosis manuscript (repair manual) used for repair or trouble diagnosis. It may be configured to be able to output only the data element to which the attribute is given as the failure diagnosis data. As the failure diagnosis data, for example, “NO” in FIG.
The portions of “TICE” and “CAUTION” may be used as failure diagnosis data, and not limited thereto, and various originals (for example, data of an explanatory note to be referred to when a problem occurs) may be used as failure diagnosis data. . By assigning the attributes in this way, information as a failure diagnosis and repair manual is provided on the web, for example. By multiplying such failure diagnosis data by another search condition, failure diagnosis data suitable for the purpose can be obtained. Such failure diagnosis data is:
For example, technical advice data corresponding to a case where a problem occurs, such as "when the engine is not started" or "when the XX lamp is turned on", can be used.

The following functions as an educational support tool can be added to any of the manual creation methods described above. For example, at the time of search input of the system, the searcher is made to input identification information (ID, password, other personal information, etc.) for identifying the searcher. When a search is performed, the fact that the searcher has searched the group-specific original data can be stored. For example, the identification information of the searcher and the searched document data for each group can be stored in association with each other. In this case, it is possible to memorize which man has searched which manuscript and how many persons,
The search bias of the searcher can be understood, which is effective when, for example, it is desired to read the explanatory data of the product evenly, or when it is desired to know the search tendency of each searcher.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above.
The present invention is not limited to this, and is not limited to the language described in each claim unless it departs from the scope described in each claim, and extends to a range that can be easily replaced by those skilled in the art, and It is possible to appropriately add improvements based on the knowledge that those skilled in the art normally have.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a manual creation system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a terminal device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram in which the manual creation system of the present invention is configured by a single computer.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view conceptually illustrating a data configuration example of a database.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view conceptually illustrating a data configuration example of a specification database.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view conceptually illustrating a partial configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of a specification data search process.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating another example of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart conceptually illustrating the configuration following FIG. 6;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of a document data search process.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating another example of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a configuration example of index data.

FIG. 13 is a view following FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a specific example of component description data.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a configuration example of document data for each product.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a detailed example of FIG. 15;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing a detailed example of FIG. 16;

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of a part of document data.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing another example of a document data configuration for each product.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Manual creation system 12 CPU (search means, data creation means) 21 Monitor (display device, display means) 22 Fixed storage device (storage means, data storage means) 25 Database (document database, specification database) 700 Host device 702 Communication network 703 Terminal device

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (Reference) G06F 17/60 138 G06F 17/60 138

Claims (3)

[Claims] 2. Description of the Related Art In preparing a component manual such as an instruction manual and a repair manual for each component of a product constituted as an aggregate of a large number of components such as an automobile, a destination, a grade, etc. of the product. For each product specification type that is a type of specification, product specification data for determining item-specific index data determined for each item such as chapter, part, etc. is stored in a specification database,
When a specification search condition specifying the product specification type is input, the specification database is searched, and specification data including an index of a component to be covered according to the input specification search condition is read and output. On the other hand, documents, drawings,
Images and other parts description data are stored in a form that includes text data that constitutes the text of the parts manual and summary data that summarizes the features of the parts, and that includes a search term that allows searching for each part description data. When a specific part manual to be newly created is created, the part number, name, feature, and other part search term of the same or similar part are input, and the part search term is input. Only the summary data is retrieved from the stored set of component description data, and the description data of the specific component corresponding to the summary data is read from the storage unit. Data associated with the specification data read by the input of the specification search condition are displayed on the display screen as component instruction document data in association with each other; When correction data for editing the displayed component description data is input from the terminal device in the corresponding displayed state, the component description data is corrected on the display screen, and the corrected A component description creation support method, wherein the component description data is the component description data to be created. 2. A vehicle is targeted as the product, and a destination and a grade of the vehicle for which a part description is created are specified based on specification in the terminal device as a specification type. 2. The parts manual according to claim 1, wherein equipment to be described in the manual corresponding to the destination and grade is selected, and index data of the equipment to be described is displayed on the display screen as the part index. Creation support method. 3. The component description data is classified by product, and the component description data classified by product is composed of a plurality of data elements, and a part of the plurality of data elements includes: An attribute as a failure diagnosis manuscript used for repair or failure diagnosis is given. Further, based on input of the part search term relating to repair or failure diagnosis as a search condition, the stored component description 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising outputting, from the data, only data elements to which an attribute as a failure diagnosis document is added as failure diagnosis data.