JP2615622B2 - Drafting plotter - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drafting apparatus for drawing using a computer.

"Prior art" Conventionally, in a drafting apparatus such as CAD, generally,
An operator performs graphic processing on a display and is working on various designs and the like. The drafting data created in this way is printed out on paper and stored electronically in a magnetic disk device or the like. The drafting data is used to print out a drawing having the same contents again, or is saved for further rewriting.

Most conventional drafting and drafting machines use the lines that make up the drawing,
Only geometric data corresponding to graphic elements such as symbols and codes are handled as drafting data. However, the user's demands on the drafting and drawing apparatus tend to demand higher functions. Today, in addition to geometric data, if this geometric data corresponds to, for example, one screw used in the apparatus of the drawing, It has been attempted to simultaneously handle additional information data such as the material, weight, specific gravity, and price of the screw.

Such additional information data is not necessary if only a design drawing is created or printed out. However, the additional information data is effective in calculating the weight of the entire designed device, estimating the cost, and the like.

"Problems to be Solved by the Invention" Since such additional information data is data accompanying each geometric data representing a screw or the like in the drawing, when storing them in a database, both are integrated. Need to be stored. Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 6, a drawing data file 2 provided in a database 1 such as a magnetic disk contains geometric data 3 and additional information data 4.
In this case, a fixed data area is secured and stored. As shown in the figure,
The same applies to other drafting data files 2 '.

However, the additional information data is optional information,
Not all geometric data need additional information data. However, in such a system, a fixed storage area for additional information data must be ensured even for geometric data having no additional information data, and there is a problem that memory is wasted. This naturally leads to a demand for an increase in the capacity of the magnetic disk device and the like, which has caused an increase in cost. Further, since the area for storing the additional information data is fixed, there is also a problem that necessary information may not be completely stored.

On the other hand, it is conceivable that the storage area for the geometric data and the additional information data is not fixed but has a variable-length file format with redundancy. However, drafting data generally has a complicated data structure and a remarkably large amount of data, and there is a problem that the access response is deteriorated when redundancy is provided. For example, if the already created drawing data stored in the database is to be displayed on a display, the display takes a long time. Many computers today read data from magnetic disk drives and the like at a much slower speed than their arithmetic processing speeds. is there. This phenomenon becomes more remarkable as the data length of the drafting data becomes longer. Depending on the CAD OS (operation system), the response may degrade exponentially.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a drafting apparatus which stores drafting data efficiently and economically without impairing the access response.

[Means for Solving the Problem] The drafting apparatus according to the present invention includes a plurality of fixed-length geometric data corresponding to drawing elements constituting a drawing and variable-length additional information data including additional information on the drawing elements. An apparatus for storing drafting data configured as a set in a single database, and stores a group of fixed length data including geometric data of each drawing element and pointer information indicating a storage position of additional information of these drawing elements. Data storage means for separately storing a group of variable-length data comprising additional information data of each drawing element; reading geometric data and pointer information for each fixed-length data; and reading geometric data based on the read pointer information. Data access means for reading variable-length additional information data corresponding to the drawing element to be represented.

Here, the data storage means may divide one file in the database into a plurality of areas and store a group of fixed-length data and a group of variable-length data in different areas among these.

Further, the data storage means may store the fixed-length data group and the variable-length data group in different files in the database.

Further, in the invention according to claim 4, the data storage means includes geometric data of each drawing element, pointer information indicating a storage position of additional information of these drawing elements, and information indicating a length of fixed length data. This is means for storing a group of fixed-length data separately from a group of variable-length data composed of additional information data of each graphic element.

The data access means reads the geometric data and the pointer information for each fixed-length data based on the information indicating the length of the fixed-length data, and reads the variable-length data corresponding to the graphic element represented by the geometric data based on the read pointer information. May be a means for reading the additional information data.

[Operation] The above devices store the geometric data separately from the additional information data in the database. Therefore, when using only the geometric data, be aware of the existence of the additional information data. Therefore, the reading can be performed at high speed. Only when additional information data is needed, it is necessary to read it out. In this case, only the necessary additional information data is created, so that useless memory is not used.

Further, the geometric data and the additional information data pointer are stored together to associate the geometric data with the additional information data. Thereby, even when the geometric data and the additional information data are stored integrally in the same file,
Even when these are stored in separate files, the additional information data can be directly accessed using the additional information data pointer as a key.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a file configuration of a database used in a drafting drawing apparatus according to the present invention.

This database 1 contains two drafting data files
20, 21 are provided. In one of the drafting data files 20, fixed-length geometric data 30 is stored in order. The other drafting data file 21 stores variable-length additional information data 40 in order. Each of the drafting data files 20, 21 is provided with a postfix DR and an AT in order to identify the type of data stored in the file. DR indicates a file storing geometric data, and AT indicates a file storing additional information data. Although the post-identifier is used here, a pre-identifier may be used. For example, in a drafting and drafting apparatus that performs so-called tree-like file management in which files and directories are provided under directories, the contents of the files may be identified by directories or the like without using identifiers.

In the case of the apparatus of this embodiment, since the geometric data 30 and the additional information data 40 are stored in separate files, some relationship is established between the two files, and even if the operator is not aware, both files can be used. It is preferable that both can be accessed.

Details of the method of storing the geometric data 30 and the additional information data 40 of each of the drafting data files 20 and 21 shown in FIG. 1 are shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, respectively.

In FIG. 2, an ID code 31 for specifying the geometric data 30 in the file, a data length 32 of the geometric data 30, and an additional information data pointer 33 are added to the geometric data 30. The additional information data pointer 33 indicates a pointer address of the corresponding additional information data 40 in the drafting data file 21. Therefore, when reading the geometric data 30 and accessing the additional information data 40 related thereto, it is sufficient to read the additional information data pointer 33 and refer to the corresponding address in the drafting data file 21.

On the other hand, in FIG. 3, the additional information data 40 includes an ID code 41 for identifying the additional information data 40 in the file.
And the data length 42 are added. That is, in this embodiment, both the geometric data 30 and the additional information data 40 can be of variable length.

With the above-described file configuration, even though the geometric data and the additional information data are stored in separate files, it is possible to read the geometric data and directly access the additional information data. Moreover, such a file configuration is particularly advantageous for a drafting and drafting apparatus having an OS whose access time increases exponentially as the data length increases.

In addition, in FIG. 1, there is a case where the additional information data pointer 33 is not added to the geometric data 30. Such data is expressed without inserting the character P at the part of the additional information data pointer 33. That is, in FIG. 1, the third geometric data 30 from the top does not have the additional information data pointer 33. This is because no additional information data is required for the geometric data.
There is no need to secure an additional information data storage area for that. Therefore, the memory area of the magnetic disk device or the like is not wasted.

FIG. 4 shows the file structure of another embodiment of the present invention.

Here, only one drafting data file 23 is provided, and the file is divided into a geometric data section 24 and an additional information data section 25. The geometric data section 24, which is one of the sections, stores only the geometric data 30 in order. Further, the additional information data section 25 stores additional information data 40 in order. This geometric data 30
And the method of storing the additional information data 40 are the same as those shown in FIG. 2 and FIG.

In the case of such a file configuration, the geometric data 30 is read and the additional information data 40 is read in the same manner as described above.
Can be directly accessed. Further, if one file is divided and used as described above, the file management function is weak, and it is suitable for a drafting apparatus having an OS in which it is disadvantageous to divide one drawing data into two files. When processing only the geometric data, the file as shown in FIG. 1 and the file as shown in FIG. 4 access only the geometric data,
If only the additional information data is to be processed, only the additional information data needs to be accessed. Therefore, the physical access time of the magnetic disk device can be reduced to half that of the related art. As a result, the response can be significantly improved.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment in which a set of drafting data files 26 corresponding to a plurality of drawings is stored in a database. Thus, a plurality of drafting data files may be stored in the database. The present invention also relates to CA
It goes without saying that not only the D device but also an EWS (engineering workstation) having a CAD function can be effectively used.

[Effect of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a group of fixed-length data including geometric data and pointer information indicating a storage position of additional information of these drawing elements is converted from additional information data of each drawing element. Since the data is stored separately from a group of variable-length data, the geometric data and the additional information data can be individually accessed, and the access response can be improved.

In addition, since the fixed-length data group includes pointer information indicating the storage position of the additional information, it is not necessary to secure one area for storing the additional information for one piece of geometric data. Efficiency can be increased. Further, since pointer information is included in the group of fixed-length data, it is possible to directly access the additional information data at the stage of reading the geometric data.

Moreover, according to the present invention, the additional information data of the drawing element is stored as a group of variable length data separately from the group of fixed length data, so that the access response of the geometric data of the drawing element having a large data amount is impaired. In addition, additional information data corresponding to drawing elements can be read. Further, the area necessary for storing the additional information data can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a file configuration of a database used in a drafting apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a storage method of the geometric data, and FIG. 3 is a storage method of the additional information data. FIGS. 4 and 5 are explanatory diagrams showing a file configuration of a database showing another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a file configuration of a conventional database. 1 ... database, 20, 21, 23, 26 ... drafting data file, 30 ... geometric data, 33 ... additional information data pointer, 40 ... additional information data.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A drawing database comprising a plurality of sets of fixed-length geometric data corresponding to drawing elements constituting a drawing and variable-length additional information data comprising additional information relating to the drawing elements. A group of fixed-length data including geometric data of each drawing element and pointer information indicating a storage position of additional information of these drawing elements, wherein the group of fixed-length data includes variable information including additional information of each drawing element. Data storage means for storing separately from the group of long data; reading the geometric data and pointer information for each of the fixed length data; and a variable length data corresponding to the drawing element represented by the geometric data based on the read pointer information. A data access means for reading additional information data. 2. The data storage means according to claim 1, wherein one file in the database is divided into a plurality of areas, and the fixed-length data group and the variable-length data group are stored in different areas. A drafting apparatus according to claim 1. 3. The drawing / drawing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said data storage means stores said fixed-length data group and said variable-length data group in different files in a database. apparatus. 4. The fixed-length data storage device according to claim 1, wherein the data storage means stores fixed-length data including geometric data of each drawing element, pointer information indicating a storage position of additional information of these drawing elements, and information indicating a length of the fixed-length data. Means for storing a group separately from a group of variable length data comprising additional information data of each graphic element, wherein said data access means is for each fixed length data based on information indicating a length of said fixed length data. Means for reading geometric data and pointer information and reading variable-length additional information data corresponding to a graphic element represented by the geometric data based on the read pointer information. The drafting plotter according to the description.