JP2893439B2 - String display device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character string display device, and more particularly, to a character string display device, such as a circuit design system and a layout design system in a printed circuit board CAD system. The present invention relates to a character string display device suitable for use in transmitting the above information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when performing a layout design in a printed circuit board CAD system, a user of a layout design system prints out a sentence of an instruction for layout design set in the circuit design system on a piece of paper as an instruction. The layout design system user confirms the instruction and arranges components and wires nets (“net” indicates a logical connection relationship between components) on the screen of the graphic editing apparatus. (Note that on the screen, the parts are displayed by figures of an appropriate shape, and the nets are shown by lines connecting the figures showing the parts.)

[0003] That is, the instruction sheet is composed of sentences of layout design instructions added to components and nets, and indicates attributes of components and nets.

[0004] As described above, the user of the layout design system prints out the instructions indicating the attributes of the parts and the net on a piece of paper, and compares the instructions with the parts and the net on the screen of the graphic editing apparatus. The layout design work was being advanced, and information could be transmitted (communicated) between the circuit design system and the layout design system according to the instruction.

[0005]

However, as described above, in the method of communicating between a certain system and another system by using an instruction printed on a paper sheet as described above, the system user writes the instruction sheet into the paper sheet. It is necessary to separately perform an operation for printing out, and the operation becomes complicated, and it is necessary for the system user to look away from the screen of the graphic editing device or the like for each operation and check the instruction sheet For this reason, there is a problem that there is a high possibility that a reading error of the instruction book or an operation error on the screen occurs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned various problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an instruction for communication between a certain system and another system. In addition to simplifying the operation by eliminating the need to print out letters and other information on paper sheets, errors in reading instructions and operating errors on the screen caused by visually checking the instructions printed on paper sheets It is an object of the present invention to provide a character string display device in which the above is prevented.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a character string display device according to the present invention creates, edits, and creates graphic data having a first system and a second system. In the system capable of displaying, the first
A character string display device for reflecting a character string added in the second system on a screen in the second system, wherein the graphic data of the first system displayed on the screen of the first system is displayed. First system graphic data selecting means for selecting, and character string data adding means for adding character string data indicating a character string to the graphic data of the first system selected by the first system graphic data selecting means And first system storage means for storing the graphic data of the first system selected by the first system graphic data selecting means and the character string data added by the character string data adding means as a pair, The graphic data of the first system paired with the character string data stored in the first system storage means, A second system storage unit that converts the character string data into a pair of the graphic data of the second system and stores the pair, and a second system that selects the graphic data of the second system from the second system storage unit. 2 system graphic data selecting means; graphic data displaying means for displaying graphic data of the second system selected by the second system graphic data selecting means on a screen of the second system; Specifying means for specifying the graphic data of the second system displayed by the display means, and the character string data corresponding to the graphic data of the second system specified by the specifying means,
Searching means for searching from the second system storage means, and character string data displaying means for displaying the character string data searched by the searching means at a cursor position on a screen of the second system. It was done.

Further, the present invention relates to a design system capable of creating, editing and displaying graphic data constituted by a first system and a second system, wherein a design instruction added in the first system is provided. Can be applied to the case where the character string is reflected on the screen in the second system. In the printed circuit board CAD system, the character string for design instruction added in the circuit design system is displayed on the screen in the layout design system. It can be applied to the case where it is reflected above.

Therefore, according to the present invention, a character string added to a certain graphic in a certain system is specified by the graphic displayed on the screen of another system, thereby enabling the character string on the screen of another system to be specified. Since it can be displayed at the cursor position, there is no need to print out instructions etc. on a piece of paper when communicating with one system and another system, so the instructions printed out on a piece of paper can be used. This makes it possible to prevent the reading of the instruction book and the operation error on the screen due to the visual confirmation.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a character string display device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

A character string display device according to the present invention is, for example, as shown in FIG.
And CAD2 (12) can be applied to a system using two CADs.

In the following, CAD1 (10) and CA
D2 (12) constitutes a printed circuit board CAD system, and CAD1 (10) constitutes a circuit design system that designs a printed circuit board. CAD2 (12)
A case where a layout design system for designing the layout of a printed circuit board will be described.

In this case, according to the present invention, the CAD
In 1 (10), for a desired component and net, a character string of a design instruction indicating the attribute of the component and net is input, and a database 1 (1
4) stored in the database 1 for the circuit design system
The character string of the design instruction stored in (14) is reflected in the database 2 (16) for the layout design system.

When a character string is stored in the database 1 (14) for the circuit design system, graphic data indicating parts or nets for the circuit design system is replaced with characters indicating design instructions corresponding to the graphic data. String data representing a column is added. The graphic data stored in the database 1 (14) for the circuit design system is converted into graphic data for the layout design system and stored in the database 2 (16) for the layout design system. At this time, the character string data stored in the database 1 (14) for the circuit design system
The data is added to the graphic data for the layout design system and stored in the database 2 (16) for the layout design system while maintaining the correspondence between the parts and the net when the character string is input in the AD1 (10). Will be.

In CAD2 (12), parts and nets are displayed on the screen based on the graphic data stored in the database 2 (16) for the layout design system, and the parts and nets on the screen are designated. The database 2 (1
The character string data added to the graphic data corresponding to the specified component or net stored in 6) is referred to, and a character string based on the character string data is displayed at the cursor position on the screen.

That is, when a part or net to which the cursor is moved is specified on the screen of the layout design system,
A character string of a design instruction corresponding to a certain part or net designated by moving the cursor is displayed at the cursor position.

By displaying such a character string, CAD2
The user of (12) can easily understand the design instruction corresponding to the part or the net.

The configuration of the printed circuit board CAD system described with reference to FIG. 1 will be described in more detail from the viewpoint of internal processing. As shown in FIG. 2, in the circuit design system, the attributes of components and nets are A design instruction for adding the indicated character string to the part and the net is added, and a net list composed of the part and the net to which the design instruction is added is extracted.

Then, a layout database is created based on the extracted netlist, and the created layout database is reflected on the layout design system.

Further, in the layout design system, parts and nets are searched from the layout database and displayed on the screen, and when the parts and nets displayed on the screen are designated, the parts and nets are stored in the layout database. The character string based on the design instruction addition is displayed at the cursor position on the screen with reference to the design instruction addition corresponding to the designated component or net.

FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b) show display examples on the screen described above. Referring to the display examples shown in FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b), The design system constructs the circuit shown in FIG. 3A, and the character of a design instruction to arrange the component C5 (capacitor 5) on the circuit diagram as an attribute near the component IC1 (integrated circuit 1). Add the column "Place near IC1."

Then, in the circuit design system, a layout database is created based on the netlist extracted from the circuit diagram. In this case, the character string "IC1" should be placed in the design instruction. Is added to the component C5.

Based on such a layout database, a screen is displayed on the layout design system side. As shown in FIG.
When C1 is displayed and the part C5 is selected by the cursor and is brought into a drag state, a character string "Please place near IC1." Which is a design instruction of the part C5 is displayed at the cursor position.

Therefore, the user of the layout design system can automatically and forcibly confirm the design instruction indicating the attribute for each component such as the instruction and the attention to the layout intended by the user of the circuit design system. Therefore, such a design instruction can be surely reflected in the board design.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the specific operation of the printed circuit board CAD system to which the above-described character string display device according to the present invention is applied. In the following, the present invention will be described with reference to this flowchart. A specific operation of the printed circuit board CAD system to which the character string display device according to the above is applied will be described.

First, in the printed circuit board CAD system, the circuit design system is started (step S40).
2) The circuit diagram data in the database of the circuit design system is opened (step S404), and a command input wait state is entered (step S406), and the type of the input command is determined (step S408).
The processing between steps S406 to S426 is performed according to the input command.

That is, if the command input in the state of waiting for input is a coordinate value, a search is made for circuit diagram data on the coordinate value (step S410). Is determined (step S
412).

If the decision result in the step S412 is affirmative (yes)
s), that is, when the circuit diagram data is found on the input coordinate values, the found circuit diagram data is stored in the selected data buffer (step S414), and the state of waiting for the input of the next command is entered (step S414). Step S426).

On the other hand, the judgment result in step S412 is negative (no), that is, when the circuit diagram data on the coordinate value input in step S410 is searched, no circuit diagram data is found on the coordinate value. In this case, the process waits for the input of the next command without performing the subsequent processing.

If the command input in the input waiting state is an attribute edit command, it is determined whether or not there is data in the selected data buffer (step S41).
6).

If the result of the determination in step S416 is affirmative, that is, if there is data in the selected data buffer, it is determined what kind of attribute is to be edited (step S41).
8).

If it is determined in step S418 that the type of the attribute to be edited is a design instruction represented by an arbitrary character string including Japanese, the data in the selected data buffer specified by the attribute edit command is determined. The design instruction is added to (including the component or the net) (step S420), and the state is awaiting the input of the next command.

On the other hand, in step S 418, it is determined that the type of the attribute to be edited is an attribute other than the design instruction represented by an arbitrary character string including Japanese (for example, an ID name or a component value). In this case, step S418
(Step S422), and waits for input of the next command.

If the result of the determination in step S416 is negative, that is, if there is no data in the selected data buffer, the process waits for the input of the next command without performing the subsequent processing.

Further, if the command input in the state of waiting for input in step S406 is neither a coordinate value nor an attribute editing command, processing corresponding to the input command is performed (step S424), and the next command is executed. It will be waiting for input.

If the input command is an end command in a state of waiting for the input of the next command, the circuit diagram data in the database is closed (step S428), and the data in the selected data buffer is stored in step S420. The added design instruction is reflected on the layout data (step S430). Specifically, a net list is extracted from the selected data buffer, a design instruction is added to the extracted net list, and the extracted net list is output to a layout database of a layout design system.

Next, the layout design system is started (step S432), the layout data of the layout database is opened (step S434), and the data or command is awaited (step S436).
Then, it is determined whether or not data is designated on the screen by moving the cursor or the like (step S438). According to whether or not data is designated on the screen by moving the cursor, step S436 is performed. The processing from step S448 to step S448 is performed.

That is, from the judgment result of step S438,
If it is determined that data has been specified on the screen by moving the cursor while waiting for input, the data type of the input data is determined (step S440).

If the data type is a net or a component, that is, if a net or a component is selected by moving the cursor, it is determined whether or not a design instruction has been added to the net or the component. Is determined (step S442). Specifically, it is determined whether or not the design instruction reflected in the layout data is added to the input data in step S430.

If the result of the determination in step S442 is affirmative, that is, if a design instruction has been added to the selected net or component, the design instruction is displayed at the cursor position (step S444), and the next command is input. It will be in a waiting state.

On the other hand, if the result of the determination in step S442 is negative, that is, if no design instruction has been added to the selected net or component, the process waits for the input of the next command without performing the subsequent processing. . Therefore, in this case, naturally, the design instruction is not displayed.

Also, from the result of the determination in step S440,
If the data type of the input data is data other than a net or a component (for example, a dimension line or a character to be printed on a board), a state of waiting for the input of the next command without performing subsequent processing. Becomes Therefore, also in this case, the design instruction is not displayed naturally.

Further, if it is determined from the result of the determination in step S438 that data has not been specified on the screen by moving the cursor in the state of waiting for input and another input or command has been specified, the corresponding A process corresponding to another input or command is performed (step S446), and the process enters a state of waiting for input of the next command.

If the input command is an end command in the state of waiting for the input of the next command, the layout data of the layout database is closed (step S450), and the system is terminated.

In the above description, the printed circuit board CA
Although the present invention has been applied to achieve communication between a circuit design system and a layout design system in a D system, the present invention is not limited to this, and in general, a communication between one CAD system and another CAD system is performed. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied for communication.

The present invention can also be used to display information added in a system other than the CAD system in the CAD system.

Further, in the above description, a case has been described where a design instruction is displayed at the cursor position only for data (parts and nets) specified by moving the cursor or the like. However, the present invention is not limited to this. In the case where a design instruction is added to the data displayed in, the design instruction may be displayed for all data.

[0048]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it is not necessary to print out an instruction or the like on a piece of paper when communicating between a certain system and another system. The operation can be greatly simplified, and it is possible to reliably prevent the reading of the instruction sheet and the operation error on the screen due to the visual confirmation of the instruction sheet printed out on a piece of paper.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a system of a character string display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a character string display device according to the present invention on a printed circuit board C;
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of internal processing of an AD system when used for communication between a circuit design system and a layout design system.

FIG. 3 shows a character string display device according to the present invention on a printed circuit board C;
FIG. 3A shows a display example on the screen when used for communication between the circuit design system and the layout design system in the AD system. FIG. 3A shows a display on the screen in the circuit design system. )
Indicates a display on the screen in the layout design system.

FIG. 4 shows a printed circuit board C for a character string display device according to the present invention.
It is a flowchart of a process in the case of using it for communication between the circuit design system and the layout design system in the AD system.

FIG. 5 shows a character string display device according to the present invention on a printed circuit board C;
It is a flowchart of a process in the case of using it for communication between the circuit design system and the layout design system in the AD system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 CAD1 12 CAD2 14 Database 1 16 Database 2

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A system capable of creating, editing and displaying graphic data constituted by a first system and a second system, wherein a character string added in the first system is replaced by the second system. A character string display device to be reflected on a screen in the system of (1), wherein first system graphic data selecting means for selecting graphic data of the first system displayed on a screen of the first system; A character string data adding unit that adds character string data indicating a character string to the graphic data of the first system selected by the 1 system graphic data selecting unit; and a character string data adding unit that is selected by the first system graphic data selecting unit. A first system storage for storing the graphic data of the first system and the character string data added by the character string data adding means in pairs. Storage means; and the character string data stored in the first system storage means, the graphic data of the first system being paired with the character string data corresponding to the graphic data of the first system. A second system storage unit that converts the data into a pair with the system graphic data and stores the data; a second system graphic data selection unit that selects the graphic data of the second system from the second system storage unit; Graphic data display means for displaying graphic data of the second system selected by the system graphic data selecting means on a screen of the second system; and the second system displayed by the graphic data display means Designating means for designating the graphic data of: and the character string data corresponding to the graphic data of the second system designated by the designating means. Search means for searching the serial second system storage means, the character string data retrieved by said retrieval means,
Character string data display means for displaying character string data at a cursor position on the screen of the second system. 2. A design system capable of creating, editing, and displaying graphic data comprising a first system and a second system, wherein a character string for design instruction added in the first system is provided. Is displayed on the screen in the second system, wherein the first system graphic data selection for selecting graphic data of the first system displayed on the screen of the first system. Means, character string data adding means for adding character string data indicating a character string for design instruction to the graphic data of the first system selected by the first system graphic data selecting means, The graphic data of the first system selected by the 1-system graphic data selecting means and the character string data added by the character string data adding means are paired. A first system storage unit for storing the graphic data of the first system paired with the character string data stored in the first system storage unit, the character corresponding to the graphic data of the first system Second system storage means for converting and storing a pair of column data and graphic data of the second system, and second system graphic data for selecting graphic data of the second system from the second system storage means Selecting means; graphic data displaying means for displaying graphic data of the second system selected by the second system graphic data selecting means on a screen of the second system; and displaying by the graphic data displaying means Designating means for designating the figure data of the second system, and the figure data of the second system designated by the designating means. The character string data to respond, and search means for searching from the second system memory means, said character string data retrieved by said retrieval means,
Character string data display means for displaying character string data at a cursor position on the screen of the second system. 3. In a printed circuit board CAD system,
A character string display device for reflecting a character string for design instruction added in a circuit design system on a screen in a layout design system, wherein a circuit for selecting circuit design data displayed on a screen of the circuit design system Design data selecting means; character string data adding means for adding character string data indicating a character string for design instruction to the circuit design data selected by the circuit design data selecting means; Circuit design system storage means for storing the circuit design data selected by the means and the character string data added by the character string data addition means as a pair, and the characters stored in the circuit design system storage means The circuit design data of the circuit design system paired with the column data is converted to the circuit design data of the circuit design system. A layout design system storing means for converting and storing the corresponding character string data and a layout design data of the layout design system into a pair, and a layout design data selecting means for selecting the layout design data from the layout design system storing means Layout design data display means for displaying the layout design data selected by the layout design data selection means on a screen of the layout design system; and designating the layout design data displayed by the layout design data display means. A layout design data designating means for performing search; a search means for searching the layout design system storage means for the character string data corresponding to the layout design data designated by the layout design designation; The character string data retrieved by the means,
A character string display device for displaying character string data at a cursor position on a screen of the layout design system.