JP3018961B2 - Pen plotter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pen plotter, and more particularly to a paint function of a pen plotter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various algorithms have been used for filling a character or a figure in a pen plotter. As shown in FIG. 10, a typical filling processing method represents a filled figure by a set of scanning lines in a horizontal direction or a vertical direction, and as shown in FIG. To draw a straight line. Next, a scan line adjacent to this scan line is searched to store the coordinate data of the starting point of the unfilled scan line, the coordinate data is taken out and the scan line is drawn. Fill it.

[0003]

In the conventional fill processing of a pen plotter, the area of the figure to be filled is sequentially scanned in the horizontal or vertical direction to fill the area, so that the pen head is moved from one scanning line to the next scanning line. Each time the pen head is raised, moved, and lowered, there is a drawback in that it takes time to paint. Therefore, there arises a technical problem to be solved in order to speed up the filling process and shorten the drawing time, and an object of the present invention is to solve the problem.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is proposed to achieve the above object, and comprises a pen head for mounting a writing instrument such as an ink pen or a pencil, and a pen head drive control unit, and the pen head is provided based on drawing data. Means for extracting contours from drawing data designated to be filled to obtain contour coordinate data, and driving the pen head based on the contour coordinate data for drawing on a pen plotter for drawing on paper by driving the pen in the XYZ directions. Means for updating the drawing data by deleting the contour coordinate data from the drawing data, and a control unit for drawing a contour sequentially updated by the above-mentioned means and executing a filling process in a designated area. A pen plotter, and original image data obtained by developing the drawing data into a dot pattern; Memory for writing the contour pattern data extracted from the data and the coordinate data of all the dots from the starting point to the ending point of the contour pattern.After executing the contour drawing, the on-dots corresponding to the contour pattern data are deleted from the original image data and updated. Means for retrieving on-dots adjacent to the end point dot of the previous contour pattern data from the original image data, and if there is no adjacent on-dot, the dot coordinate data is read out in address order, and the on-dots adjacent to the read dot coordinate data are read out. It is another object of the present invention to provide a pen plotter characterized by comprising a control means for searching for dots from original image data and extracting an outline pattern from the original image data with an on-dot detected first as a starting point of an outline.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a small-sized lettering pen plotter 1, in which an X-axis motor 2, a Y-axis motor 3, and a carriage on which a pen head is mounted are moved in XY directions.
A Z-axis actuator 4 such as a motor or a solenoid for raising and lowering the pen head is driven by an X-axis motor drive circuit 6, a Y-axis motor drive circuit 7, and a Z-axis actuator drive circuit 8, which are controlled by a CPU 5, respectively.

Image data input from the keyboard 9 to the CPU 5 via the interface 10 is stored in the storage device 11.
The characters and symbols in the input data are stored in the buffer memory 12 of the
Will be displayed.

The storage device 11 has a ROM 15 for storing character font data, a ROM 16 for storing a painting process program, an original image memory 17 for storing dot pattern data developed from input character data, and extraction from original image dot pattern data. An auxiliary memory 18 for writing dot pattern data of the contour and a trace memory 19 for writing coordinate data of the contour are provided.

FIG. 2 shows an outline of the painting process of the pen plotter 1, and font data corresponding to the input data is read from the character font data storage ROM 15 in response to the drawing start command (step 101), as shown in FIG. The dot pattern data of the bit map type is generated and written in the original image memory 17 (step 10).
2).

The CPU 5 extracts contour coordinate data from the dot pattern data in accordance with the filling processing program of the program ROM 16 (step 103), and drives the X-axis motor drive circuit 6, the Y-axis motor drive circuit 7, and the Z-axis actuator drive circuit 8. To trace the contour (step 104).

Then, the dots of the traced contour are deleted from the dot pattern data in the original image memory 17 to update the dot pattern data (step 105), and the unprocessed dots are searched (step 106), and the unprocessed dots disappear. Until the contour extraction, drawing and updating of the original image are repeated, the painting process is completed (step 107).

Next, the above steps 103 to 10
7 will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. First, after generating the dot pattern data (step 201), (step 202) the minimum coordinate (x _a, y _a) of the character frame as the dot search start point shown in FIG. 3, to begin a search for on-dot (step 203). Then, horizontal scanning is sequentially performed from top to bottom until an ON dot is detected (steps 204 to 20).
8) If no on-dot is detected, the image forming process ends (step 209).

When an on-dot is detected, step 204 is executed.
From step 301 to step 301 in FIG.
The starting dot (x_ts , y_ts) As coordinates
(X _t0 , y_t0Write on dot to
The coordinates data (x_t0 ,
y_t0Write).

Subsequently, a search start direction of the next dot is calculated by a search direction determination operation expression (step 302). As shown in FIG. 7, the search vector direction is the current position (x _tn ,
The numerical value of 0 to 7 is defined clockwise with respect to y _tn ), and the search start direction corresponding to the clockwise coordinate of the position of the immediately preceding dot is calculated by the following logical product operation formula.

D _{n + 1} = (v _n + (4 + 1)) & 7 (1) where d _{n + 1} is the search start direction, and v _n is n + 1 from the point n.
Vector direction, for example to, the v _n is assumed to be 6, the vector direction vector direction immediately before the on dots adjacent in the clockwise direction of 6-4 = 2, 2 is 2 + 1 = 3, 6 + (4 + 1) = 1
The vector direction 3 is determined by the binary logical AND 0011 (BCD) = 3 of 1 = 11011 (BCD) and 7 = 0111 (BCD), and the vector direction 3 is determined from the vector direction 3 adjacent to the immediately preceding dot direction 2 on the clockwise side. Start the search clockwise.

When the on-dot is detected, the on-dot is written into the coordinates (x _{tn + 1} , y _{tn + 1} ) of the auxiliary memory 18 corresponding to the detected coordinates, and the coordinate data (x _{tn + 1} , y _{tn + 1} ) is written (step 3
03), and outputs the coordinate data (x _{tn + 1} , y _{tn + 1} ) to the pen head drive circuits 6, 7, 8 to execute drawing (step 304).

Subsequently, n = n + 1 is set (step 30).
5) The next search vector direction is calculated to search for the next dot, and the detected coordinates (x _tn , y _tn ) are set to the starting point coordinates (x _t0 , y
_Continue drawing contour lines until it matches _t0 ).

In this way, as shown in FIG. 8, the outline dot pattern in the dot pattern data of the original image memory 17 shown in FIG. 8A is written to the auxiliary memory 18 shown in FIG. (C) is stored in the trace memory 19. Then, the detected coordinates (x _tn , y _tn ) coincide with the origin coordinates (x _t0 , y _t0 ), and the next search vector direction d _{n + 1} from the detected coordinates (x _tn , y _tn ) is the origin coordinates (x _t0 , y
When matched with the search vector direction d ₀ from _t0), the process proceeds from step 306 to step 307, the detected coordinates (x
_tn , y _tn ) is set as the drawing end point (x _te , y _te ), and the drawing of one outline is ended.

Subsequently, the process proceeds from step 307 to step 401 in FIG. 6, and as shown in FIG.
The on-dot corresponding to the contour pattern of the auxiliary memory 18 shown in (b) is deleted from the dot pattern data 7 and the contents of the auxiliary memory 18 are deleted.

If on-dots remain in the original image memory 18, steps 402 to 403
To the drawing end point ( _xte ,
Search for on-dots adjacent to y _te ).

[0020] If here ON dots is detected, the previous end point coordinates (x _te, y _te) the starting point coordinates of the next contour line (x _ts, y _ts) (step 408), Step 3
01, a new contour drawing is performed by the above-described contour processing routine.

In this manner, the contour lines are sequentially painted inward from the outermost contour line to fill the painted area, and when all the on-dots are deleted from the dot pattern data in the original image memory 17, the contour line is formed. The process ends (Step 209).

Also, for example, the last drawing end point (x_te ,
y_te) All neighborhoods are filled, and fill dots are removed.
The previous drawing end point (x_te
 , y _teIf there is no on-dot adjacent to the
Proceed from step 403 to 404 to trace Momeri 19
Address i of coordinate data of the previous contour stored
= 1 is read and the coordinates indicated by the data at address i are read.
The presence or absence of an adjacent on-dot is searched (step 40)
5).

If the ON dot is not detected, the address is updated and searched in ascending order until the ON dot is detected (step 4).
06), the coordinate data (x _ti , y _ti ) of the address i at the time when the on-dot is detected is _added to the start point coordinates (x
_ts , y _ts ) (step 405 → 409), and the process returns to step 301 to draw a new contour line.

Further, all coordinate data of the trace Momeri 19
If no adjacent on-dot is detected,
From step 407 to step 202 to determine the minimum coordinates of the character frame.
(X _a, y_a) As the starting point for dot search
Perform a search for the scattered fill area, and execute
The area is filled.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, if the three states of one dot on / off and the drawing processing are expressed by two bits, the data length is extended, Original memory 17 and auxiliary memory 1
8. Instead of the three types of memory configuration of the trace memory 19, the above-described filling processing can be realized by one memory area. In addition, the configuration of the hardware and the control procedure of the filling process can be variously modified.
Of course, the invention extends to those modifications.

[0026]

As described in detail above, the pen plotter of the present invention moves the pen head along the contour of the figure and performs the filling process. Therefore, the number of times the pen head is raised and lowered during the filling is minimized. This reduces the number of painting operations, speeds up the filling process as compared with the conventional pen plotter, shortens the drawing time, and improves the performance of the pen plotter.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of a pen plotter of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a drawing processing flowchart of the pen plotter of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of dot pattern data.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a painting process performed by a pen plotter according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a pen plotter painting process following FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a pen plotter painting process following FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a dot search direction vector definition.

8A is an explanatory diagram of dot pattern data of an original image memory, FIG. 8B is an explanatory diagram of an outline pattern of an auxiliary memory,
(C) is an explanatory diagram of the coordinate data of the trace memory.

9A is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which an outline pattern of an auxiliary memory is deleted from an original image memory, FIG. 9B is an explanatory diagram of an outline pattern of an auxiliary memory, and FIG. 9C is an explanatory diagram of coordinate data of a trace memory. It is.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional pen plotter filling process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 pen plotter 5 CPU 11 storage device 15, 16 ROM 17 original image memory 18 auxiliary memory 19 trace memory

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Toshiya Ishida 6-6, Hakozakicho, Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Inside Max Corporation (56) References JP-A-3-239597 (JP, A) JP-A-6 -143890 (JP, A) JP-A-4-216079 (JP, A) JP-A-3-206579 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B43L 13/00 G06T 11/40

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A pen plotter which includes a pen head for mounting a writing instrument such as an ink pen or a pencil, and a pen head drive control unit, and wherein the pen head is driven in the XYZ directions based on the drawing data to draw on a sheet, a fill is designated. Means for extracting contours from the drawing data to obtain contour coordinate data; means for driving the pen head based on the contour coordinate data to draw; and means for deleting the contour coordinate data from the drawing data to update the drawing data. And a control unit for drawing a contour sequentially updated by each of the above means and executing a filling process in a designated area. A memory for writing original image data obtained by developing the drawing data into a dot pattern, contour pattern data extracted from the original image data, and coordinate data of all dots from a start point to an end point of the contour pattern; Means for erasing the on-dots corresponding to the contour pattern data from the original image data after executing the drawing, and searching for the on-dots adjacent to the end point dot of the previous contour pattern data from the updated original image data; In this case, the dot coordinate data is read out in the order of addresses, an on-dot adjacent to the read dot coordinate data is searched from the original image data, and a contour pattern is extracted from the original image data using the first detected on-dot as a starting point of an outline. 2. The pen plotter according to claim 1, further comprising control means.