JP3148118B2 - Method for automatically arranging symbols in drawing and apparatus using the method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for automatically arranging a plurality of symbols on a mapping screen, and in particular, when a plurality of symbols to be arranged exist before a branch point, these symbols are automatically arranged. Method and apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, visual data (hereinafter simply referred to as symbols) such as character strings, figures, and symbols representing facilities are automatically arranged on a topographic map serving as a groundwork, an interior size map of a building, and the like. An apparatus for creating a desired drawing is used in various industrial fields. There have been many proposals relating to such devices and automatic placement methods.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 62-192858 (automatic arrangement of characters with added drawing lines for drawing) discloses a polygon that has already been placed (a polygon corresponds to the outer frame when a symbol is provided with an outer frame in a pseudo manner). When a polygon to be newly arranged (a newly arranged polygon) overlaps a rectangle), the newly arranged polygon is moved, and when the movement amount is large, a leader line indicating the state of movement is provided. I have. The purpose of this is to make it easy to confirm the position of a newly placed polygon that moves far from the original position.

Similarly, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 61-166681 (character automatic arrangement system for drawing), when a newly arranged polygon overlaps an already arranged polygon, the newly arranged polygon is moved in a predetermined direction, and the overlap is reduced. There is disclosed a technique for placing a newly arranged polygon at a position where it disappears. The purpose is to reduce the amount of work related to drawing by automatically arranging polygons. JP-A-63-73376 (automatic arrangement of characters and the like in drawing) and JP-A-1-100674 (automatic arrangement of characters and the like in drawing) also disclose techniques based on the same concept. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-53679 (character automatic arrangement method for drawing) has the same purpose, but the new arrangement polygon is moved by a small amount in a predetermined direction and is at the minimum movement position where the overlap is eliminated.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-61927 (automatic data arrangement device) discloses that when a newly arranged polygon has a leader line for explanation or the like, a leader line intersecting with the movement of the newly arranged polygon is detected. Then, a technique is disclosed in which the drawing is made easier to see by removing the intersection of the leader lines. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-298384 (symbol arrangement method), a plurality of arrangement candidate areas for a new arrangement polygon are prepared with priorities, and the new arrangement polygons are arranged in accordance with the priorities. A method for selecting a candidate region that does not occur is disclosed.

[0006]

As described above, there are many known techniques for automatically arranging symbols. All of these techniques focus on completely eliminating symbol overlap (hereinafter, also referred to as “complete arrangement”).
To this end, there is a process for determining the overlap between symbols (actually polygons) and a process for rearranging symbols when an overlap is detected. Performing these two processes on a significant number of symbols naturally requires considerable computation time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic arrangement method and apparatus which does not judge whether symbols overlap with each other. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for automatically arranging symbols from various viewpoints.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

(1) The automatic symbol arrangement method in drawing according to the present invention is as follows.
This is a method of automatically arranging a plurality of symbols on a mapping screen. When there are a plurality of symbols to be arranged prior to a branch point, the coordinates of those symbols are determined based on the output of a random function, and the symbols are mapped. It is placed in a predetermined area of the screen.

The "mapping screen" refers to a screen image of a drawing serving as a base for mapping symbols. An example is a topographic map, but any screen may be used as long as a symbol is provided. “Symbol” refers to any data to be placed on any mapping screen. As a mode in which "a plurality of symbols exist before the symbol branch point to be arranged", for example, a certain point is divided into a plurality of paths as a branch point, such as wiring and piping,
There may be situations where symbols should be placed on each route. Examples of the symbols include various facilities such as electric poles and wattmeters for wiring and pumps and water meters for piping.

[0010] According to this aspect, among the symbols to be arranged, those that are located ahead of the branch point are found. If such symbols are found, their coordinates are determined based on the output of the random function. The coordinates are adjusted to fall within a predetermined area of the mapping screen. The “predetermined region” may be considered as a region of a predetermined size,
It may be considered as an area where the symbols to be arranged are allowed to be arranged.

(2) In one aspect of the present invention, the size of the predetermined area is determined according to the distance between the already arranged symbols. In this case, if the distance between the symbols is large, for example, it is conceivable to increase the predetermined area.

(3) In one aspect of the present invention, the output of the random function is prepared in the form of a list, and the coordinates of the plurality of symbols are determined by referring to the list.

According to this aspect, the coordinates are determined by referring to the list instead of performing the calculation by the random function every time the symbols are arranged. This list is generated at some timing based on the output of the random function. This timing does not necessarily need to be before the start of the arrangement processing, but may be any convenient timing after the start of the processing.

(4) In one aspect of the present invention, when the number of the plurality of symbols is equal to or less than a predetermined number, these symbols are arranged at specific points in the predetermined area. Examples of the “specific point” include each vertex of the predetermined area. in this case,
The "predetermined number" may be considered as the number of vertices. However, the “specific points” may be points evenly scattered in a predetermined area, and the “predetermined number” depends on how to determine the “specific points”.

(5) On the other hand, the automatic symbol arrangement apparatus of the present invention is an apparatus for automatically arranging a plurality of equipment symbols on a mapping screen, and includes an equipment system selection unit for selecting an equipment system to be subjected to automatic arrangement processing. Of the symbols included in the equipment system, for a branch destination symbol that branches off from a certain point, an arrangement area setting unit that sets an area where these can be arranged on the mapping screen, and the branch destination symbol And a random function unit that generates the coordinates of the random number as a random number, and controls the width of the possible value of the random number to randomly arrange the branch destination symbols in the area.

"Equipment" refers to an entity represented by a symbol, such as the telephone pole described in (1). The “equipment system” refers to a group of equipment having a certain relation, for example, an electric wire and a power pole connected by the electric wire form one system.

According to this aspect, first, an equipment system to be subjected to the automatic arrangement processing is selected by the equipment system selection unit. Subsequently, an arrangement area is set by the arrangement area setting unit. The arrangement area is an area in which a branch destination symbol that branches from a certain point and exists is allowed to be arranged. Next, the random function unit generates the coordinates of the branch destination symbol as random numbers. After that, the range of possible values of the random numbers is controlled, and the branch destination symbols are randomly arranged in the arrangement area.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In defining an embodiment of the present invention, the inventor has noted the following points. That is, all of the conventional symbol automatic arrangement techniques presuppose or aim for complete arrangement of symbols. However, depending on the actual drawing situation, the complete arrangement is not always necessary.
Examples of such scenes include 1) when the initial arrangement is known to be adjusted later, and 2) when it is not necessary to determine the exact coordinates of the symbols for the time being. That is, in the case of 1), since the adjustment is always performed, the remaining overlap may be removed at the adjustment stage, and in the case of 2), the overlap may be removed when the final coordinate determination is required. Actually, the situation such as 1) often occurs at the drawing site, so that it may not be meaningful to perform the calculation for complete arrangement from the initial arrangement stage.

The situation 2) occurs in the following case, for example, in an automatic placement system in which a utility pole connected by electric wires and its related equipment are used as symbols. That is, when the wiring ahead of a certain telephone pole (referred to as telephone pole A) enters the building and branches to connect to a plurality of related devices, the symbols in the building are hierarchically stored in a separate file from the telephone pole. This is the case when it is managed. In this case, even if the related equipment is completely arranged at the stage of arranging the utility pole, it does not make much sense.

On the other hand, in the case of 1) or 2) just because the meaning of complete arrangement is insignificant, if the automatic arrangement of the related equipment is stopped or if a system without the automatic arrangement function is used, the Sometimes another problem arises. That is,
In such a system, the same coordinates are usually given uniformly to a plurality of related devices, so that all related devices ahead of the telephone pole A are connected by a single wire from the telephone pole A on the screen, as if the related devices are connected. It looks like there is only one device. Once such mapping is performed, as in 1), when the position of the related device is adjusted later by using a mouse or the like, it is difficult to find the location where the related device overlaps. Workability is poor because it is not clear whether the devices overlap.
In addition, even in the case of 2), intuitive grasp of the number of related devices and the branch state occurs. That is, in the case of 1) or 2),
Although it is not necessary to completely arrange the related devices, it is desirable that they be arranged to some extent. Based on such recognition, the present embodiment proposes a technique for automatically arranging symbols in a short time and without determining overlap between symbols by introducing a random function.

In this embodiment, a method and a system (apparatus) for automatically arranging distribution equipment symbols formed by utility poles, related equipment and electric wires will be described. Here, utility poles and the like are called facilities, and symbols corresponding to these are automatically arranged on a mapping screen.

[Configuration] FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system for realizing the symbol automatic arrangement method according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a distribution line diagram obtained as a result of actual automatic arrangement by this system. In the present embodiment, a road division map is used as a mapping screen, and facilities are arranged here. As can be seen from FIG. 2, the equipment symbol is indicated by a circle in which black and white semicircles are combined, and each symbol is given a number from 9 to 17 corresponding to the identification number of the equipment. In the figure, since the equipment 9 is closest to the power supply, automatic arrangement is performed from this equipment. Here, the facility 9 is referred to as “processing start facility”. The facilities 9 to 11 are connected one-to-one, but a plurality of routes are generated with the facility 12 as a branch point, and the facilities 13 to 17 are connected on each route. Since the facilities 9 to 17 are all connected to the same electric wire, they are collectively referred to as one facility system. In the present embodiment, among these facilities, the facilities 13 ahead of the branch point
The overlap of ~ 17 is a problem.

The area 100 shown in FIG.
Reference numeral 17 denotes a predetermined area to be appropriately arranged, and is hereinafter referred to as an “arrangement area”. The arrangement area is the equipment 1 as described later.
Since this point is set based on a point determined from the positional relationship between 1 and the equipment 12, this point is hereinafter referred to as an "arrangement area reference point" or simply as a "reference point".

First, as shown in FIG. 1, this system is roughly divided into a personal computer for integrally controlling the whole system, a control unit 20 corresponding to a main body of a work station or the like, a keyboard for inputting an instruction from the operator to the control unit 20, and the like. Input unit 42, a display unit 40 such as a high-resolution display for displaying a screen in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 20, an output unit 44 such as a printer device for printing a drawing created by the control unit 20, and a facility system as various file groups Table 46, coordinate data table 48, drawing equipment data table 5
0, consisting of a random function output list 52.

The control unit 20 further includes an equipment system selection unit 2
2. Processing start equipment search unit 24, arrangement area reference point calculation unit 2
6, an arrangement area setting unit 28, a random function unit 30, a symbol coordinate determination unit 32, and a symbol drawing unit 34. Each of these functional blocks is held in the form of a software functional module.

FIGS. 3 to 6 are diagrams showing the configurations of an equipment system table 46, a coordinate data table 48, a drawing equipment data table 50, and a random function output list 52, respectively. Table 48 is used as input data,
The data obtained as a result of the automatic placement is stored in the drawing equipment data table 50.
Output to At this time, the random function output list 52
Use

As shown in FIG. 3, the equipments 9 to 17 belong to one equipment system called “system 1”, and the equipment numbers of the connection source (power supply side) and the connection destination (load side) as viewed from each equipment are described. ing. In FIG. 4, the coordinate data of the facilities 9 to 12 is predetermined. This is because, even in the case of automatic arrangement, a clue to start the process cannot be obtained unless the positions of the facilities are determined to some extent. Therefore, in the present embodiment, automatic arrangement is performed for the facilities 13 and thereafter, but there is of course a certain degree of freedom in this regard, for example, automatic arrangement of the facilities 11 and thereafter.

FIG. 5 shows facilities included in the finally obtained distribution line diagram, their connection relations and coordinates,
Here, as a result of the automatic arrangement, the coordinates after the facility 13 are entered. In the stage of FIG. 5, the electric wires are also treated as facilities, and the relationship between the electric poles and the electric wires is correctly entered. In other words, the position of the electric wire is determined only after the positions of the electric pole and related equipment are determined. Therefore, in the stage of FIG. 3, the electric wire is removed and the relative positional relationship of the electric pole and the like is described. At this stage, the connection relationship is defined taking into account the wires. In addition, 1
An identification number of 09 or later is given.

FIG. 6 shows an example of an output list of a random function, in which six kinds of random numerical values are recorded. In the figure, x and y each take an arbitrary value between 0 and 1000.

[Operation] The procedure of the automatic arrangement processing according to the above configuration will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of this system, and FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the contents of the processing in S18 in FIG.

When starting the automatic arrangement, the operator first displays the equipment system table 46 shown in FIG. Here, by selecting “system 1”, the equipments 9 to 17 are selected as processing targets (S10). The equipment system selection unit 22 in FIG. 1 actually loads data relating to the equipment system into the memory according to the input of the operator.

Subsequently, the processing start facility search unit 24
The above-mentioned processing start equipment, that is, equipment 9 is searched from the equipment series 1. The coordinates of the equipment 9 are read from the coordinate data table 48, and the first symbol is arranged at the corresponding position on the mapping screen (S12).

Next, it is determined whether the end of the facility 9 branches to a plurality of routes (S14). Here equipment 9
Is connected only to the facility 10 and proceeds to S26 (S
14N), it is determined whether or not the connected symbol has coordinate data. Here, since the equipment 10 has the coordinate data in advance, the process proceeds to S22 (Y of S26), and the symbol of the equipment 10 is drawn on the mapping screen according to the coordinate data.

When the drawing is completed, it is determined whether or not the next facility to be processed remains (S24). Here, since the facilities 11 and beyond still exist, the process returns to S14 (S24).
Y). Drawing is performed by repeating the same processing up to the equipment 12.

When the processing proceeds to S14 relating to the equipment 13,
Here, since the route is branched into five facilities 13 to 17, the process proceeds to S16 (Y in S14), and it is determined whether or not the facility 13 has coordinate data. Since the equipment 13 has no coordinate data, the process proceeds to S18 (N in S16), and an arrangement area is set.

FIG. 8 shows a method of setting the arrangement area. In the figure, the coordinates of the symbols of the equipment 11 and 12, respectively _{(x 11, y 11) (} x 12, y 12), doing it in the placement region reference point (x _s, y _s). In addition, facilities 11, 1
The distance between two symbols is set to 2L. In this embodiment,
The reference point is determined by the following equation so that the symbol of the facility 12 is located at the midpoint between the symbol of the facility 11 and the reference point. This calculation is performed by the arrangement area reference point calculation unit 26 in FIG.

[0037] Following _{x s = 2x 12 -x 11,} y s = 2y 12 -y 11, determine the placement area this point in the original. This processing is performed by the arrangement area setting unit 28. Here, simply,
A square area with a side of 2L centered at (x _s , y _s ) is defined as an arrangement area 200. This means that the larger the distance between the symbols immediately before the branching occurs, the larger the arrangement area 200 is. If the symbols of the facilities 11 and 12 are far apart, the symbols of the facility 13 and subsequent symbols are also appropriately spaced. are doing.

Subsequently, the coordinates of each symbol of the facilities 13 to 17 are determined (S20). Here, ten random numbers are generated by the random function unit 30 of FIG. 1, and these are respectively assigned to the x and y coordinates of five symbols. The assignment is performed by the symbol coordinate determination unit 32. At this time, one of the following two methods is adopted so that each coordinate falls within the arrangement area 200.

A. The width of the random number generated by the random function (the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value) is set to 2L in advance.

B. The width of the random number generated by the random function is W
, The generated random number is multiplied by 2L / W.

These produce the same result. This ends S20. When using B, the random function output list in FIG. 6 can be used. In this list, since the width of the random numbers is 1000, the processing may be performed with W = 1000. This list may be created before the automatic placement process starts, or may be created when the random function unit 30 is started for the first time after the start. In any case, since the random function does not need to be activated after the creation, the processing speed is further increased. When S20 is completed, the equipments 13 to 17 are drawn based on the determined coordinates (S22). FIG. 9 shows that the equipment 1
This shows a state where symbols 3 to 17 are scattered.

The arrangement of the equipments 9 to 17 according to the present embodiment is completed as described above. However, if the equipment connected to the equipment 12 is only the equipment 13 and the coordinate data does not exist, S14 in FIG. The process proceeds to S28 via S26. Here, as an example, the coordinates of the facility 13 are simply referred to as the facility 11,
Twelve points at an equal distance on extension. The points determined in this way are nothing but the above-mentioned arrangement area reference points, and it is not necessary to use a random function when there is only one connection destination. As another possibility, even if a plurality of symbols exist at the branch destination, if coordinate data of those symbols is given in advance, drawing is naturally performed according to the coordinates. This is from Y in S16 to S22 in FIG.
Corresponding to the route to.

It is to be noted that, for the present embodiment, for example, the following improvements and modifications can be considered.

1. When the number of branch destination symbols having no coordinate data is small, they may be arranged at specific points in the arrangement area. FIG. 10 shows a state where four symbols are arranged in the arrangement area 200. In this case, the number of symbols “4” to be arranged is less than or equal to the number of vertices “4” of the arrangement area 200, so that the symbols are simply arranged at each vertex. The specific point does not need to be a vertex, and may be each vertex when a mesh is provided in an area.

In the case of 2.1, if there are five or more symbols to be arranged, processing using a random function may be performed on the fifth and subsequent symbols.

3. In the present embodiment, a square is considered as the arrangement region, but this may be of any other shape. For example, if a circle is adopted, an example is considered in which the radius of the circle is 2L, the angle on the circumference is determined by a random function, and the symbols are arranged on the circumference.

4. In the present embodiment, the value of 2L, which determines the size of the arrangement area, may be naturally changed. In the present embodiment, the size of the arrangement area is determined according to the inter-symbol distance of the equipment immediately before the branch, but this may be a constant. Further, the arrangement area may be determined by various conditions. In such a case, the operator may input the arrangement area according to the conditions. For example, the area 100 in FIG.
If special related equipment is to be arranged only in this area, the area 100 should be adopted as the arrangement area, even if the square having a side of 2L is larger than this area 100.

5. In the present embodiment, the drawing of the distribution line diagram is considered, but this may naturally be another drawing. For example, the present invention can be applied to various industrial fields such as water pipes, gas pipes, computer network wiring, railway lines, and molecular structures instead of electric wires.

[0049]

According to the method for automatically arranging symbols in drawing according to the present invention, the coordinates of the symbols are determined by a random function, the judgment of the overlap between the symbols, and the rearrangement of the overlapping symbols are not performed. As a result, the time required for the processing can be reduced. Further, since the coordinates are appropriately scattered by using the random function, there is little overlap between symbols as a practical problem, which is very useful on a practical level.

When symbols are scattered by the random function, when the arrangement area is determined according to the distance between the symbols before the symbol branch occurs, "the distance between symbols rarely changes greatly". Rule of thumb. Therefore, the drawing result becomes natural.

When the output of the random function is prepared in the form of a list, it is not necessary to activate the random function every time the processing is performed, so that the processing can be further speeded up.

The number of symbols to be arranged is small, and when these are arranged at specific points, the random function does not need to be activated, so that the processing efficiency is improved.

On the other hand, according to the automatic symbol arrangement apparatus of the present invention, since the coordinates of the symbols are determined by the random function, the processing time can be reduced, and a useful apparatus is provided in terms of practicality.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system that realizes an automatic symbol arrangement method according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a distribution line diagram obtained as a result of actually performing automatic arrangement by the system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of an equipment system table.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a coordinate data table.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a drawing equipment data table.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a random function output list.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the contents of processing in S18 in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9: Equipments 13-1 moderately scattered in the arrangement area
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a symbol No. 7;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state where four symbols are arranged in an arrangement area.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 20 control unit, 22 equipment system selection unit, 24 processing start equipment search unit, 26 arrangement area reference point calculation unit, 28 arrangement area installation unit, 30 random function unit, 32 symbol coordinate determination unit, 34 symbol drawing unit, 40 display unit , 42
Input unit, 44 output unit, 46 equipment system table, 48 coordinate data table, 50 drawing equipment data table, 52 random function output list.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 17/50 G06F 3/00 601-680 G06F 3/14-3/153 340

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for automatically arranging a plurality of symbols on a mapping screen, wherein when a plurality of symbols to be arranged exist before a branch point, coordinates of the symbols are determined based on an output of a random function, A method for automatically arranging symbols in a drawing, characterized by putting them in a predetermined area of the mapping screen. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the size of the predetermined area is determined according to a distance between symbols that have already been arranged. 3. The output of the random function is prepared in the form of a list, and coordinates of the plurality of symbols are determined by referring to the list.
2. The method for automatically arranging symbols according to any one of 2. 4. The symbol according to claim 1, wherein when the number of the plurality of symbols is equal to or less than a predetermined number, the symbols are arranged at a specific point in the predetermined area. Automatic placement method. 5. An apparatus for automatically arranging a plurality of equipment symbols on a mapping screen, comprising: an equipment system selection unit for selecting an equipment system to be subjected to automatic arrangement processing; For a branch destination symbol that exists as a branch, an arrangement area setting unit that sets an area where these can be arranged on the mapping screen, and a random function unit that generates the coordinates of the branch target symbol as a random number, An automatic symbol arrangement device for drawing, wherein the branch destination symbol is randomly arranged in the area by controlling a range of possible values of the random numbers.