JP7310783B2 - Information processing device, information processing method, and program - Google Patents

Description

The present disclosure relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and a program.

A P&ID (Piping and Instrumentation Diagram) is known as a drawing showing the configuration of a system such as a plant. A P&ID is a drawing in which the connections of piping and instrumentation equipment in a plant are indicated by predetermined combinations of graphics, letters, etc. (including symbols).

Patent Literature 1 describes a technique related to touch operation of a monitoring screen in a plant monitoring and control system.

JP 2012-174127 A

A drawing such as a P&ID has a plurality of identical element groups consisting of at least one element, and it is desired to perform the same processing such as display, modification, or replacement on each of such a plurality of element groups. Sometimes. However, in the conventional configuration, it is necessary to manually select such element groups one by one and process them separately. Examples of human error include not processing an element group to be processed, performing incomplete processing, or erroneously processing an element that is not to be processed.

Accordingly, an object of the present disclosure is to provide an information processing device, an information processing method, and a program that enable collectively performing the same processing with a simple operation on a plurality of identical element groups consisting of at least one element. is to provide

An information processing apparatus according to some embodiments acquires a plurality of identical element groups consisting of at least one element used in a drawing, and allows a user to select common processing to be performed on the plurality of element groups. and executing the common processing for which the selection is received for each of the plurality of element groups. In this way, since the processing selected by the user is executed for each of the same plurality of element groups in the drawing, it is possible to collectively perform the same processing for each element group with a simple operation. .

In the information processing apparatus according to one embodiment, the control unit causes a storage unit to store specific information that is information for specifying the plurality of element groups acquired, and stores the plurality of element groups specified by the specific information. In response to receiving a selection of a process from the user for any of the element groups included in the above, the process is executed as the common process for each of the element groups included in the plurality of element groups. do. In this way, in response to receiving a process selection for one of the element groups included in the plurality of element groups, that process is executed for each of the element groups included in the plurality of element groups. Therefore, common processing can be executed without omission for all element groups included in a plurality of element groups.

In the information processing apparatus according to one embodiment, the control unit replaces all or part of the elements included in the plurality of element groups with at least one element selected by the user as the common process. Execute the process. Therefore, for each of a plurality of element groups, it is possible to collectively replace the elements included in the element group.

In the information processing apparatus according to one embodiment, the control unit changes at least one of the types and arrangements of the elements included in the plurality of element groups as the common processing according to the user's selection. Execute the process. Therefore, for each of the plurality of element groups, it is possible to collectively change at least one of the types and arrangements of the elements included in the element groups.

In the information processing apparatus according to one embodiment, each of the elements used in the drawings is given at least one piece of attribute information indicating its property, and the control unit performs, as the common processing, A process of changing at least one of the attribute information of at least one of the elements included in the plurality of element groups according to the user's selection is executed. Therefore, for each of a plurality of element groups, it is possible to collectively change the attribute values of the elements included in the element group.

In the information processing apparatus according to one embodiment, the control unit causes the display unit to display the plurality of element groups to be subjected to the common processing in a manner different from elements not included in the plurality of element groups. Execute the process. Therefore, it is possible for the user to easily confirm the element group for which the common processing is collectively performed.

In the information processing apparatus according to one embodiment, the control unit accepts from the user a selection of a search element group, which is an element group consisting of at least one element used in the drawing, and the search element for which the selection is accepted. An element group that matches the group is retrieved from the drawing to obtain the plurality of element groups. Therefore, it is possible to automatically acquire a plurality of element groups for which common processing is collectively performed.

An information processing method according to some embodiments includes a step of obtaining, by a control unit of an information processing device, a plurality of identical element groups consisting of at least one element used in a drawing; receiving from a user a selection of a common process to be performed on the element group; and executing the selected common process on each of the plurality of element groups. In this way, since the processing selected by the user is executed for each of the same plurality of element groups in the drawing, it is possible to collectively perform the same processing for each element group with a simple operation. .

A program according to some embodiments causes a computer to function as the information processing apparatus. In this way, since the processing selected by the user is executed for each of the same plurality of element groups in the drawing, it is possible to collectively perform the same processing for each element group with a simple operation. .

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, it is possible to collectively perform the same processing with a simple operation on the same plurality of element groups consisting of at least one element.

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an information processing system including an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of an image showing classification based on differences between element groups; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of classification items based on differences between element groups; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of classification items based on differences between element groups; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of classification items based on differences between element groups; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of scoring based on differences between element groups; 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing element groups hierarchized based on common element groups; 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of element groups classified based on element groups included in common; FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of element groups classified based on element groups included in common; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing a process of classifying element groups based on adjacently connected elements; 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically showing a process of classifying element groups based on the details of their deficiencies; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing processing for classifying element groups according to various criteria; 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an information processing system including an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing a user interface for correcting settings of elements; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing a user interface for correcting settings of elements; It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen of the display part connected to the information processing apparatus. 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an operation of selecting an element group; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing the relationship between a graphic representing an element group and a selected region; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an operation of selecting an element group; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an operation of selecting an element group; 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an operation of selecting an element group; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an operation of selecting an element group; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an operation of selecting an element group; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an operation of selecting an element group; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an operation of selecting an element group; FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an operation of selecting an element group;

An embodiment of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the drawings. In each drawing, the same reference numerals are given to the same or corresponding parts. In the description of this embodiment, the description of the same or corresponding parts will be omitted or simplified as appropriate.

[Comparative example]
Patent Literature 1 describes an operation system for performing contact-type operations on a monitoring screen displayed on an operator monitoring operation terminal in a plant monitoring control system that controls the operation of plant equipment. With this configuration, the user can display the details of the drawing showing the configuration of the plant system and switch the display mode by performing a touch operation on the symbol representing the plant equipment.

2. Description of the Related Art In a system such as a plant, a plurality of plant devices may be combined in a fixed arrangement and used at a plurality of locations. Therefore, in the stage of creating or updating a drawing such as P&ID that shows the configuration of a plant, etc., when the user edits or corrects each element group that conforms to a specific element group consisting of at least one element There is In such a case, the user had to visually select and extract the element group to be edited or corrected from the drawing.

However, the extraction of element groups by the user's visual inspection requires a lot of man-hours, and is likely to cause human error such as omission of extraction of element groups that should be extracted or erroneous extraction of element groups that should not be extracted. In particular, when visually extracting element groups from a drawing of a large-scale system such as a plant, an enormous amount of man-hours or labor is required, and the possibility of making mistakes increases.

[Embodiment of the present disclosure]
An embodiment of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the drawings. In each drawing, the same reference numerals are given to the same or corresponding parts. In the description of this embodiment, the description of the same or corresponding parts will be omitted or simplified as appropriate.

<First Embodiment>
(Configuration of information processing system)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an information processing system 1 including an information processing device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The information processing system 1 includes an information processing device 10 , an input unit 14 , a display unit 15 , a terminal 120 , a terminal 130 , an external storage device 140 and a network 150 . The information processing device 10, the terminal 120, the terminal 130, and the external storage device 140 are connected to each other via a network 150 so as to be able to communicate with each other. There are no restrictions on the number of terminals 120 and 130, and desktop terminals, mobile terminals (notebook PCs (Personal Computers), tablets, smartphones, etc.) may be used as appropriate.

The information processing apparatus 10 automatically searches the drawing for the element group that matches the element group selected by the user 201, thereby facilitating all element groups that match the specific element group from the drawing with a small number of man-hours. Allow to extract. The information processing device 10 is one or a plurality of server devices that can communicate with each other. The information processing device 10 itself may include a display unit to display the results of element group searches or the like to the user, or the processing performed by the information processing device 10 may be received by another terminal and the results displayed. good too. The information processing apparatus 10 may be any general-purpose electronic device such as a WS (Work Station) or PC (Personal Computer), or may be another dedicated electronic device. As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus 10 includes a control unit 11, a storage unit 12, and a communication unit 13, and is connected to an input unit 14 and a display unit 15 so as to be communicable.

Control unit 11 includes one or more processors. In one embodiment, a "processor" is a general-purpose processor or a dedicated processor specialized for a particular process, but is not limited to these. The control unit 11 is communicably connected to each component constituting the information processing apparatus 10 and controls the operation of the information processing apparatus 10 as a whole.

The storage unit 12 includes any storage module including HDD, SSD, EEPROM, ROM, and RAM. The storage unit 12 may function, for example, as a main memory device, an auxiliary memory device, or a cache memory. The storage unit 12 stores arbitrary information used for the operation of the information processing device 10 . For example, the storage unit 12 may store system programs, application programs, various information received by the communication unit 13, and the like. The storage unit 12 is not limited to one built in the information processing apparatus 10, and may be an external database or an external storage module connected via a digital input/output port such as USB. HDD is an abbreviation for Hard Disk Drive. SSD is an abbreviation for Solid State Drive. EEPROM is an abbreviation for Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory. ROM is an abbreviation for Read-Only Memory. RAM is an abbreviation for Random Access Memory. USB is an abbreviation for Universal Serial Bus.

In this embodiment, the storage unit 12 includes a group storage unit 121 , a rule storage unit 122 and a drawing storage unit 123 . The group storage unit 121 stores a group list 131 indicating an element group, which is a set (group) of elements consisting of at least one element included in the drawing. The information processing device 10 handles drawings representing the configuration of a system such as a plant. Each element in the drawing represents various equipment that constitutes the system.

The rule storage unit 122 stores rules such as a semantic model 132 used when retrieving a group of elements from a drawing and interpreting a group of elements. In the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus 10 recognizes the drawing, the constituent elements of the element group shown in the drawing, and the connection between the elements by pattern matching, image recognition, or the like, in terms of the outer shape and shape, and also recognizes the element group. Semantic models, graph theory, ontologies, etc. may be used to capture and interpret content. The rule storage unit 122 stores information necessary for these searches and interpretations. A semantic model represents drawings used in engineering of a process control system with first information indicating elements included in the drawings and second information indicating relationships between the elements. Also, the rule storage unit 122 may store description rules for drawings to be processed such as search. Drawing description rules are different notation rules for each drawing. The rule storage unit 122 may store at least one piece of information related to a rule necessary for drawing processing.

The drawing storage unit 123 stores the data of the drawing 133 . The drawings use a number of elements to represent large-scale systems, such as plants. In the drawing, the type and attribute information of each element, the arrangement of the elements, and the like are defined. Attribute information is information indicating properties of elements, operating conditions, and the like, and at least one piece of attribute information is assigned to each element in a drawing. For example, as the property of the element "tank", attribute information indicating the material of the tank (for example, made of stainless steel) may be added. Alternatively, for example, as an operation condition, for example, when the amount of contents exceeds a certain value (for example, 500 liters), a value that is a condition for performing a specific operation may be given as attribute information. In addition, information indicating which element exists upstream or downstream between two elements in the drawing that are in a connection relationship with each other is predetermined, and such information is stored in the drawing 133 itself. good too. Information indicating which of the connected elements is upstream or downstream is determined from the positional relationship on the drawing, for example, the upper left of the drawing corresponds to the upstream. Alternatively, it may be information such as From/To in digital P&ID, for example. Part or all of the information stored in the group storage unit 121 , the rule storage unit 122 and the drawing storage unit 123 may be stored in the external storage device 140 . Drawings are stored as vector data, etc. in digital P&ID, etc. Instead, drawings written on paper (handwritten drawings, drawings created by CAD, etc. and printed out, etc.) are scanned. It may be held as acquired bitmap data or data converted into a different format (for example, raster data, vector data, etc.).

The communication unit 13 includes any communication module that can be communicatively connected with other devices such as the input unit 14, the display unit 15, or the terminal 130 by any communication technology. The communication unit 13 may further include a communication control module for controlling communication with other devices, and a storage module for storing communication data such as identification information required for communication with other devices.

The input unit 14 includes one or more input interfaces that receive input operations by the user 201 and acquire input information based on the operations by the user 201 . In this embodiment, as an example, the case where the input unit 14 is configured by a touch screen provided integrally with the display of the display unit 15 will be described. Alternatively, the input unit 14 may be configured by physical keys, capacitive keys, a keyboard, a pointing device, or the like. A region in the drawing may be selected by moving a cursor or the like to a desired position by operating a pointing device, trackball, touch pad, or the like.

The display unit 15 is a display that displays an image showing information such as drawings to the user 201 . The display unit 15 is configured by, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic EL (Electro-Luminescence) display. At least one of the input unit 14 and the display unit 15 described above may be configured integrally with the information processing device 10 or may be provided separately. For example, the information processing apparatus 10 may specialize exclusively in processing, and the user may check the display on the display unit of the terminal 120, the terminal 130, or the like that receives the processing result.

The functions of the information processing apparatus 10 can be realized by executing a program (computer program) according to the present embodiment with a processor included in the control unit 11 . That is, the functions of the information processing device 10 can be realized by software. The program causes the computer to execute the processing of steps included in the operation of the information processing apparatus 10, thereby causing the computer to realize functions corresponding to the processing of each step. That is, the program is a program for causing a computer to function as the information processing apparatus 10 according to this embodiment.

The program can be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium. A computer-readable recording medium is, for example, a magnetic recording device, an optical disk, a magneto-optical recording medium, or a semiconductor memory. Program distribution is performed, for example, by selling, assigning, or lending a portable recording medium such as a DVD or CD-ROM on which the program is recorded. "DVD" is an abbreviation for Digital Versatile Disc. "CD-ROM" is an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read Only Memory. The program may be distributed by storing the program in the storage of the server and transferring the program from the server to another computer via the network. A program may be provided as a program product.

A computer temporarily stores, for example, a program recorded on a portable recording medium or a program transferred from a server in a main storage device. Then, the computer reads the program stored in the main storage device with the processor, and executes processing according to the read program with the processor. The computer may read the program directly from the portable recording medium and execute processing according to the program. The computer may execute processing according to the received program every time the program is transferred from the server to the computer. Such processing may be executed by a so-called ASP-type service that implements functions only by executing instructions and obtaining results without transferring a program from a server to a computer. "ASP" is an abbreviation for Application Service Provider. The program includes information that is used for processing by a computer and that conforms to the program. For example, data that is not a direct instruction to a computer but that has the property of prescribing the processing of the computer corresponds to "things equivalent to a program."

A part or all of the functions of the information processing device 10 may be implemented by a dedicated circuit included in the control section 11 . That is, part or all of the functions of the information processing device 10 may be realized by hardware. Further, the information processing device 10 may be realized by a single information processing device, or may be realized by cooperation with a plurality of information processing devices, terminals 120 and 130, and the like.

Terminal 120 is an information processing device used by user 202 . The terminal 130 is an information processing device used by the user 203 . In this embodiment, an example in which the user 201 operates the information processing apparatus 10 via the input unit 14 and the display unit 15 will be described. may be used.

The external storage device 140 is a storage device that complements the storage of the storage unit 12 of the information processing device 10 . As described above, the external storage device 140 may store part or all of the information stored in the group storage section 121, the rule storage section 122, and the drawing storage section 123. FIG. The external storage device 140 can be realized by any storage device such as HDD or SSD.

(Operation example)
2 to 4 are diagrams showing examples of screens of the display unit 15 connected to the information processing apparatus 10. FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the screen of the display unit 15 displays a drawing display area 151 showing the configuration of the plant and a display area 152 showing information on an element group selected in the drawing.

FIG. 2 shows an example in which the user 201 selects a region 21 in the drawing by a touch operation 81 on the touch panel, and selects an element group (group) consisting of valve, element A, and element B elements. there is The selection of the element group may be performed by a cursor movement operation or the like using a pointing device or the like instead of a touch operation on the touch panel using a finger, a touch pen, or the like.

The selected element group, its arrangement, attribute information, and the like may be stored in the group storage section 121 of the storage section 12 as registered group information. In the example of FIG. 2, the selected element group is the second registered group, and is assigned an identifier of group No. 002. The information processing apparatus 10 may store a large number of groups of elements so that they can be reused later.

FIG. 2 shows an example in which a display area 31 for elements related to a selected group and a display area 32 for information such as attribute information set for the group are displayed in the display area 152 on the right side of the screen. The display area 152 may be used as a UI (User Interface) for the user 201 to refer to information about the group, edit, analyze information, or perform operations such as screen transitions. The information displayed in the display area 152 may be displayed in a pop-up window or the like in the vicinity of the area 21 selected by the user 201 in the drawing.

FIG. 3 explains the process of searching the drawing for an element group that matches the element group contained in the area 21 . When the user 201 selects the area 21 and selects an element group, the control unit 11 of the information processing apparatus 10 selects the element group as a search element group, and selects an element group matching the search element group from the drawing. The searched element group is displayed together with the drawing displayed on the display unit 15 .

In the example of FIG. 3, the element group selected by the user consists of three elements, valve, element A, and element B, from upstream. First, the control unit 11 searches the drawing for the same valve as the most upstream valve included in the search element group (attribute information, for example, a valve that matches required conditions such as model number and settings). Next, the control unit 11 checks whether there is an element A connected adjacently downstream of the searched valve. Next, the control unit 11 confirms whether the element B exists at the most downstream. The control unit 11 determines that they are in the same group when all the elements and arrays match the search element group. In the example of FIG. 3, element groups 21 to 24 in FIG. 3 are extracted as candidates until the process of retrieving element A. FIG. However, since the element group 23 has an element C different from the search element group as the most downstream element, the control unit 11 determines that the element group 23 does not belong to the search target.

In this way, the control unit 11 specifies, for example, the most upstream element among the element groups included in the search element group as a priority element to be prioritized, and searches for an element that matches the priority element in the drawing. . Next, starting from the priority element, the control unit 11 sequentially determines whether or not other adjacent elements match the search element group. Therefore, even if a priority element is detected, if the adjacent elements do not match, the process of matching the priority element with the search element group is interrupted at the point of time when the priority element does not match, so it is possible to improve the efficiency of the process. be. Note that the control unit 11 determines which of at least two elements having a connection relationship with each other in at least one drawing is the upstream element based on the connection relationship of the elements based on the information of the drawing. Specifically, for example, information indicating which element exists upstream or downstream between two elements having a connection relationship with each other is predetermined, and the control unit 11 refers to this information. , may identify an element that is upstream. Alternatively, for example, if there is a description rule that an element further upstream in the drawing is described on the left or above, the control unit 11 determines the positions of a plurality of elements that are connected to each other based on the description rule. Relationships may be referenced to determine which element is upstream. At that time, in the drawings, in principle, elements located further upstream are described on the left or above, but for certain fluids (e.g., gases), elements located further upstream are described below. If rules are applied, the control unit 11 may determine elements further upstream based on such writing rules. Alternatively, as already mentioned, if the drawing itself holds information indicating which of the elements exists upstream or downstream (From/To in digital P&ID, etc.), the control unit 11 may be used to determine upstream elements. In addition, the priority element is not limited to the most upstream element in the search element group, but the priority element in the rule data stored in the rule storage unit 122 etc. in the system or may be set according to the user's designation.

Note that the control unit 11 searches for an element group determined to match the search element group, the type of each element constituting the element group, the attribute information held by each element, and the arrangement (connection order) between the elements. An element group that matches the element group is searched from the drawing, but the criteria for judging that the element group matches the search element group are not limited to this. For example, the control unit 11 determines that, even if at least part of the attribute information is not the same, if the element group matches the element group in terms of the type of each element constituting the element group and the arrangement between the elements, the search element A search may be made as a group of elements matching the group. The control unit 11 may receive a setting from the user 201 as to what range of element group is to be determined as an element group matching the search element group. Such settings that are frequently used may be stored in the rule storage unit 122 or the like and used as necessary. New settings made by the user or changes to existing settings may also be stored in the rule storage unit 122 and reused.

FIG. 4 shows an example in which an element group that matches the element group included in the area 21 of the display area 151 is retrieved from the drawing and displayed. The control unit 11 may cause the display unit 15 to display the drawing so that the retrieved element group is displayed in a manner different from other elements. In FIG. 4, element groups 21, 25, and 26 determined to match search element group 21 are displayed in a manner different from other elements. For example, the control unit 11 may display the elements that match the search element group in a color different from that of other elements, or display them with a specific mark. Alternatively, the control unit 11 may display the searched element group by changing the line type or adding information specifying the group such as the group number or group name. The control unit 11 may display a combination of any of the above. In this way, the searched element group is displayed on the display unit 15 in a manner different from other elements. It is possible to recognize

In the example of FIG. 4, the display area 33 on the right side of the screen displays the number of element groups searched as element groups matching the search element group. In the display area 33, there are three element groups matching the search element group in the drawing displayed in the display area 152, and the entire drawing including other pages not displayed in the display area 152 (for example, plant (the entire drawing) indicates that there are 45 locations.

The display area 34 in FIG. 4 displays the distribution of element groups that match the search element group in the entire plant. A frame 341 indicates a portion displayed in the display area 151 . Rectangles 342, 343, and 344 respectively indicate areas in the entire plant where search target element groups exist. There are 10 element groups that match the search element group in the constituent elements of the rectangle 342 , and 3 element groups among them are displayed in the display area 151 . The component of the rectangle 343 has 15 element groups that match the search element group, and the component of the rectangle 344 has 20 element groups that match the search element group. In the example of FIG. 4, the distribution of element groups matching the search element group is shown by rectangular display, but the display method is not limited to this. For example, the control unit 11 indicates the presence of one element group with a dot, indicates the presence and degree of concentration of the element group with the degree of density, or uses circles or the like of different sizes according to the number of element groups. A geometric figure may be shown. Also, the control unit 11 may display only images according to the distribution of element groups that match the search element group, or may display both such images and the number of element groups. In this way, the control unit 11 may cause the display unit 15 to display an image showing the distribution of the searched element groups in each drawing. The user 201 can easily grasp where in the drawing the searched element group exists by referring to the image showing the distribution of the searched element group. Such a display is useful when it is desired to specialize in a certain group in the design and maintenance of drawings. Such work may include modifying elements or checking the distribution of search elements. Further, the control unit 11 may set a specific area selected by the user 201 instead of the entire plant as a search target range, and then search for an element group that matches the search element group.

When the element group designated by the user 201 is registered (stored in the storage unit 12 as a search element group) and the element group matching the element group is extracted from the drawing, the control unit 11 detects the position of the extracted element group. Information may be stored in the storage unit 12 . The position information of the element group is, for example, the page (or drawing number) of the drawing to be divided, the layer when multiple drawings are superimposed, the coordinates in the drawing that specify the location of the element group, and the element group It may be at least one of information such as the number of existing pipes or wiring, or the number of pipes from a reference pipe or the like. By storing such information, the information processing apparatus 10 can use the information of the group once detected without re-searching.

Note that when a search element group is selected, the control unit 11 automatically selects an element group that matches the search element group without an explicit search or search result registration instruction from the user 201. A search may be made from among them, and the position information and the like of the searched element group may be stored in the storage unit 12 . Thereby, the user 201 can use the search results as needed. For example, the user 201 can easily extract a group using a tablet terminal or the like while away from home, and later, when he/she does work such as drawing editing in earnest, the information of the search result automatically stored can be used. can be used.

Further, in the present embodiment, after the control unit 11 determines whether the upstream valve and the element A adjacent to the downstream thereof are compatible, if the next downstream element is not compatible with the element B (for example, the element C ) is simply regarded as not matching the element group, and processing is interrupted for that element, but different processing may be performed as necessary. For example, if the upstream valve and element A are compatible and differ only in the last element, then there is commonality between the search elements and the elements verifying compatibility. Depending on the case, there may be a case where the work becomes more efficient if processing is performed based on this commonality. Therefore, when the control unit 11 detects that the valve and the element A match, even if the next element (element B) does not match, the storage unit stores the element group in which a plurality of elements match the search element group. 12 may be stored. At this time, the control unit 11 may classify the downstream elements as elements C, elements D, and so on, and store the element groups in the storage unit 12 . By performing such processing, when searching for one group (search element group), a higher-level group that is part of the search element group and contains a smaller number of common element groups is extracted and used later. can be reused as needed. For example, the control unit 11 positions the initially selected element group consisting of the valve, the element A, and the element B as a variation (lower group) of the higher-order "group including the valve and the element A upstream", and the storage unit 12 may be stored in An example of hierarchizing element groups will be described in detail in the fourth and fifth embodiments.

(Operating procedure)
Next, operation of the information processing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The operation of the information processing apparatus 10 described with reference to FIG. 5 corresponds to the information processing method according to the present embodiment, and the operation of each step is executed under the control of the control section 11 . FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing an operation example of the information processing device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S<b>1 , the control unit 11 receives selection of an element group on the drawing by the user 201 operating the input unit 14 . The element group selected here can be a group of elements that perform a certain function. Specifically, the control unit 11 accepts the selection of the element group by operating the touch panel or the like, but instead of this, the selection of the element group may be accepted by moving the cursor by operating the pointing device or the like. An advanced method for selecting element groups will also be described in the seventh and eighth embodiments. It should be noted that step S1 can be omitted because the element group that has already been selected (stored in the storage unit 12) may be used as the search element group without the user making a new selection.

In step S2, the control unit 11 causes the storage unit 12 to store the selected element group. Thereby, the control unit 11 registers the selected element group. Specifically, the control unit 11 stores in the storage unit 12 the types of the elements forming the group and the connection relationship or arrangement of the elements. If necessary, the control unit 11 also stores attribute information given to each element in the storage unit 12 . Furthermore, the control unit 11 may set search conditions for searching for an element group in a drawing according to a user's instruction. That is, the control unit 11 (a) consists of search element groups and elements having the same type of element and the same arrangement between elements, even if the attribute information of at least a part of each element is different. If it is an element group, search as an element group that matches the search element group, or (b) the search element group, the type of each element that constitutes the element group, the attribute information given to each element, and the element The user may accept a search condition setting such as whether or not to search only for a group of elements with matching arrays between them. Alternatively, the control unit 11 may receive a setting to the effect that elements having attribute information within a certain range are considered to have the same attribute information. These search conditions may be selected from setting conditions stored in the rule storage unit 122 or the like, may be customized by the user, or may be newly set by the user. In either case, the setting conditions may be stored in the rule storage unit 122 and reused thereafter.

In step S3, the control unit 11 searches the drawing for an element that matches the priority element to be prioritized among the elements included in the selected search element group. Specifically, the control unit 11 searches the drawing for an element group that matches the search element group, with the element located further upstream as the priority element. A search for a search element group is performed using the rules stored in the rule storage unit 122 described above. As a result of the search, if the priority element exists in the drawing (YES in step S3), the control unit 11 proceeds to step S4, and if not (NO in step S3), ends the processing of the flowchart.

In step S4, the control unit 11 searches for an element that matches the element adjacent to the priority element included in the search element group, from the elements that are adjacent to the element that matches the retrieved priority element in the drawing. After sequentially repeating such processing, the control unit 11 determines whether or not there is an element other than the priority element among the searched element groups that matches the searched element group. If it exists (YES in step S4), the process proceeds to step S5, and if it does not exist (NO in step S4), the process ends.

In step S5, the control unit 11 determines that the searched element group (location on the drawing satisfying all element types/arrangements) matches the element group selected in step S1.

In step S<b>6 , the control unit 11 causes the storage unit 12 to store information regarding the retrieved element group, such as position information. In step S<b>6 , the control unit 11 may cause the storage unit 12 to store information about where the retrieved element group exists in the drawing, and then terminate the processing of the flowchart. That is, the processes corresponding to S7 and S8 are not essential and may be omitted. Once the element group is retrieved and the positional information of the corresponding element is stored, the information can be called up and used when display on the drawing or other processing is required. After that, the control unit 11 may allow the user to refer to the information and confirm where the element group is as necessary, or may call the information to display the position information when processing is required. .

In step S7, the control unit 11 causes the display unit 15 to display a graphic indicating the elements included in the retrieved element group in a manner different from that of the other elements. For example, retrieved elements may be highlighted. Note that the process of step S7 may be performed only when the user instructs to display the retrieved element group in a manner different from other elements.

In step S8, the control unit 11 may cause the display unit 15 to display an image showing the distribution of the retrieved element groups in each drawing. The process of step S8 may be performed only when the user instructs to display the distribution of the searched element group.

It should be noted that the drawing to be searched for the element group may be a plurality of drawings instead of one drawing. Moreover, the drawings to be searched may not only represent the same plant in one drawing, but may represent the same plant in a plurality of drawings. Alternatively, the drawings to be retrieved may be drawings of a plurality of plants instead of drawings relating to the same plant. One drawing may be held as one file, or may be held as a plurality of files. Also, each of a plurality of drawings may be held as one file, or a plurality of drawings may be collectively held as one file. Any number of drawings can be searched regardless of the number of data holding folders, data sheets, and the like.

As described above, the information processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment accepts from the user a selection of a search element group, which is an element group including at least one element used in at least one drawing. Specifically, for example, the information processing apparatus 10 accepts selection of at least one element by the user in any one of the drawings included in the at least one drawing displayed on the display unit 15, and selects an element composed of the selected element. Let the group be a search element group. Then, the information processing apparatus 10 searches at least one drawing for an element group that matches the selected search element group, and causes the display unit 15 to display the searched element group so that its position on the drawing can be identified. In this manner, since an element group matching the element group selected by the user is automatically retrieved and displayed on the display unit 15 in correspondence with the position on the drawing, the user does not need to visually extract the element group. It is possible to easily extract all element groups that match a specific element group from the drawing with a small number of man-hours. In addition, since selection of the search target element group is accepted on the drawing displayed on the display unit 15, the user can easily select the search target element group. Therefore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to improve the efficiency of the work of selecting an element group in a complicated and huge number of drawings, reduce work time and personnel costs, and reduce work mistakes.

In this embodiment, in step S1, the user selects a group of search elements from the drawing displayed on the display unit 15 using, for example, the advanced techniques of the seventh and eighth embodiments. However, the method of selecting the search element group is not limited to selecting from within the drawing. For example, the control unit 11 may display the configuration and shape of a plurality of search element group candidates in a diagram or the like at a position outside the drawing separately from the drawing displayed on the display unit 15, or register (storage unit 12) are selectably displayed as menu information in text or the like so that the user can select a desired search element group. Alternatively, for example, the control unit 11 may provide a UI for the user to specify a desired search element group.

In addition, the information processing apparatus 10, in accordance with the settings of the user, the search element group, the element group in which the type of each element constituting the element group and the arrangement between the elements match, or in addition to these, given to each element The drawing is searched for a group of elements that match the specified attribute information. Therefore, the information processing apparatus 10 can provide a search element group, an element group consisting of elements of the same type and arrangement between the elements constituting the element group, or, in addition to these, attribute information given to each element. It is possible to automatically search for groups of elements that even match Regarding matching of attribute information, complete matching, partial matching (major or specified matching), etc. may be freely set by changing settings or specifying by the user. The latter is selected if they can be regarded as identical as long as their main attribute information matches. For example, information that naturally differs between elements in a drawing, such as tag No., is excluded from conformance determination. Such rule information for determination may also be stored in a rule storage unit or the like and used as necessary.

Further, the information processing apparatus 10 searches the drawing for an element that matches the priority element to be prioritized among the elements included in the search element group, and then finds an element that is adjacent to the priority element included in the search element group. search for an element that matches the retrieved priority element from the elements that are adjacent to the element that matches the retrieved priority element. Specifically, for example, the information processing apparatus 10 sequentially retrieves the elements included in the retrieval element group from the upstream element. As described above, the information processing apparatus 10 searches the elements included in the search element group in order from the priority element to narrow down the search target, so efficient search is possible. In other words, when searching for an element group consisting of three elements in the drawing, the control unit 11 skips a portion where there is no first element (priority element), and even if there is a first element, If it turns out that there is no adjacent second element, the search is interrupted as non-matching at that point. Therefore, according to this embodiment, an efficient search can be performed without performing useless processing.

<Second embodiment>
In this embodiment, by executing a common process selected by the user 201 for each of the same plurality of element groups, it is possible to collectively perform the same process on each element group with a simple operation. Describe an enabling configuration. The same reference numerals are assigned to the configurations common to those of the first embodiment, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

(Operation example)
In the second embodiment, the control unit 11 first acquires and registers a plurality of identical element groups each including at least one element used in at least one drawing. As in the first embodiment, the control unit 11 may acquire the same plurality of element groups by searching the drawing for the same element group as the element group selected by the user. may be acquired by reading out from the storage unit 12 the same plurality of element groups stored in the .

An example of executing processing such as correction on a plurality of registered element groups will be described below. 6 to 8 are diagrams showing examples of screens of the display unit 15 connected to the information processing apparatus 10. FIG. 6 to 8, the same element group as the element group consisting of the valve, element A, and element B included in region 21 is selected (obtained) in advance. As shown in the display area 152, the same element group as the element group consisting of the valve, the element A, and the element B included in the area 21 is displayed at three locations in the drawing currently displayed in the display area 151. There are 45 locations in the entire drawing including this drawing (drawing of the entire plant, etc.). The control unit 11 may highlight the locations where these element groups exist in the drawing by changing the color or the like.

In FIG. 6, the user 201 selects an area 21 (element group within) as a processing target. The user 201 moves the cursor displayed on the screen by specifying the portion indicated by 81 by touching the touch panel with a finger or a touch pen, or by operating a pointing device including a trackball, etc., and the element group via the UI 36. Select the action to be performed on (group). In the example of FIG. 6, "change" is selected. Next, the user 201 sets the changed contents. In the example of FIG. 6, as indicated by the display areas 37 and 38, the user 201 has set the processing to change the element B indicated by the circular symbol to that indicated by the square symbol. User 201 then selects, via display area 39, the extent to which the changes are to be applied. In the example of FIG. 6, "Apply only to the currently selected area" targets only the currently selected area 21 (1 location) and "Whole drawing "Apply to" is displayed as an option. Options are not limited to these. "applied to a part of drawings" etc. may be prepared. A case where "apply to entire drawing" is selected will be described below.

The control unit 11 corrects one of the same element groups that exist in the drawing (by specifying the element group to be processed, the processing content, and, if necessary, the range to be processed) to change the drawing Modifications can also be applied to the same group of elements elsewhere in the . As shown in FIG. 7, in a plurality of element groups 41 to 43 consisting of valves, elements A, and elements B, element B indicated by a circular symbol is changed to B indicated by a rectangular symbol. . The control unit 11 may highlight the places to which changes are to be applied (the changes have been applied) in a different manner so that such places can be identified. When the user specifies the element group 21 to be processed in the drawing as shown in FIG. 6, and the position of the same element group existing in the drawing is indicated as shown in FIG. If it has been searched in the past (stored in the storage unit 12) and has already been stored in the storage unit 12 together with specific information (for example, positional information) in the drawing after searching from within the drawing, re-searching is unnecessary. . In such a case, when the user designates the element group 21 that has been searched in the past, the information processing apparatus 10 immediately uses the searched information to search the past in the drawing, as shown in FIG. The parts of the group of elements 42 and 43 that are marked are displayed in a manner different from the others. On the other hand, when the user designates the element group 21 to be processed, and if this is an element group not stored in the storage unit 12 (unsearched), the information processing apparatus 10 displays the element group in the drawing. is searched for and stored in the storage unit 12 together with specific information (for example, positional information) in the drawing. When the search is executed, the information processing apparatus 10 displays the searched element groups 42 and 43 in the drawing in a manner different from the others as shown in FIG. showing the part).

Note that the control unit 11 may accept setting of conditions such as "connected to an upstream tank" through a condition setting window or the like, and collectively change only those that meet such conditions. At that time, the control unit 11 may display information such as "15 locations in the entire drawing/1 location corresponding to the condition" to notify the user of the number of all element groups and the number of element groups that meet the conditions. good. The control unit 11 accepts a change from a group list or a UI for group editing such as the display area 44 in FIG. May accept changes. Here, the process of changing the element B indicated by the circular symbol to the one indicated by the rectangular symbol is described as an example, but the content of the process is not limited to this. Changes and modifications, or substitutions of elements, etc. may be made. The processing to be executed collectively on a plurality of element groups is not limited to these, as long as the processing is applicable to the element groups.

Further, the control unit 11 displays the UI 45 shown in FIG. 8 or the like, and when the correction part is selected, the user 201 selects whether the process to be performed from now on is an individual change or a collective change to be applied to the entire drawing. You may make it possible. Further, after selecting group collective selection change, the control unit 11 displays a UI for selecting the applicable range such as "whole drawing" or "part (with conditions)" and a UI for inputting conditions, and displays the user's input. A selection may be accepted. Here, the condition is a condition for narrowing down the target element group for change processing from the registered element group. 0” and so on. In the example of FIG. 8, there are options of "change only here" (only 21 selected), "conditional change", and "change entire drawing". Conditions such as "there is a tank upstream" are set on the condition setting screen. When a condition is selected by the user, the control unit 11 may display quantity information such as “the entire drawing: 15 locations” and “one location that satisfies the set condition” and information regarding their position distribution. good.

The control unit 11 responds to the user 201, who does not recognize that the location to be processed is a location that has been registered (detected) as an element group, designates a location in the drawing to be processed (for example, changed). may be used to indicate that it is a group registered element group. The control unit 11 may display the message "Registered (searched)" or the number assigned at the time of registration, or may display the relevant portion in the drawing in a manner different from the others. The control unit 11 may display information such as the number of element groups in the drawing. If the element group is unregistered, the control unit 11 may display a message such as "Unregistered", which is information for recognizing it, or immediately execute an element group search from within the drawing. , information on the corresponding element group (position and number in the drawing) may be displayed. In addition, when changing, the user may be allowed to select whether to individually change only the portion specified by the user 201, or to collectively change a predetermined portion of the drawing or the entire drawing.

(Operating procedure)
Next, operations of the information processing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 9A to 9C. The operation of the information processing apparatus 10 described with reference to FIGS. 9A to 9C corresponds to the information processing method according to this embodiment, and the operation of each step is executed under the control of the control section 11. FIG. 9A to 9C are flowcharts showing an operation example of the information processing device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S11, the control unit 11 receives designation of an element group (search element group) to be processed on the drawing from the user. If this search element group is specified for the first time and is an unsearched element group that has not yet been stored in the storage unit 12, it is necessary to newly search the drawing. If the search element group has already been designated, or has been searched and stored in the storage unit 12, it will be described in step S4 of FIG. 9B.

In step S12, the control unit 11 searches the drawing for an element group that matches the search element group specified by the user. The element group search may be performed, for example, by the method described in the first embodiment.

In step S13, the control unit 11 searches the drawing for an element group that matches the search element group specified by the user, and stores information specifying them (for example, position information specifying the position in each drawing). Store in section 12 . If no further processing is to be performed immediately, the control unit 11 may end the processing of the flowchart here. The element group stored in the storage unit 12 can be called and used later when processing is required. The processing up to this point is for retrieving an unretrieved element group from the drawing, and when processing the retrieved element group, the processing is performed according to the flow of FIG. 9B. If time has passed since the process of FIG. 9A, the process may be performed from S14 (selection of element group) of FIG. 9B. On the other hand, when the element group selected and searched in FIG. 9A is to be processed as it is, the element group has already been selected, so the processes from S15 onward in FIG. 9B may be performed.

In step S14, the control unit 11 receives from the user a specification of an element group to be processed on the drawing. If this element group has been searched in the past (search results have been stored in the storage unit 12), the control unit 11 determines that the element group has been registered (searched/stored) in response to the designation of the element group. completed) is displayed on the display unit 15 to notify the user. The control unit 11 may display the corresponding element group on the drawing in a manner different from the others. Alternatively, the control unit 11 may display text information or a mark such as "searched (registered) element group" on the drawing or on a menu or work screen outside the drawing for the corresponding element group. Note that if the element group designated as the processing target has not yet been retrieved, the retrieval processing of FIG. 9A is performed. At this time, since the element group has already been specified, the processing from step S12 onwards should be performed.

In step S15, if the element group has been searched, the control unit 11 receives from the user the designation of the processing content for the selected element group. The processing for the element group is alteration, modification, replacement with a different element group, conversion to a different data format, or the like. For example, a process of replacing all or part of the elements included in the element group with at least one element selected by the user, a process of changing at least one of the element type and arrangement, or an attribute of at least one of the elements It includes processing for changing information, and the like.

In step S16, the control unit 11 receives from the user a specification of the range to which the process is applied. The control unit 11 may accept, for example, any one of the following (1) to (3) as the applicable range.
(1) If the user designates the entire drawing, all element groups present in the drawing that match the element group selected in step S11 or S14 are processed. For example, if there are 100 element groups in a drawing, all of the 100 element groups are processed. "Change the entire drawing" in FIG. 8 is an example of (1).
(2) It is desired to collectively process multiple element groups, but the object to be processed is a part of the element group in the drawing that matches the element group selected in step S11 or S14. If only for groups, the user sets the conditions to specify the scope of the treatment. For example, you can select only the drawings currently displayed on the screen, select the range of applicable drawings from the screen, or select only element groups that meet specific conditions (for example, those with tanks upstream) May be specified to apply the action only to the specified range. Assuming that the number of element groups to be processed in this case is X, 1<X<100. "Conditional change" in FIG. 8 is an example of (2).
(3) It is also possible to process only one element group selected by touching the touch panel on the drawing or by specifying the cursor. In this case, the number of element groups to be processed is one. "Change only here" in FIG. 8 is an example of (3).
In any of the cases (1) to (3), as illustrated in the drawing, a UI (user interface) may be used to assist the user in selecting a range. In a state in which the element group is selected, an option may be displayed to select which range to apply the process to. The range may be designated by a setting input by the user. An example of the UI is indicated by 39 in FIG. 6 and 81 in FIG.

In step S17, the control unit 11 collectively performs the processing specified in step S16 for each element group in the application range specified in step S16. For example, when (1) is selected in step S16, the control unit 11 processes all element groups present in the drawing that match the element group selected in step S11 or S14. If (2) or (3) is selected in step S16, the control unit 11 processes only the corresponding element group. Then, the control unit 11 ends the processing of the flowchart.

In the above, the flowcharts are divided into FIGS. 9A and 9B to describe the operation of the control unit 11, but these flowcharts may be one flow (operation) to which determination processing is added. That is, when the selection of the element group is received in step S14, the control unit 11 determines whether or not the element group has been searched. may be processed. In this case, if the processing is to be performed following S13, the designation of the processing content of S15 may be accepted, and if the processing is not to be performed immediately, the processing may be terminated in S13. An example of a processing flow having such determination processing is shown in FIG. 9C. In FIG. 9C, the processing of step S91 is the same as step S11 of FIG. 9A and step S14 of FIG. 9B. In step S92, the control unit 11 determines whether or not the selected element group has been searched before. If the search has been completed (YES in step S92), the control section 11 proceeds to step S96, and if the search has not been completed (NO in step S92), the process proceeds to step S93. The processes of steps S93 and S94 are the same as steps S12 and S13 of FIG. 9A. In step S95, the control unit 11 determines whether or not to immediately perform processing. For example, the control unit 11 may determine that the process is to be performed immediately if the user gives an instruction within a certain period of time after performing the process of step S94. The control unit 11 proceeds to step S96 if the process is to be performed immediately (YES in step S95), and terminates the process otherwise (NO in step S95). The processing of steps 96 to 98 is the same as steps S15 to S17 in FIG. 9B. After completing the process of step S98, the control unit 11 ends the process of the flowchart.

As described above, the information processing apparatus 10 performs the processing selected by the user on each of the same plurality of element groups in the drawing, so that the same processing can be collectively performed on each element group with a simple operation. It is possible to do Further, in response to receiving a selection of a process for one of the element groups included in the plurality of element groups, the information processing apparatus 10 applies the process to each of the element groups included in the plurality of element groups. run against. Therefore, the information processing apparatus 10 can perform common processing without omission on all element groups included in the plurality of element groups.

In addition, the information processing apparatus 10 performs, as common processing, collective replacement of an element group (an element group itself or a part of an element within an element group), collective change of at least one of element type and arrangement, and element attribute Since selection of arbitrary processing such as collective change of information is accepted, the user can efficiently execute desired processing. Further, the information processing apparatus 10 may cause the display unit 15 to display a plurality of element groups to be subjected to common processing in a manner different from elements not included in the plurality of element groups. That is, the control unit 11 highlights the element group so that the position of the element group can be easily identified in the drawing. For example, the control unit 11 may change the color or line type, attach a symbol, or display a combination of these as the highlighting. Therefore, the user can easily confirm the element group for which the common processing is collectively performed. Furthermore, the information processing apparatus 10 may search a drawing for an element group that matches the search element group selected by the user, and acquire a plurality of element groups. Thereby, the information processing apparatus 10 can automatically acquire a plurality of element groups on which common processing is collectively performed.

It should be noted that the above processing (group replacement and setting change processing) may be executed by the user specifying "change/replace this group (element group) with this content" or the like one by one. Alternatively, the information processing apparatus 10 may detect that a registered group has been changed by a related party and automatically reflect the change. Alternatively, the information processing apparatus 10 may be configured to periodically execute it for each predetermined period based on the change of each person concerned.

<Third Embodiment>
In this embodiment, as an element group matching the search element group selected by the user, a search is automatically performed including not only a completely identical element group but also a partially different element group. A configuration for classifying and storing in the storage unit 12 based on points will be described. According to the configuration of this embodiment, it is possible for the user to easily extract defective or defective elements. The same reference numerals are assigned to the configurations common to those of the first embodiment, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The information processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment also searches for an element group that partially differs from the search element group as matching the search element group. That is, in the configuration of the first embodiment, although attribute conditions and the like to be matched can be set by user settings, in principle, elements that are completely the same as the selected element group are searched. However, if some attribute settings are omitted due to user error, etc., or if there are typographical errors, some elements that are originally the same element group do not match some conditions, resulting in the element group to be searched. It may not be searched. The information processing apparatus 10 of this embodiment also detects such element groups without omission. If the search is omitted, the number of element groups that actually exist in the drawing and the number of detected element groups (which should be originally searched) do not match, causing search omissions, and there are element groups that include errors and defects in the drawing. remain. Extracting each omission by hand or finding and correcting an error would be a lot of work, so this is intended to eliminate the trouble of correction while performing detection without omission. Therefore, the above "partially different element group" refers to an element group that is slightly different from the search element group, and does not include an element group that has a large difference that should be evaluated from another element group. . When the difference from the search element group is slight, it is assumed that there is a difference in attribute information or element notation. Specific examples of partially different element groups are provided in the following description.

10 to 15 are diagrams showing examples of screens of the display unit 15 connected to the information processing apparatus 10. FIG. FIG. 10 shows an example in which the user 201 selects an area 21 in the drawing by touch operation or the like, and selects an element group (group) consisting of elements C, A, and B. . As in the first embodiment, the selection of the element group may be performed by a cursor movement operation or the like using a pointing device or the like instead of the touch operation on the touch panel.

When the user 201 selects the area 21 and selects an element group, the control unit 11 of the information processing apparatus 10 selects the element group as a search element group, and selects an element group matching the search element group from the drawing. search for. The control unit 11 searches not only the same element group as the search element group, but also the element group that is highly likely to be the same but partially different from the drawing. At that time, the control unit 11 may also store information indicating what the different content is (difference). If only the search elements are exactly the same as the search element group, even though they are originally the same (search target), there may be some errors due to typos, missing settings, and missing drawings. There is a possibility that the element group to be searched may be omitted from the search because it is determined as a different element group. The information processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment addresses such a problem by performing a search including not only completely identical element groups but also partially different element groups as element groups matching search element groups. do. The control unit 11 causes the display unit 15 to display the searched element group in correspondence with the position on the drawing.

FIG. 11 shows a screen showing search results. Element group 46 is an element group that matches the search element group. An element group 46 that completely matches the search element group is given a "Correct" mark 47 near it. An element group 53 that partially does not match the search element group is given an "Error?" mark 48 near it, indicating that it does not completely match the search element group. As will be described later with reference to FIG. 12, since the model number of the element B of the element group 53 is different from that of the element B of the search element group, an "Error?" ing. In the display area 49, among the searched element groups, the number of elements that correspond to "Correct" and the elements that correspond to "Error?" The mark 48 of "Error?" In the example of FIG. 11, marks are used for identification, and the element group 46 and the element group 53 are highlighted with the same line type (broken line), but the display method of both may be changed so as to be identifiable. . If it is an expression or symbol that can distinguish two types of elements that are perfectly matched with the search element group without problems, and that the element group is considered to be the same as the search element group but is partially different. , various expressions may be used.

When the user selects the mark 48 of "Error?", the information processing apparatus 10 causes the display unit 15 to display the details of the difference between the element group and the search element group. In FIG. 12, in the element group 53, the figure of the element B is displayed in a color or line type different from that of the other elements, thereby indicating that the element B does not completely match the search element group. . More detailed information is displayed in the display area 152 . In the example of FIG. 12, the model number of the element B of the element group 53 is different from that of the element B of the search element group. A search element group is displayed in the display area 51 . The display area 52 shows the model number “ABC110” of the element B of the search element group. In the display area 54, the model number "ADC110" of the element B of the element group 53 is displayed, and by highlighting the second character "D" of the model number, it can be seen that the character is different from the search element group. is displayed. A "correction execution" button 55 is displayed at the bottom of the display area 152, and selection of a correction instruction by the user can be accepted. The user confirms this information and corrects it based on the fact that the model number "ADC110" does not exist or that ABC110 is incorrect. The information processing apparatus 10 corrects the model number "ADC110" of the element B in the element group 53 to the model number "ABC110" of the element B included in the search element group in response to the selection (execution) of the button 55 by the user 201. .

FIG. 13 shows a display example when the element group 56 and the element group 57 do not completely match the search element group. In the element group 56, the model number of the element B is different from that of the element B in the search element group. Therefore, a "Model No" mark 58 is shown near the element group 56 to indicate that the model number is different from the search element group. The element group 57 differs from the element B of the search element group in that no value is set for the element B. FIG. Therefore, a “Value Blank” mark 59 is shown near the element group 57 to indicate that no value is set. With such a display, the control unit 11 does not determine that an element group that is considered to be the same element group (but has a partial difference) as being different from the search element group because there is a difference, but instead judges it as the same element group. After extracting the element groups (candidates), the user is allowed to recognize "what the different contents are" without performing any special operation.

FIG. 14 shows an example in which the element group 56 and the element group 57 display the content that does not completely match the search element group in association with each element group on the drawing. Since the element group 46 completely matches the search element group, there is no display indicating an abnormality (that there is a difference from the search element group), and the accompanying image 61 displays the correct model number and setting values. ing. The element group 56 displays a "Model No" mark 58 indicating that the model number is different from that of the search element group, and an image 62 indicating the content of the attribute information set for the element group. In the element group 57, a "Value Blank" mark 59 indicating that the value set in the search element group is not set, and an image 63 indicating the contents of the attribute information set in the element group are displayed. there is

Images 62 and 63 display the model numbers of elements that do not completely match the search element group and the contents set in the setting values, and display a "correction" button for correcting these values. are doing. The image 62 displays the model number "ADC110" of the element B of the element group 53, and the letter D, which is the difference (different point) from the search element group, is emphasized. Image 63 displays that no value is set for element B of element group 57 . Therefore, the user 201 refers to the images 61, 62, and 63, and compares the setting contents of each element group to determine in what points the element groups 56 and 57 do not completely match the search element group. can be confirmed. In addition, the user 201 selects (executes) the "correction" button after confirmation, and sets these values to be the same as the search element group (completely matching element group), or an arbitrary value can be modified to When the user 201 selects (executes) the "correction" button, the information processing apparatus 10 corrects only that element, or collectively corrects all elements that do not completely match the search element group. good.

In the images 62 and 63, only two attribute items are displayed for illustration. A correction button may be provided for each item so that correction can be executed for each item. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 14, the control section 11 may allow all items to be collectively corrected with one correction button. The control unit 11 may display a plurality of buttons for "modification of specific items only", "batch modification of all items", and the like, so that the user can select and execute one of them.

Further, the control unit 11 may extract only items that are different from the search element group in a certain element group from many attribute items, and display them in the images 62 and 63 . With such processing, even if there are many items, the user can quickly recognize different items, and the display of the drawing itself is hindered by displaying too much information about the element group. can be prevented. That is, visibility of information can be improved.

The information processing device 10 classifies the searched element group as a set of the same element group (including elements that are highly likely to be the same) based on the differences from the retrieved element group according to the content of the difference, Although stored in the storage unit 12, these retrieved element groups may be displayed on the display unit 15 so that classification based on their differences can be identified. The information processing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment displays a screen in which the searched element group is classified based on the difference from the search element group in response to receiving an instruction to “analyze” the searched element group from the user. indicate. FIG. 15 shows a case where an image 65 for selecting processing to be performed on the selected element group is displayed according to the selection of the area 21, and the user selects the "analyze" button. . The information processing apparatus 10 displays a screen in which the searched element group is classified according to the selection (execution) of the "analyze" button. Although the "analyze" button is also displayed in the display area 152, the information processing apparatus 10 displays a screen in which the searched element group is classified even when the "analyze" button in the display area 152 is selected. .

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of an image 153 showing classification based on differences between element groups. In the example of FIG. 16, the search element group is displayed as "extraction target group X". The element group that is determined to match the search element group (not only the element group that completely matches, but also the elements that are partially different due to the above-mentioned typographical errors, omissions in settings, and setting errors, etc.) 100 are searched in the drawing. Element B included in the search element group has an attribute value (attribute information) of "model: ABC110" and "set value: 22.5".

In the example of FIG. 16, there are 70 element groups that completely match the search element group. The remaining 30 of the retrieved 100 element groups are classified into three types according to their differences from the retrieved element group. In FIG. 16, there are 2 element groups whose differences are geometric deficiencies, 8 whose differences are model number notation errors, and 20 whose differences are unset values for the elements. do. A geometric defect is a problem of notation of an element (symbol), and a notation error of a model number and an unspecified setting value are problems of attribute information.

A geometric defect is that the figure representing element A is distorted. For example, if it is not possible to determine whether the contour of the symbol representing element A is square or circular, it is classified as a geometric defect. Graphic distortion may occur, for example, when a drawing is obtained by scanning. For example, due to problems with the original paper drawing, inclusion of foreign matter, or distortion of the line during the scanning process, the circular symbol may not be a perfect circle, or may be partially missing. and is not recognized. A notation error of the model number means that the "model number" does not match the search element group due to information transmission error or operator's input error. Value not set means that no value is set for the element. The user 201 browses the element group that is at least partially inconsistent with the search element group classified and displayed based on the difference (it should be the same element group as the search element group, but has a defect). Defective or deficient elements therein can be easily identified at a glance.

The information processing apparatus 10 quantifies and manages the degree of matching (similarity), which is a numerical value indicating the degree of matching between an element group that is highly likely to be the same as the search element group but partially different from the search element group. may Calculation of such matching degree will be described with reference to FIGS. 17A to 17C and FIG. 17A to 17C are diagrams showing an example of classification items based on differences between element groups. In FIG. 17A, element group 66 is an element group that exactly matches the search element group. Element group 66 comprises element A, element B, and element C arranged in this order. Among the elements of the element group 66, element A has attribute information 1 (attribute information a1) and attribute information 2 (attribute information a2). Table 67 shows that element group 66 exactly matches the search element group.

Although the element group 68 in FIG. 17B has elements A, element B, and element C of the same kind as the search element group, it has elements A, element C, and element B in that order. and array of elements are different. The rest of the content of element group 68 matches the search element group. Table 69 shows differences between the element group 68 and the search element group. The array columns of element B and element C are inconsistent and marked with "x".

The element group 70 in FIG. 17C is configured by connecting elements A, D, and E in this order, and is identical in that it includes element A, but does not include element B and element C. It differs from the search element group in that the type and arrangement of the elements are different. Also, the element A of the element group 70 differs from the search element group in its graphic and attribute information 2 . Table 71 shows differences between the element group 70 and the search element group. In FIG. 17C, non-matching items are indicated by an "x".

The information processing apparatus 10 may calculate the degree of matching by weighting each item related to the difference between the search element groups such as Tables 67, 69, and 71. FIG. The degree of matching may be calculated according to rules for calculating the degree of matching stored in the rule storage unit 122 . If the elements constituting the element group or the arrangement of the constituent elements are different from the search element group, the degree of matching decreases to 70%, 50%, 30%, etc. as the number of differences increases. If the matching score falls below a predetermined value (eg, 90%), such an element group is a different element group from the search element group in the first place. It will not be retrieved as a valid element.

The information processing apparatus 10 scores the differences according to the degree of importance that determines the similarity or difference, such as -10 points for element differences and -0.5 points for attribute differences, and sums the scores. The value may be added to 100 points to calculate the degree of matching. At this time, the score (deduction) is set high for the difference item that has a large influence on the determination of the degree of coincidence, and the score (deduction) is set low for the difference item that has a small influence. Also, the degree of matching may be displayed in other notations such as percentage display. Alternatively, it is not limited to the demerit system in which a perfect match is 100 points, but a numerical value may be obtained as the "degree of deviation", and the value may be set to 0 for a perfect match, and the higher the degree of deviation, the larger the numerical value.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of scoring based on differences between element groups. In FIG. 18, "criterion" indicates the contents of the search element group. "1a" indicates an element group whose constituent elements, their arrangement, and all set values match the search element group, and a degree of matching of 100 points is calculated. Such elements are evaluated as "exactly the same" as the search elements. The element group "1b" matches the search element group in terms of the constituent elements, their arrangement, and the attributes of element 1 (element C) and element 2 (element A), but the set value of element 3 (element B) The only difference is A difference in the set values of the element 3 is evaluated as -2 points, and the matching degree of the element group of "1b" is calculated as 98 points. If the degree of matching with the search element group is less than a predetermined value (e.g., 90%), the element group should no longer be evaluated as a different element, but the degree of matching is a certain score (e.g., 90 points) It is suspected that the element group described above is the same element group as the search element group, but has been erroneously described for some reason. Therefore, an evaluation of "error?" is made, which indicates that they appear to be identical but contain an error. The element group of "1b" is also evaluated as "Error?". The element group of "1c" includes the search element group, the constituent elements and their arrangement, and the device number of element 3. Other attributes match, but only the device number of element 3 is different. The matching degree of the element group of "1c" is calculated as 95 points, and is evaluated as "error?" The element group of "2" differs from the search element group in the type of element 1 itself, and the element group of "3" differs from the search element group in the arrangement of the elements. Therefore, the degree of coincidence of these element groups is calculated to be less than 90 points, and is evaluated as "different". The information processing apparatus 10 may classify the retrieved element groups based on such scores.

(Operating procedure)
Next, operations of the information processing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The operation of the information processing apparatus 10 described with reference to FIG. 19 corresponds to the information processing method according to this embodiment, and the operation of each step is executed under the control of the control unit 11 . FIG. 19 is a flow chart showing an operation example of the information processing device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S21, the control unit 11 receives from the user a selection of a search element group, which is an element group consisting of at least one element used in at least one drawing. The acquisition of the element group may be performed by searching for the element group selected by the user as described in the first embodiment, or by reading the element group stored in the storage unit 12. good too.

In step S22, the control unit 11 causes the storage unit 12 to store the selected element group. Thereby, the control unit 11 registers the selected element group. This process is the same as step S2 in FIG. This step is unnecessary when reading out and using the element group stored in the storage unit 12 .

In step S23, the control unit 11 searches at least one drawing for an element group that matches the search element group (including those that are thought to match but have some differences). A search is performed using the rules stored in the rule storage unit 122 .

In step S24, if the retrieved element group differs from the retrieval element group, the control unit 11 associates it with the position information of the element group and the information on the difference from the retrieval element group, that is, which item are different, the content of the difference, and at least one of numerical values (matching degree) are stored in the storage unit 12 together. Items related to differences include, for example, incorrect notation, incomplete graphics, missing data, typographical errors, incorrect numbering, or unset information.

In step S25, the control unit 11 displays the retrieved element groups on the display unit 15 so that the classification of the element groups based on the differences can be identified. At this time, the control unit 11 may cause the display unit 15 to display at least one of a character string and an image indicating the type of difference for each classification of the searched element group. And the control part 11 complete|finishes a process.

As described above, the information processing apparatus 10 searches for not only the element group that matches the search element group selected by the user 201, but also the elements that match (highly likely) but are partially different. Search automatically as a group of elements that match the group of search elements including. Then, the information processing apparatus 10 causes the storage unit 12 to store the elements (either as they are or after classifying them as necessary) based on the differences from the search element group. Therefore, the user 201 can refer to the difference information or the result classified based on the difference when the stored information is displayed. Therefore, the user 201 can extract the same element group without omission, including the contents of defects or inadequacies. Further, the information processing apparatus 10 causes the display unit 15 to display the searched element group so that the difference, the classification based on the difference, the analysis result, and the like can be identified. Therefore, the user 201 can view a group of elements that match (highly likely) but are partially different from the group of search elements classified and displayed based on the difference, thereby identifying defects or defects in the drawing. While detecting flawed element groups (elements within the element group) without omission, it is possible to easily grasp what is different at a glance, the degree of agreement (divergence), and the like. At this time, since at least one of a character string and an image indicating the type of difference is displayed for each classification of the searched element group, the user 201 can refer to these to see what the searched element group is. is different from the search element group and where there is a problem can be easily recognized. In addition, the control unit 11 associates the difference between the searched element group and the search element group with a numerical value, and classifies the searched element group into the at least one set of element groups based on the numerical value. The user 201 can easily determine the difference from the search element group, that is, whether there is a defect in the drawing, whether there is an error in writing (erroneous input) in the information, or whether there is an unset value. It also facilitates the confirmation of and the process of optimization by correction.

In at least one of the storage in S24 and the display in S25, the control unit 11 may classify the retrieved element groups based on their differences. That is, the control unit 11 classifies and displays the retrieved element groups at the time of display in S25 (automatically or according to the conditions requested by the user) based on the differences stored in S24. may Alternatively, the control unit 11 may classify the element groups based on the differences in S24, and display the classified contents when displaying in S25. In the example of FIG. 10, the classification is roughly divided into two categories based on the existence or non-existence of differences: "perfect matching (Correct)" and "seemingly identical but with mismatching elements (Error?)". In the example of FIG. 12, the difference itself is displayed so as to be identifiable by an identifier such as a symbol or a color change. In the example of FIG. 16, classification information based on differences such as complete match/difference, which item is different, how many cases are there, and what is the degree of matching when quantified is displayed. It is At least one of these may be used alone, or they may be used in combination. Furthermore, the retrieved element group may be classified in advance by the control unit 11 and stored in the storage unit 12, may be classified when the stored information is displayed, or may be classified in both storage and display. Classification and analysis processes may be performed. The retrieved element groups may be classified by focusing on either the item of difference or the degree of matching, or by using both of them.

In addition, regarding the search in step S23, the control unit 11 sets search conditions for searching for an element group assuming that the element group matches the search element group (high possibility) but partially differs from the search element group. The search may be performed based on the settings received from the user 201 . As a result, the user 201 can set desired search conditions according to usage and purpose.

Further, the control unit 11 accepts from the user a selection of a common process to be performed on each of the element groups belonging to a set to be processed, which is one of the sets included in at least one set of element groups, and The process may be executed for each element group belonging to the set to be processed. Specifically, the information processing apparatus 10 can perform batch processing by performing the same processing as in the second embodiment. As a result, the user 201 can collectively perform the same processing with a simple operation on each element group belonging to the set to be processed, which is one of the sets of element groups classified based on the differences from the search element group. It is possible to do For example, the user 201 can collectively correct the errors only for the elements considered to be typos or errors. Further, the information processing apparatus 10 may accept from the user a selection of a set to be processed from among at least one set of element groups. Based on this value, the user 201 can select a set of targets on which the same processing is collectively performed.

<Fourth Embodiment>
In this embodiment, a configuration will be described in which common element groups are extracted from a plurality of element groups, and the extracted element groups are layered so that they belong to a higher layer than the plurality of element groups. According to this embodiment, the user can work more efficiently by working based on the element group belonging to the higher hierarchy compared to individually working on each of the plurality of element groups in the lower hierarchy. It is possible to proceed with work effectively. The same reference numerals are assigned to the configurations common to those of the first embodiment, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 20 is a diagram schematically showing element groups hierarchized based on element groups included in common. In FIG. 20, element groups 72, 73, and 74 are element groups consisting of three elements, but have an element group 75 in which two elements, element A and element B, are connected. When the information processing apparatus 10 performs some processing such as batch processing on the element group 72, the element group 73, and the element group 74 in the drawing, the processing on the element group 75 is common. many. Processing for the element group may include, for example, design change, replacement of constituent elements, change of data set in the constituent elements, conversion to data of a different format, and the like. When performing processing related to elements A and B, which are constituent elements, rather than focusing on each (three types) of element group 72, element group 73, and element group 74 and performing processing separately. It is more efficient to focus on the element group 75 (one type) common to the element groups and perform common processing. Therefore, the information processing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment extracts a common element group (common element group) from a plurality of element groups that are extracted by the user or stored in the storage unit 12, and extracts the extracted common element group. performs hierarchical processing so that it belongs to a higher hierarchy of multiple element groups.

Next, operation of the information processing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The operation of the information processing apparatus 10 described with reference to FIG. 21 corresponds to the information processing method according to this embodiment, and the operation of each step is executed under the control of the control unit 11 . FIG. 21 is a flow chart showing an operation example of the information processing device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S31, the control unit 11 acquires a first element group and a second element group, which are composed of at least two elements used in at least one drawing. The acquisition of the element group may be performed by searching for the element group selected by the user as described in the first embodiment, or by reading the element group stored in the storage unit 12. good too.

In step S32, the control unit 11 may receive from the user a setting of a condition for extracting an element group that is commonly included in the first element group and the second element group. This step is not required. It is conceivable that the user, who has noticed that the selected element group has common parts, instructs reclassification. It is highly efficient to factor out the common parts and automatically reclassify the multiple element groups, without the user being conscious of it or performing any special work. Execution condition data or the like for extracting common parts stored in the rule storage unit 122 or the like may be used. When using default information, the user does not need to perform any operation or instruction. The user may change this setting as needed. Examples of extraction conditions include the following.
・The number of elements among the elements that are connected to each other in the same array and that are included in common in the first element group and the second element group and that have the same type and attribute information for each corresponding element is the largest.
- At least one element that is commonly included in the first element group and the second element group, and the type of each corresponding element is the same, but the identity of at least a part of the attribute information does not matter. do not have.
- At least one element connected to each other in the same arrangement, which is included in common in the first element group and the second element group, and the type and attribute information of each corresponding element are the same and specified is adjacent to an element of the same kind outside the element group, and the same element outside the element group.
These are just examples, and the control unit 11 extracts an element group consisting of a smaller number of elements among a plurality of original element groups so that the number of connections is the maximum, or extracts at least one element in common. may be extracted. At that time, the control unit 11 may evaluate that the elements are common only when they completely match, including the attribute information, or may evaluate that the elements are common even if some of the attribute information is different. good. Alternatively, the control unit 11 may evaluate the commonality of elements regardless of attribute information. When evaluating the commonality of the elements, such conditions may be used in combination as appropriate. can be set or changed by

In addition, when extracting an element group that is commonly included in three or more element groups, in addition to extracting an element group that is commonly included in all element groups, There may also be a condition to extract elements contained in

By performing hierarchization based on preset conditions (exemplified above), the information processing apparatus 10 can appropriately hierarchize the element group without performing any special work, thereby contributing to work efficiency. It becomes possible. In addition, since the user can arbitrarily set the conditions for extracting the element group commonly included in the first element group and the second element group, the element group can be selected according to the application and purpose. can be appropriately hierarchized. The information processing apparatus 10 may preset one of the conditions exemplified above as a default condition.

In step S33, the control unit 11 automatically extracts a third element group, which is an element group commonly included in the first element group and the second element group, from the first element group and the second element group. to be extracted. Using FIG. 20 as an example, the user can easily select an element group 72 (from upstream, element C, element A, and element B) and an element group 73 (valve, element A, and element B) without being conscious of the relationship between the elements. , element group 75 (element D, element A, element B) are selected at different timings, or multiple users individually select from the drawing (respectively searched from the drawing, positional information on the drawing, etc. are specified) stored in the storage unit together with the information). Here, the information processing apparatus 10 detects (determines) that these elements have elements A and B in common from upstream, generates an upper layer element group composed of elements A and B, and are hierarchized as element groups of lower hierarchies. This is an example of automatically re-hierarchizing processing based on a common condition (which does not require condition setting, etc.). may be automatically re-hierarchized without the user performing work such as selection. Alternatively, when the extraction condition is selected by the user, based on the conditions selected and set in step S32, the third may be extracted from the first element group and the second element group.

In step S34, the control unit 11 divides the first element group, the second element group, and the third element group so that the third element group is a layer above the first element group and the second element group. be hierarchized to belong to

In step S35, the control unit 11 causes the storage unit 12 to store the first element group, the second element group, and the third element group together with information indicating their hierarchical relationships.

In step S36, the control unit 11 causes the display unit 15 to display an image showing the hierarchical relationship among the first element group, the second element group, and the third element group. The image showing the hierarchical relationship between elements may display the hierarchical relationship in a tree structure as shown in FIG. 20, for example. The image showing the hierarchical relationship between elements may also display the number of element groups belonging to each layer. When the control unit 11 causes the display unit 15 to display such an image, the user can easily understand the hierarchical relationship of the element groups. Note that the control unit 11 may cause the display unit 15 to display the hierarchical relationship between elements using text information instead of images. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 22 or 23, the control unit 11 displays the hierarchical relationship by showing common element groups and displaying higher-level element groups among the element groups selected in the drawing. good too. Then, the process ends.

As described above, in this embodiment, the third element group, which is an element group commonly included in the first element group and the second element group, is automatically extracted, and the third element group is It is hierarchically stored so as to belong to a hierarchy higher than the first element group and the second element group. Therefore, the user can work based on the third element group belonging to a higher hierarchy, and can work more efficiently than working separately on each of the first and second element groups. can proceed.

22 and 23 are diagrams showing an example of element groups classified based on the element groups that they have in common. In FIG. 22, the element group 77 and the element group 78 included in the frame line 80 have an element group consisting of three elements, element A, element B, and element E, as a common element group. On the other hand, an element group 77, an element group 78, and an element group 79 included in the frame line 167 have an element group consisting of two elements, element A and element B, as a common element group. Therefore, from the element group 77, the element group 78, and the element group 79, the element group consisting of the element A, the element B, and the element E, or the element group consisting of the element A and the element B should belong to the upper hierarchy. Extraction as a group can be considered. The user can set which element group is to be extracted as an element group that should belong to a higher hierarchy according to the application and purpose. If it is necessary to process a group of elements consisting of elements A, B, and E, the entirety of the frame line 80 should be processed rather than the individual groups of elements 77 and 78, which is more efficient. good. When the element group consisting of elements A and B needs to be processed in common, it is more efficient not to process the three element groups 77, 78, and 79 individually but to process all the element groups within 167. FIG. Assume that hierarchical information such as that shown in FIG. 22 is displayed in the form of an image or text in the menu of the selected element group (group) when the user intends to process the drawing. In such a case, if the user wants to process the element group of elements A, B, and E, he or she selects the element group indicated by the frame 80, and wants to process the element group of elements A and B. In some cases, a group of elements indicated by a frame line 167 can be selected.

When the user selects the element group 77 (consisting of element C, element A, element B, and element E) on a blank drawing, the control unit 11 displays the elements as shown in FIG. The user may be presented with the existence of a group of superordinate elements consisting of A, B, and E (indicated by frame 80). By controlling the display in this way, after the user selects the element group 77, the element group indicated by the frame line 80 may be designated as the processing target through this. That is, by designating a frame 80 surrounding element A, element B, and element E, it is possible to select the element group indicated by the frame 80 or whether to select the upper element group indicated by the frame 80. Processing on the UI may be performed, such as displaying a selection menu or the like. Further, even if such display assistance is not performed, when the user designates the element group 77 and instructs to execute processing for the elements A, B, and E, "elements A, B, A message asking whether to apply the process to the upper element group 80 including E" may be displayed, and execution/non-execution may be selected. Alternatively, the control unit 11 may automatically perform the necessary processing without such confirmation.

In FIG. 23, the element group 82 and the element group 83 have an element group consisting of elements A and B as a common element group. On the other hand, both the element B of the element group 82 and the element B of the element group 83 are adjacent to the element E existing outside the element group. Therefore, the information processing apparatus 10 may extract the element group consisting of element A, element B, and element E as common element groups 84 and 85, and reconstruct the hierarchical structure of the element group. This is because when the element group selected by the user from the drawing is 82 and 83, the information processing apparatus 10 (control unit 11) detects that the element E is also common even if the user does not intend to, and this may be grouped together as a larger element group and stored in the storage unit 12 as a higher hierarchy, or the user may be presented with the fact that they can be hierarchized.

<Fifth Embodiment>
In this embodiment, focusing on the first element group, an element group that matches the first element group is extracted from the drawing, and the extracted element group is further divided into second and third groups based on predetermined conditions. A configuration that subdivides (generates a lower hierarchy) into a group of elements will be described. According to the configuration of this embodiment, it is possible to focus on a specific element group and efficiently work on an element group that meets the user's desired conditions. The same reference numerals are assigned to the configurations common to those of the first embodiment, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 24 is a diagram schematically showing a process of classifying element groups based on adjacently connected elements. The element group 86 is configured by arranging element C, element A, and element B in this order. The user 201 may wish to perform common processing only on those elements satisfying a certain condition among such element groups. For example, the user 201 may wish to subject only the element group 86 to which the tank 90 is connected adjacently upstream of the element C to the common processing target. Therefore, the information processing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment subdivides a given element group into a plurality of element groups according to such conditions, based on predetermined conditions, and subdivides them into a plurality of element groups below the original element group. be hierarchized to belong to That is, the information processing apparatus 10 hierarchizes the original element group so that it belongs to a higher layer than the subdivided element group.

In the example of FIG. 24, the information processing apparatus 10 divides the element group 86 into an element group 87 adjacent to the upstream of the element C and connected to the tank 90, and an element group 87 adjacent to the upstream of the element C and having no tank (other than the tank). are connected.) is subdivided into an element group 88 and . Then, the information processing apparatus 10 hierarchizes the newly generated element groups 87 and 88 (depending on the presence or absence of an upstream tank) so as to belong to the lower hierarchy of the original element group 86 . Therefore, the user 201 can only treat the element group 88 as a group, and focuses on the element group 87 instead of performing individual searches and processes when only those with tanks upstream need to be processed. By doing so, it is possible to efficiently proceed with the work only for the desired element group without trouble. For example, the user 201 can cause the information processing apparatus 10 to search for an element group (only those to which a tank is connected upstream) matching the element group 87, and perform batch processing on the element group. . Since this information is stored in the storage unit 12, it can be reused when processing the same element group. The process of classifying and subdividing the element group based on whether or not the tank is connected upstream is an example for explanation, and the classification of the lower hierarchy is performed under various conditions without being limited to this. can be broken It is conceivable that such a condition (that 〇〇 is connected upstream) is frequently used for processing. Such conditions are stored in the storage unit 12, and a search is performed for a group of elements on the drawing to match the conditions, automatically hierarchized and presented to the user, or automatically executed and stored. It may be stored in the unit 12 .

Next, operations of the information processing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The operation of the information processing apparatus 10 described with reference to FIG. 25 corresponds to the information processing method according to this embodiment, and the operation of each step is executed based on the control of the control unit 11 . FIG. 25 is a flow chart showing an operation example of the information processing device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S51, the control unit 11 receives from the user a selection of a first element group including at least one element used in at least one drawing. The control unit 11 may receive a user's selection of an element group registered in the group storage unit 121 .

In step S52, the control unit 11 receives from the user a designation of the processing content for the selected first element group. Here, the control unit 11 also designates a condition as to whether all element groups matching the selected first element group are to be processed, or only those satisfying a certain condition are to be processed. Accept from users. Such conditions may include, for example, the following.
・The elements included in the first element group have a specific relationship with elements outside the first element group (for example, there is a tank upstream)
- Attribute information of at least one element included in the first element group satisfies a certain condition.
• The elements adjacent to the first element group must satisfy a certain condition, such as being a specific element or having a specific set value.
As will be described later, after step S54, the control unit 11 subdivides the element group that matches the first element group based on certain conditions such as the attribute information of the elements included in the element group and the adjacent elements. do. Therefore, according to the information processing apparatus 10, it is possible to focus on a specific element group and efficiently work on an element group that meets the user's desired conditions.

In step S<b>53 , the control unit 11 determines whether or not the user has designated only an element group that satisfies a certain condition (for example, an element group having a tank upstream) as the processing target. If only the element group that satisfies a certain condition is to be processed (YES in step S53), the control unit 11 proceeds to step S54. Otherwise (NO in step S53), the control unit 11 proceeds to step S57, performs batch processing on all element groups that match the selected element group in the drawing, and performs the processing of the flowchart. exit.

In step S54, the control unit 11 searches the first element group for those that meet the certain condition (for example, there is a tank upstream) selected in step S52.

In step S55, the control unit 11 replaces the first element group with a second element group (for example, an element group with a tank upstream) that satisfies a certain condition specified by the user in step S52, and a certain condition. and a third group of elements (for example, a group of elements without a tank upstream) that do not satisfy Furthermore, the control unit 11 determines that the first element group, the second element group, and the third element group belong to the hierarchy above the second element group and the third element group. hierarchically.

In step S<b>56 , the control unit 11 causes the storage unit 12 to store the hierarchical first element group, second element group, and third element group.

In step S57, when the user designates only the element group that satisfies a certain condition as the processing target (YES in S53), the control unit 11 selects the second element group among the first element groups that satisfies the certain condition. Batch processing is performed for each element group that conforms to . Therefore, the user 201 can cause a desired process to be performed only on those element groups that satisfy a certain condition among the element groups that match the first element group. It should be noted that in step S52, if the user has not specified only the element group that satisfies a certain condition as the processing target (NO in S53), the control unit 11 controls the element group that matches the selected element group in the drawing. As described above, batch processing is performed on all of the . After completing the process of step S57, the control unit 11 ends the process of the flowchart.

As described above, the information processing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment focuses on the first element group, extracts the element group that matches the first element group from the drawing, and extracts the second element group based on the conditions specified by the user. , into a third group of elements. The control unit 11 may subdivide into the second and third element groups based on predetermined conditions. Therefore, while focusing on a specific element group, the user can efficiently work only on an element group that meets a desired condition. For example, the user can cause the information processing apparatus 10 to collectively process only the first element group that satisfies a specific condition.

Note that the control unit 11 may cause the display unit 15 to display an image showing the hierarchical relationship among the first element group, the second element group, and the third element group. FIG. 26 is a diagram schematically showing, as an example of such an image, a process of classifying element groups based on the details of their deficiencies. In FIG. 26, the elements that at least partially match the first element are subdivided into a flawless group and a flawed group. In FIG. 26, the degree of matching with the first element group is displayed as a percentage, and "100%" indicates that the element group corresponding to the no-deficiency group perfectly matches the first element group. "<100%" indicates that the elements corresponding to the defective group do not perfectly match the first element. The element group of the defective group is subdivided into an element group with model number error and an element group with unset data, and the element group with model number error is subdivided into an element group including element A and an element group not including element A. The element group including the element A is subdivided into the element group including the element B and the element group not including the element B, and the element group including the element B is divided into the element group of the elements A, B, and B, and the elements A, B, and C. , and subdivided into element groups of elements A, B, D. The control unit 11 may also display the number of element groups that match each of the hierarchical element groups. When the information processing apparatus 10 causes the display unit 15 to display such an image, the user can easily grasp the hierarchical relationship of the element groups.

FIG. 27 is a diagram schematically showing processing for classifying element groups according to various criteria. In FIG. 27, the element group 93 and the element group 94 included in the frame line 96 are common in that they consist of the element A, the element B, and the element C. As shown in FIG. The element group 94 and the element group 95 included in the frame line 97 have in common that the value of the model of the element B is incorrectly set to "ADC110" although the correct value is "ABC110". Element group 94 and element group 95 have nothing in common from the point of view of whether they are the same element group (whether they are composed of elements A, B, and C and their arrangements match), but the model number of element B is incorrectly described. From the point of view that it is possible to group (hierarchize) with common conditions. As is clear from FIG. 27, the element group that fits the element group 94 can be grouped into the element group corresponding to the frame line 96 or the element group corresponding to the frame line 97. . One same element group (the element group 94 in the example of the figure) may belong to a plurality of element groups (groups), and various classifications (hierarchies) are assumed depending on the viewpoint of processing performed by the user. Therefore, the control unit 11 may cause the display unit 15 to display an image as shown in FIG. 27 as an image showing the hierarchical relationship between elements.

Further, the control unit 11 may display at least one drawing on the display unit 15 so that portions corresponding to the first element group, the second element group, and the third element group can be identified. Specifically, the control unit 11 may change the color and line of the figure indicating the element group from those of other elements, or indicate the portion corresponding to the element group with a specific symbol or character. Further, the control unit 11 may display an image showing how each element group is distributed over the entire drawing. This allows the user to easily grasp which parts in the drawing correspond to the first element group, the second element group, and the third element group.

<Sixth embodiment>
In this embodiment, a description will be given of a configuration in which items to be communicated from the first user to the second user are displayed in correspondence with the position or area of the drawing. According to this embodiment, the second user can easily grasp the position or area to be checked or corrected in the drawing and the message stored and displayed corresponding to the position or area. , it is possible for a plurality of people to efficiently perform work such as correction of drawings. The same reference numerals are assigned to the configurations common to those of the first embodiment, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing the configuration of an information processing system 2 including the information processing device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the information processing system 2, in addition to the user 211 who operates the input unit 14 and the display unit 15, the user 212 who operates the input unit 16 and the display unit 17 also participates in drawing creation. Further, the information processing device 10 of the information processing system 2 has an indication/countermeasure storage unit 124 in the storage unit 12 . The indication/countermeasure storage unit 124 stores data indicating the position of the indicated area selected by one user in the drawing, the content of the indication given to the indicated area, and the countermeasure of the other user to the content of the indication. In this embodiment, such data is referred to as indication/countermeasure data. The indication/measurement data is mapped on the drawing and associated with the position on the drawing. Here, it is stored in such a manner that it is associated with the element to be pointed out and the position information such as the coordinates on the drawing so that the point to be pointed out and the location to be addressed can be specified and displayed on the drawing.

29 and 30 are diagrams showing examples of screens of the display unit 15 connected to the information processing apparatus 10. FIG. In this embodiment, an example in which the same screen as the screen displayed on the display unit 15 operated by the user 211 is displayed on the display unit 17 operated by the user 212 will be described. Hereinafter, user 211 is also referred to as user A (first user) and user 212 is also referred to as user B (second user). The number of these users may be two or more, and it is not limited to the case where both are engineers involved in creating and correcting drawings, but one is a customer and the other is an engineer who corrects drawings according to customer requests. It's okay.

In FIG. 29, the user A (correction requester, etc.) designates the correction required part 21 from the drawing displayed in the display area 151 of the screen. In FIG. 29, the user A operates the touch panel with the hand 101 to make the correction required part 21 .

User A selects an area (group) such as an element group when the portion to be corrected is an area (group). A selection target is not limited to an element group consisting of a plurality of elements, and may be a single element. User A designates a point when the portion to be corrected is an element such as equipment. Various existing methods may be used for specifying the element group or the element group, but advanced methods will be described in detail in the seventh and eighth embodiments. User A designates a portion that needs to be corrected, and in relation to this, matters to be sent to User B such as indications, requests for correction, details of confirmation request, etc. (not limited to correction, but may prompt confirmation or other work) as a message. User A may select a message (type of indication or request content) from a selection button instead of inputting a message (see FIG. 31B). For example, if the information processing apparatus 10 displays selection buttons such as "model number error", "value setting omission", and "deformation of figure", and the user A selects from these buttons, the user A can efficiently input text without trouble. It is possible to directly input instructions and indication outlines. In addition, by inputting items to be communicated using the selection button, work can be specified efficiently without keyboard input. is assumed. In addition, when using such existing messages (tags, common classification), unlike messages that differ for each input person (contents that are difficult to summarize), the items to be communicated are standardized into a certain type, so after that analysis and classification are also facilitated. Specifically, for example, it is easy to tabulate and quantitatively analyze the breakdown of indications in 100 communication items in the form of 20 cases of model number errors, 70 cases of missing value settings, and 10 cases of missing figures. Become. Of course, the method of inputting the matters to be communicated by text and the method of selecting and inputting from preset options may be used together. For example, after selecting "wrong model number", user A may enter model number information that user A thinks is correct, detailed communication items, and the like.

In the example of FIG. 29, the element group (21 in the display area 151) selected by the user A is displayed in the display area 102 in the display area 152. FIG. The display area 103 displays information on the element B included in the selected element group. In the display area 104, items to be communicated from user A to user B are displayed. The information processing apparatus 10 allows the user A to enter a comment in the display area 104, thereby giving a message from the user A to the user B for the selected position or area.

FIG. 30 shows how user B operates the screen. In FIG. 30, the point 108 pointed out by User A is highlighted in the drawing. User B (corrector or the like) selects this part. For example, user B selects the highlighted portion 108 by touching the touch panel as indicated by 105 or moving the cursor to this portion by operating a pointing device or other input device. In response to this, a message is displayed in a display field outside the drawing (in the example of FIG. 30, the display area 152 on the right side of the screen) to indicate the items to be communicated from user A to user B regarding the work policy and correction details. Alternatively, the message may be displayed in the vicinity of the location 108 corresponding to the indicated area on the drawing. In this case, the message may be hidden so as not to interfere with viewing of the drawing until User B designates an area. The control unit 11 may display the details such as the contents of indication in a form that does not hinder the visibility of the drawing, for example, in another area or in the form of a pop-up.

User B confirms this message and carries out correction work or the like according to the content and policy of the message. Note that the response to the message is not limited to correction work, and for example, user B may reply to user A's question. In the example of FIG. 30, in the display area 103, the model is corrected from "ADC110" to "ABC110", and the unset setting value is set to 25.

User B performs operations such as correcting pointed out points, setting missing values, etc., and inputs reply messages. User B may perform either such work or message input. If the work is carried out in response to the request, the message may not be necessary. User B may enter only a message to the effect that no work is required without performing any work, or may enter a message related to the correction work after performing the correction work. In the example of FIG. 30, a message from user B to user A is entered in display area 110 .

When the work by User B is completed, this indication area may be highlighted to indicate that the work has been completed. This may be a mark 107 including characters such as "completed" as in the example of FIG. The completion of the work is set by user B's input to that effect. Alternatively, if the completion is not confirmed unless the user A who pointed out the correction, the completion status may be set by the user A confirming (acknowledging) after the user B makes corrections.

When such marks are given, related users can intuitively see where the indicated areas on the drawing exist, and which have been dealt with and which have not been dealt with (where should be dealt with next). In addition, the user can also search for locations to which this mark has been assigned and perform aggregate analysis. For example, when the work for 70 points is completed for 100 pointed areas, the information processing apparatus 10 can automatically set the number of pointed points to 100 by pressing a tally button or the like (or automatically without an instruction). The completed portion 70, remaining 30, etc. may be displayed.

The information input by user A and the information input by user B may be displayed in different colors. Without being limited to this, the display of colors, symbols, and the like may be changed for each user so that it is possible to easily identify who has made the input. The distribution of workers on the drawing can also be grasped, and among the multiple users involved in the drawing, rules and division of roles have been determined in advance such that a specific worker will deal with user A's indications and requests. In such cases, it becomes easy to grasp the workers and their countermeasures.

31A and 31B are diagrams schematically showing user interfaces for modifying the settings of elements. When changing the settings for the element B, the user A selects a graphic representing the element B, as shown in FIG. 31A. In response to this, the information processing apparatus 10 displays, as shown in FIG. 31B, options such as the type of correction (pointing out) content to be performed in a pop-up or the like in a selectable manner. In the example of FIG. 31B, it is possible to select "setting omission", "writing error", and "graphic collapse" (this is an example and the options are not limited to these). User A selects necessary correction contents from these and inputs correction (pointing out) contents and the like for element B. FIG. Not only user A's comments, but also user B's comments, etc. are processed in a form that makes it easy to classify and modify common contents by presenting such options and letting them choose. may be performed.

FIG. 32 is a diagram showing an example of the screen of the display unit 15 connected to the information processing device 10. As shown in FIG. It is effective for the user to identify the location at a glance if the indicated area is highlighted in the drawing. However, when a plurality of indicated areas are scattered in a large drawing, the user needs to manually perform screen transitions by scrolling or the like, move work points, etc., and move between indicated areas to be dealt with. After finishing a certain place (handling of the indicated area), an operation such as moving the cursor by a pointing device or a keyboard is required in order to move to the next place. In particular, when the indicated areas are scattered in a drawing showing a vast plant, it is difficult to find the indicated areas because it is necessary to scroll the screen or move the work point each time a new indicated area is confirmed. Otherwise, troublesome operations may be required to reach the indicated area.

Therefore, the information processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment performs a simple operation such as pressing a "move to next point" button displayed on the screen, pressing a specific button of an input device, or the like. The display unit 15 switches and displays the position or area (pointing area) to which the message is assigned according to the operation input. A simple operation here is a specific operation such as pressing a single button or one-click. Tasks that require time and effort, such as visually searching for a work point on the screen, scrolling the screen to keep turning the wheel of a pointing device, and moving the cursor to the position after searching. Indicates that a predetermined button or command is executed quickly with a simple operation (one click, etc.), which is different from . As a result, the position or area to which the message is given is switched and displayed according to the user's operation input (simple operation), so that the user can confirm the place to which the message is given without trouble and without omission. Is possible. Specifically, when the indicated area is recorded and mapped on the drawing, the information processing apparatus 10 holds the position information of the indicated area. The positional information of the indicated area is information such as which drawing if divided into a plurality of drawings, coordinates on the drawing, or matrix information.

Then, the information processing apparatus 10 may perform control to transition to the next indication area in accordance with a predetermined operation input (simple operation) on the input unit 14 . Such an operation input includes a forward button with a display such as "move to the next point" displayed on the screen, or a predetermined key (forward button) assigned to an input device such as a keyboard. There may be an execution operation, a pointing device click operation, or the like. As a result, the user can visually search for the corresponding point one by one, or can transition to the next indication area and display it by a simple operation without performing a complicated operation. Therefore, the user does not need to search for the location of the pointed area, and can prevent failure to confirm the pointed area. In the example of FIG. 32, the information processing apparatus 10 selects an indicated area to be dealt with as an element group 111, an element group 112, an element group 113, and an element group 111, 112, 113, and 113 in accordance with the user's operation input (pressing of the feed button or the like of the input device). It is also possible to switch to the group 115 (each time confirmation of each pointed area is completed) to the next pointed area in order, and switch the display area and contents as appropriate.

Furthermore, when the handling work for the element group is completed, the information processing apparatus 10 automatically puts a completion mark ("Done" in the drawing) on the indicated area, and automatically transitions to the next nearby indicated area. may By doing so, even an input operation for switching the indicated area is eliminated, and the work becomes more efficient. As described above, when it is necessary to confirm the pointed out user A, the user A similarly confirms while performing the transition of the pointed out area (that is, the area in which the user B has taken action). Areas that have not been newly pointed out may be successively given a completion status and given a completion mark. Therefore, although the indication area has been described as an example, such transition control may be performed for both the indication point (area) and the countermeasure point (area).

In addition, when the information processing apparatus 10 switches the indicated area, the information processing apparatus 10 may simply move to the nearest indicated area, or may simply move according to a rough rule such as from upstream to downstream or from top to bottom on the drawing. Importance levels may be set for areas, and transitions may be made in descending order of importance levels. For example, among 100 designated areas in the entire drawing, 10 designated areas of high importance, 20 designated areas of medium importance, and 70 designated areas of moderate importance. In this case, in the control of simply moving to the nearest indicated area, there is a case where the work is performed first on the low-priority point and the high-priority point is postponed. Therefore, the information processing apparatus 10 utilizes the set importance (priority) information and first transitions to the 10 most important places, so that the user can deal with these important things first. can. After completing the handling operation for the indicated areas of high importance, the information processing apparatus 10 performs control so that the next 20 indicated areas of medium importance are transitioned. The degree of importance is an index that indicates the degree to which the indicated area should be preferentially corrected, changed, or otherwise dealt with. The importance is given and set by, for example, the user who selected the indicated area. Specifically, the level of importance is, for example, the content and degree of errors in setting or errors in the location or area, the degree of need for correction or change, the current content of the location or area, etc. It is a rank or value that reflects the seriousness of the impact on, etc. That is, the importance may be displayed numerically, or may be set in stages such as high, medium, and low importance, or ranks A, B, and C, for example.

Even when the information processing apparatus 10 accepts work for the 10 areas classified as having high importance, instead of randomly determining the order of transition, the information processing apparatus 10 may make the transition in order from the indicated area with the higher importance. good. As a result, work can be performed preferentially from the more important pointed out area.

Alternatively, the information processing apparatus 10 may sequentially transition between pointed out areas that are highly similar to the work content. At this time, information defining the commonality of work is set manually or automatically, and the transition is controlled based on this information. For example, as in the example shown in FIG. 31B, if options such as work type are prepared, this is used to make a transition so that work of the same type is dealt with collectively. As a result, the user can collectively perform tasks having similarities or commonalities, and can proceed with the tasks efficiently. For example, let us consider a case where there are 10 indicated areas each requiring setting omission correction, erroneous writing correction, and graphic collapse correction as work contents. In this case, the information processing apparatus 10 transitions to 10 pointed out areas that require setting omission correction, and then transitions to 10 pointed out areas that need to correct typographical errors and 10 pointed out areas that need to correct broken figures. You may As a result, the user can collectively perform the same kind of work, and can proceed with the work efficiently and prevent mistakes.

These transition rules may be stored in the storage unit 12 so that the user can select or arrange the transition rules. Further, the transition rule may be applied by the user switching the application target such as "importance", "similarity (work type)", etc. with an application or the like installed in the information processing apparatus 10. FIG. These may be switched ON and OFF. For example, when "importance" and "similarity" are ON, the information processing apparatus 10 preferentially transitions from important indicated areas, and at the same time, aggregates work areas that require similar work. Control so that it can be switched in order. Alternatively, even if the user does not select a transition rule, the information processing apparatus 10 may, as a default setting, collectively perform transition control for areas that require the same type of work, starting from important pointed out areas.

It should be noted that there may be a plurality of indicated areas that require the same work in the drawing. Therefore, in the case where there are a plurality of designated areas that require work of the same content, if the user A designates one of such designated areas, the information processing apparatus 10 automatically selects other areas of the same type. May be specified. When user A gives a message to an indicated area, the information processing apparatus 10 may automatically give the same message to other pointed areas of the same type. In other words, if there are 10 locations to be corrected in the entire drawing by designating one location, the 10 locations become the indicated area. In addition, when the user B has performed a corrective action on any of the indicated areas that require the same type of work, the information processing apparatus 10 automatically performs the same corrective action on the other indicated areas of the same type. may be executed to In the past, user A had to point out 10 points individually, and user B had to deal with 10 points individually. On the other hand, according to the configuration of the present embodiment, when one point is pointed out, the same pointed point in the drawing is automatically detected and marked, and the single pointed point can be dealt with collectively. By these processes, it is possible for the user A and the user B to work more efficiently.

The screen of the display unit 15 is not limited to the configurations illustrated in FIGS. 29, 30, and 32. FIG. FIG. 33 is a diagram showing an example of the screen of the display unit 15 connected to the information processing device 10. As shown in FIG. In FIG. 33 , a display area 154 showing the work of user A exists on the left of the display area 151 of the drawing, and a display area 152 showing the work of user B exists on the right of the display area 151 . The user can select areas 117, 118, etc. in the drawing by specifying the location 116 by touching the touch panel or moving the cursor with the input device. The information processing apparatus 10 displays the contents of work and countermeasures by the user, aggregated information thereof, and the like in display areas 152 and 154 . In addition, in the example of FIG. 33, the items to be communicated between users are also displayed in the display area 151 of the drawing. A sentence indicating the matters to be communicated from user A to user B is provided in association with the element group 118 . User A's request is displayed at 119, and 161 indicating the content of User B's reply is displayed. The content of the indication and the countermeasure may be appropriately displayed in the display areas 151, 152, and 154 when the indication/countermeasure area on the drawing is specified. Either one of the indication and the content of the countermeasure may be used together. In the example of FIG. 33, the number of indications and countermeasures, the progress, etc. are aggregated and displayed, making it possible to confirm and manage the situation. On August 10, User A pointed out 45 points, and User B took action, but User A pointed out again, and 5 points remain unfinished (see display areas 152 and 154). . Furthermore, on August 18, User A pointed out 30 new points, and each user shared that there are 5 untreated points and 30 new points, for a total of 35 points that need to be addressed. can. When user B selects (designates) the "new arrival" or "30 items" portion, the control unit 11 displays the 30 places in the drawing in association with the drawing as described above. Alternatively, each pointing point may be controlled to transition. Similarly, for "35 unfinished items", it is possible to display on the drawing where the work has not been completed, or to transition each point.

Next, operations of the information processing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The operation of the information processing apparatus 10 described with reference to FIG. 34 corresponds to the information processing method according to this embodiment, and the operation of each step is executed under the control of the control unit 11. FIG. FIG. 34 is a flow chart showing an operation example of the information processing device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S61, the control unit 11 receives selection of a position or area (indication point or indication area) in at least one drawing from the first user. Various conventional methods may be used for selecting the position or region, and details of advanced methods will be described later in the seventh and eighth embodiments.

In step S62, the control unit 11 receives a message from the first user to the second user for the position or area newly selected by the first user. Alternatively, the control unit 11 accepts the second user's selection of the position or region already selected by the first user and the provision of communication items regarding countermeasures. The items to be communicated may include indications from the first user, measures taken by the second user, re-indications from the first user, and the like. Only the first pointing user selects a new drawing location or area. Therefore, for the first selected position or region, new communication items such as handling and re-pointing to the selected position or region are added in correspondence with this position or region, excluding step S61. may be stored in the storage unit 12 as follows. As already explained, additional processing (handling and repointing) is repeated until the processing for that location or region is completed.

In step S<b>63 , the control unit 11 causes the storage unit 12 to store the marking information, which is the information indicating the position or area selected by the first user, and the communication information indicating the communication matter in association with each other. As described above, in the case of the second user, it is not necessary to mark a new position or area, but the control unit 11 associates and stores communication items regarding measures to the already marked locations. When other transmission information is already stored in association with the marking information, the control unit 11 may store the transmission information in the storage unit 12 in association with the other transmission information instead of the marking information. .

In step S64, the control unit 11 causes the display unit 15 to display the transmission matter in correspondence with the position or region to which the transmission matter is assigned. Since the message from the first user to the second user is displayed in correspondence with the position or area, the second user can check the position or area to be confirmed in the drawing and make it correspond to the position or area. (The same is true when the countermeasures of the second user are conveyed to the first user). Therefore, it is possible for a plurality of people to efficiently perform work such as correction of drawings and to transmit information therefor. Here, the control unit 11 may display the position or area indicated by the marking information in a manner different from others. The drawing may be displayed on the display unit 15 in an emphasized manner by changing the color or type of line, adding a mark indicating the first user or the second user, or the like. At this time, the color may be changed for each user. In this way, the positions or areas of the drawing to which the matters to be communicated are emphasized are displayed, so that each user can easily grasp the positions or areas of the drawing to which the matters to be transmitted are assigned.

As described above, the control unit 11 causes the display unit 15 to switch the position or region to which the message is given according to the operation input of the first user or the second user. At step S65, the control unit 11 determines whether or not there is such an operation input. If there is such an operation input (YES in step S65), the control unit 11 proceeds to step S66, and if not (NO in step S65), ends the processing of the flowchart.

In step S66, when the user confirms the communication items of other users regarding each position or area or performs work, the control unit 11 checks the contents of the communication items for the positions or areas to which the communication items are assigned. display. When the user finishes checking the position or area and moves to the next position or area, the position or area is switched and displayed on the display unit 15 . Therefore, the user can fully check the locations to which the items to be communicated have been assigned.

Note that the control unit 11 may receive from the first user the selection of the degree of importance for each of the positions or regions for which the selection from the first user has been received. Then, for each of the positions or areas selected by the first user, the control unit 11 stores the importance information, which is information indicating the importance of the position or area, in the storage unit 12 in association with the marking information. may be stored. Further, the control unit 11 switches the positions or regions to which the communication items are assigned in order of importance according to the operation input of the first user or the second user, and displays them on the display unit 15. You may let Therefore, since the positions or regions are switched and displayed in descending order of importance in accordance with the user's operation input, the user can check the places to which the matters to be communicated are given in descending order of necessity for consideration. be.

In addition, the control unit 11 stores handling information indicating whether or not the second user has handled the position or area to which the communication matter is assigned, for each marking information in association with the corresponding marking information, and stores the handling information. 12 may be stored. Then, for each position or region to which the communication matter is assigned, based on the handling information, the control unit 11 sets the status of the communication matter as the status of the communication matter (addressed information ( For example, an image, a mark, a character string, or the like indicating "completed" may be displayed on the display unit 15. FIG. In this way, since the image or the like indicates whether or not the second user has dealt with the position or area to which the message has been assigned by the first user, the user can easily see where the action has been taken and where the action has not been taken. can be easily identified. When transitioning between positions or regions, there is no need to check the parts that have been dealt with. Therefore, the control unit 11 may perform control so that only the points that have not been dealt with are sequentially switched and transitioned.

Further, the control unit 11 may receive the addition of the message by character input or selection operation from options. Therefore, the user can give a message to a position or area in the drawing by inputting characters or selecting from options.

Further, the control unit 11 may receive a second transmission item, which is a transmission item from the second user for the position or region for which the selection from the first user is accepted. Then, the control unit 11 converts the second transmission information, which is transmission information indicating the second transmission matter, to marking information, which is information indicating the position or area where the addition of the second transmission matter is received, or It may be stored in the storage unit 12 in association with other transmission information already stored in association with the marking information. Furthermore, the control unit 11 may cause the display unit 15 to display the second communication matter in correspondence with the position or region to which the second communication matter is assigned. In this way, not only the transmission matter from the first user but also the transmission matter from the second user are displayed in correspondence with the position or area in the drawing, so that the user can It is possible to easily grasp the discussion in the place.

<Seventh Embodiment>
In this embodiment, instead of selecting as an element group the elements indicated by all the figures that are even partially contained inside the area selected by the user, figures (having intersections) where the boundary of the area intersects ( Elements) to be included in the element group based on the positional relationship between the boundary of the area and its graphic will be described. According to the configuration of this embodiment, the user can quickly select a desired element group with a simple operation without performing precise and careful work. The method of selecting an element group by the user according to this embodiment can be applied to any of the configurations of the first to sixth embodiments. The same reference numerals are assigned to the configurations common to those of the first embodiment, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Next, operation of the information processing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The operation of the information processing apparatus 10 described with reference to FIG. 35 corresponds to the information processing method according to this embodiment, and the operation of each step is executed under the control of the control unit 11. FIG. FIG. 35 is a flow chart showing an operation example of the information processing device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In step S71, the control unit 11 accepts from the user a selection of an area in a drawing in which elements are shown graphically. FIG. 36 is a diagram schematically showing an operation of selecting an element group; In FIG. 36, a locus 163 indicating the perimeter (boundary) of the selected area on the drawing by the user 201 162 (which may be a finger or touch pen touching the touch panel, or a cursor on the screen operated by an input device). is drawn, and an area bounded by locus 163 is selected. In FIG. 36, user 201 wishes to select a group of elements consisting of valve, element A, and element B, but entirely contained within locus 163 are valve graphic 164 and element A graphic 125 . Only. On the other hand, the trajectory 163 intersects the graphic 126 of the element B, as well as the graphic 127 of the element E and the graphic 128 of the element F, which are not intended to be selected by the user. Operations for selecting a region will be described later with reference to FIGS. 38A and 38B.

In step S72, the control unit 11 extracts from the drawing the first element indicated by the figure included inside the area (the element to be selected is not yet determined at this point) that has received the selection. In the example of FIG. 36, since the graphic 164 and the graphic 125 are included inside the region, the control unit 11 extracts the valve and the element A as the first elements.

In step S73, the control unit 11 extracts from the drawing a second element indicated by a graphic crossing the boundary of the selected area. In the example of FIG. 36, locus 163, which defines the boundary of the region, intersects graphics 126, 127, and 128. FIG. Therefore, the control unit 11 extracts the element B, the element E, and the element F as the second elements.

In step S74, the control unit 11 determines whether the positional relationship between the graphic representing the second element extracted in step S73 and the boundary is in a predetermined relationship. If there is a predetermined positional relationship (YES in step S74), the control unit 11 proceeds to step S75, and if there is no such relationship (NO in step S74), proceeds to step S76.

In step S75, the control unit 11 extracts the second element to be processed as the third element.

In step S76, the control unit 11 determines whether or not the processes of steps S73 to S75 have been performed for all of the second elements extracted in step S73. If the process is being performed (YES in step S76), the controller 11 proceeds to step S77. If the process has not been performed (NO in step S76), the control unit 11 returns to step S73 and continues the process for other second elements.

In step S<b>77 , the control unit 11 causes the storage unit 12 to store the set of elements consisting of the first element and the third element as the element group selected by the user 201 . Then, the control unit 11 ends the processing of the flowchart.

In this way, the control unit 11 does not simply select, as an element group, the elements indicated by the graphics that are even partially included inside the region selected by the user, but rather selects the elements of the graphics where the boundaries of the regions intersect. Based on the positional relationship between the boundary of the region and its figure, the elements to be included in the element group are extracted from the inside, and the elements that should not be included are excluded. Therefore, in a complicated drawing, the user can quickly and easily make a desired drawing with a simple operation without having to spend time and time for precise and careful selection work so that the figure indicating the redundant element and the boundary line of the selection area do not intersect. It is possible to select a group of elements of

In step S74, the control unit 11 determines, as the predetermined positional relationship, for example, the ratio of the area of the portion included inside the area of the figure representing the second element to the area of the entire figure. It may be determined whether or not it is equal to or greater than a specified value (eg, 50%, etc.).
When such a criterion is adopted, the control unit 11 also includes elements, such as element B in FIG. Therefore, the user can quickly select a desired element group with a simple operation without having to spend time performing precise and careful selection work.

Alternatively, if the connection relationship between the elements is indicated by a connection line in the drawing, the control unit 11, in step S74, for example, connects the second element with the same connection line as any of the first elements. It may be determined whether they are connected (that is, whether they are adjacent on the same connection line). When such a criterion is adopted, the control unit 11 selects the first element of the figure where the boundary of the area intersects, such as the element B in FIG. (valve, element A in the example of FIG. 36) are included in the element group. In other words, the valve that is definitely selected and the element B that is adjacent to the element A on the same connection line are selected. On the other hand, elements E and F that are not on the same connection line are excluded, although part of the figure is included inside the area because the position on the drawing is close to the valve and element A. Therefore, the user can quickly select a desired element group with a simple operation without performing precise and careful work.

Alternatively, in step S74, the control unit 11 may, for example, determine whether or not there is a specific positional relationship between the boundary of the area and the center of the graphic representing the second element. Alternatively, in step S74, the control unit 11 specifies, for example, the positional relationship between the intersection of the boundary of the area and the peripheral edge of the graphic representing the second element and the center of the graphic representing the second element. It may be determined whether or not there is a relationship of

FIG. 37 is a diagram schematically showing the relationship between figures representing element groups and boundaries of selected regions. The perimeter of graphic 165 intersects trajectory 134 drawn by user 201 at two points of intersection 135 and 135 . Graphic 165 has a center point 139 . Point 137 is the intersection of a straight line passing through the two intersections 135 and 136 and a straight line passing through the center point 139 of figure 165 which is orthogonal to the straight line. In the example shown in FIG. 37, the control unit 11 determines the positional relationship between the boundary of the area and the center of the figure indicating the second element, for example, the center point 139 of the figure 165 is inside the area defined by the trajectory 134. may be determined whether or not it is included in In addition, the control unit 11 determines, for example, , point 137 may be determined on which side of center point 139 (eg, above or below in the drawing). Since the control unit 11 extracts the elements to be included in the element group based on such a positional relationship, the user can quickly select the desired element group with a simple operation without performing precise and careful work. It is possible.

Further, the determination criteria of step S74 exemplified here may be used in combination.
That is, the control unit 11 may include the second element in the element group if it satisfies all of the plurality of criteria, or if the second element satisfies at least one of the plurality of criteria may be included in the element group.

The operation of selecting a region by the user 201 in step S71 will be described with reference to FIGS. 38A and 38B. 38A and 38B are diagrams schematically showing operations for selecting element groups.

In FIG. 38A, the control unit 11 accepts a first operation for a first position on the drawing using the pointing device or touch panel, and further accepts a second operation for a second position on the drawing using the pointing device or touch panel. . Then, the control unit 11 receives from the user a selection of a rectangular area having the first position and the second position as both ends of the diagonal line. Therefore, the user can easily select a desired element group by a cursor movement operation using a pointing device or a touch operation on a touch panel.

In FIG. 38B, the control unit 11 accepts selection of an area from the user, with the trajectory of the operation by the pointing device or the operation on the touch panel as the boundary of the area. Therefore, the user can easily select a desired element group by operating the pointing device or operating the touch panel.

<Eighth Embodiment>
In the configuration according to this embodiment, the time between the selection of an area and the subsequent selection of a figure (element) outside the area, and the time between the selected area and the subsequently selected figure (element) outside the area Based on at least one of the distance between the regions and the distance between them, it is determined whether or not to include the element indicated by the graphic selected after the region is selected as an additional selected element in the group of elements already selected in the region. Therefore, it is possible to automatically determine whether the operation performed after the selection of the region is related to the latest selection operation or a new selection operation. An element to be added can be added by a simple operation. The method of selecting an element group by the user according to this embodiment can be applied to any of the configurations of the first to seventh embodiments. The same reference numerals are assigned to the configurations common to those of the first embodiment, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The operation of the information processing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The operation of the information processing apparatus 10 described with reference to FIG. 39 corresponds to the information processing method according to this embodiment, and the operation of each step is executed based on the control of the control section 11 . FIG. 39 is a flow chart showing an operation example of the information processing device 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the following, an example in which the connection relationships between elements are indicated by connection lines in the drawings will be described.

In step S81, the control unit 11 accepts from the user a selection of an area containing a plurality of figures representing the first elements in a drawing in which elements are indicated by figures. 40A to 41B are diagrams schematically showing operations for selecting element groups. In Figures 40A and 41A, the user 201 has selected a region containing the valve and element A as the first element.

After accepting the selection of the area in step S81, in step S82, the control unit 11 accepts the selection of the figure indicating the second element from the user. In FIG. 40B, user 201 has selected element B as the second element. In FIG. 41B, user 201 has selected element C as the second element.

In step S83, the control unit 11 sets a predetermined time (for example, 3 seconds) from accepting the selection of the area including the graphic of the first element to accepting the selection of the graphic representing the second element. It is determined whether or not it is within. This time may be configurable by the user. If the time is within the predetermined time (YES in step S83), the control unit 11 proceeds to step S84, otherwise (NO in step S83), ends the processing of the flowchart.

In step S84, the control unit 11 determines whether (1) the distance between the area including the graphic of the first element and the graphic representing the second element is equal to or less than a predetermined distance, or (2) ) Determine if the second element is connected by the same connecting line as any of the first elements. If at least one of the conditions (1) and (2) is satisfied (YES in step S84), the control unit 11 proceeds to step S85, otherwise (NO in step S84), ends the processing of the flowchart.

In step S85, the control unit 11 causes the storage unit 12 to store the set of elements consisting of the first element and the second element as the element group selected by the user. Then, the control unit 11 ends the processing of the flowchart.

Control unit 11 determines that the time from receiving selection of a region containing a graphic of a first element to receiving selection of a graphic representing a second element is within a predetermined time, , the second element is included in the selected element group (steps S83 to S85, FIG. 40C). Therefore, after once selecting the element group, the user selects an element in the vicinity of the element group or an element connected with the element included in the element group by the same connection line within a predetermined time. allows you to add the element to the group of previously selected elements. Therefore, the user can add an element to be added to the selected element group with a simple operation without reselecting the element group. Although both the temporal condition and the positional condition are described in the flow of FIG. 39, one of the procedures may be omitted and only one of them may be used for determination.

In this way, the control unit 11 determines at least one of the time from the selection of the area to the selection of the figure, the distance between the selected area and the figure, and the connection relationship between the selected area and the figure. After selecting the region, it is determined whether the element indicated by the selected figure is included in the element group. Therefore, the control unit 11 can automatically determine whether the operation performed after selecting the region is related to the most recent selection operation or a new selection operation. An element to be added can be added to the element group with a simple operation.

In FIG. 39, the control unit 11, of the following conditions (a) to (c), when (a) and at least one of (b) and (c) are satisfied, Although the second element is included in the selected element group, the condition for including the second element in the element group is not limited to this. For example, when one or more of the following conditions are satisfied, when two or more of the following conditions are satisfied, or when all of the conditions are satisfied, the control unit 11 performs the second An element may be included in a group of selected elements.
(a) The time from acceptance of selection of a region containing a graphic of a first element to acceptance of selection of a graphic representing a second element must be within a predetermined time.
(a) The distance between the area containing the graphic of the first element and the graphic representing the second element is equal to or less than a predetermined distance.
(c) The second element is connected to any one of the first elements by the same connection line.

In addition, in step S81, the control unit 11, as shown in the seventh embodiment, adds elements represented by figures included inside the selected area to The element may be extracted as the first element. The user can extract not only the elements that include the entire figure inside the selected area, but also the elements of the figure where the boundary of the area intersects as the first element. can be selected.

Further, when the user performs an operation of dragging the second element graphic to the area after accepting the selection of the area including the first element graphic, the control unit 11 selects the first element and the second element graphic. may be determined as the group of elements selected by the user. FIG. 42 is a diagram schematically showing an operation of selecting an element group; In FIG. 42, element group 1 consisting of valve, element A, and element B is selected, and then element group 2 consisting of valve, element C, and valve is selected. After that, an operation of dragging the element E to the area of the element group 1 is performed. In such a case, the control unit 11 adds the element E to the element group 1 and stores it in the storage unit 12 . According to such processing, the user can select a desired element group by an intuitively understandable operation. At this time, even if the user does not drag completely within the displayed area, if the user drags in the direction of the area to which the element is to be added, the control unit 11 will add the element to the area existing in that direction. can be That is, the operation of dragging the graphic of the second element to the area includes not only dragging the element into the area but also dragging it in the direction in which the area exists.

The disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described above. For example, multiple blocks shown in the block diagrams may be combined, or a single block may be divided. Instead of being performed in chronological order according to the description, multiple steps described in the flowcharts may be performed in parallel or in a different order depending on the processing power of the device performing each step or as required. . Other modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Although the disclosure of each embodiment is explained using a drawing of a plant as an example, it may be applied not only to a plant but also to a field dealing with a drawing indicated by a plurality of graphic elements.

1, 2 information processing system 10 information processing device 11 control unit 12 storage unit 13 communication units 14, 16 input units 15, 17 display unit 120 terminal 121 group storage unit 122 rule storage unit 123 drawing storage unit 124 indication/correspondence storage unit 130 Terminal 140 External storage device 150 Networks 151, 152, 153 Display areas 201, 202, 203 Users 211, 212, 213 Users

Claims (11)

Acquiring the same plurality of element groups consisting of at least two elements each displayed as a figure in the drawing,
receiving from the user a selection of common processing to be performed on the plurality of element groups;
executing the common process for which the selection has been accepted for each of the plurality of element groups;
An information processing device including a control unit. The control unit
storing in a storage unit specific information that is information that specifies the plurality of element groups obtained;
In response to receiving a selection of a process from the user for one of the element groups included in the plurality of element groups specified by the specific information, the process is set as the common process for the plurality of elements perform for each of the elements contained in the group,
The information processing device according to claim 1 . 3. The control unit executes, as the common process, a process of replacing all or part of the elements included in the plurality of element groups with at least one of the elements selected by the user. The information processing device according to . 4. The control unit executes, as the common process, a process of changing at least one of the types and arrangements of the elements included in the plurality of element groups according to the user's selection. The information processing device according to any one of . Each of the elements used in the drawings is given at least one piece of attribute information indicating its property,
The control unit executes, as the common process, a process of changing at least one of the attribute information of at least one of the elements included in the plurality of element groups according to the user's selection. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4. 6. The control unit executes processing for displaying the plurality of element groups to be subjected to the common processing on the display unit in a manner different from elements not included in the plurality of element groups. The information processing device according to any one of . The control unit accepts from the user a selection of a search element group, which is an element group consisting of at least one element used in the drawing, and extracts from the drawing an element group that matches the search element group for which the selection has been received. 7. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the plurality of element groups are acquired by searching. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein said drawing is a drawing showing a configuration of a plant. The control unit
Receiving from the user a specification of a range to which the common processing is to be applied;
executing the common processing for which the selection has been accepted for each of the plurality of element groups corresponding to the range for which the designation has been accepted;
The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8. The control unit of the information processing device
a step of obtaining a plurality of identical element groups consisting of at least two elements each represented as a figure in the drawing;
receiving from a user a selection of common processing to be performed on the plurality of element groups;
a step of executing the selected common process for each of the plurality of element groups;
Information processing method including. A program that causes a computer to function as the information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9 .

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