JPH02240775A - Menu system for interactive graphic data editing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the working efficiency of the menu system by preparing a group of menus arranged in a classified structure for each function and a group of menus which belong to the group of the classified structure for each function and are selected by a certain rule. CONSTITUTION:The function-based menus are sorted as conventional, and a full screen display menu and a partial magnification screen are selected out of a display function group as the selected menus. In addition, a segment production menu and a rectangle production menu are selected out of a graphic data production function group. Then a graphic shift menu and a graphic deletion menu are decided out of a graphic data editing function group. Furthermore a user can decide six more menus as necessary. These menus can be designated regardless of a selected menu or the graphic data production function group displayed on a menu map in a rectangle generation menu state. Thus the working efficiency is improved in a menu system.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention is an interactive graphic data editing device used for designing electrical circuit diagrams, drafting mechanical designs, designing mask layouts for semiconductor integrated circuits, etc. This relates to menus for specifying display and editing operations.

(Prior Art) In recent years, the use of computers has rapidly progressed in fields such as electrical circuit diagram design, mechanical design drafting, and mask layout design for semiconductor integrated circuits.

The most commonly used interactive graphic data editing device is the i! L (hereinafter abbreviated as editing device). Taking the design of electrical circuit diagrams as an example, you can use this editing device to display the entire circuit diagram on the CR7 screen, create wiring data using a coordinate indicating device such as a tablet, or create wiring data that has already been created. Work such as changing element data such as transistors is performed interactively. When performing this interactive work, what is called a menu is what conveys the work content to one editing device, and by instructing the menu, the editing device displays and edits data.

There are various ways to specify this menu, such as inputting a character string from the keyboard, specifying a menu map on a tablet, etc., but in recent years, C
A method is adopted in which a menu map is displayed on a portion of the R7 screen and a menu is specified within the map. The reason for this is that the user of the editing device can perform all tasks by looking at the CR7 screen, making it easy to operate.

However, in recent years editing devices have become richer in functionality.

Along with this, the number of menu items has also increased significantly. Since what is mainly to be displayed on the CRT screen are figures such as circuit diagrams, the area for displaying the menu map is small and not all menus can be displayed.

For this reason, a method is used in which the menu is divided into several groups and displayed. Normally, menus are grouped by function to make it easier to understand how they are divided, and if there are still too many menus, the menu groups are further structured into a hierarchical structure. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, it is divided into a display function group, a graphic data generation function group, a graphic data editing function group, a work condition setting function group, a block data processing function group, etc.

(Problem M to be solved by the invention) In the conventional menu grouping method described above, all menus cannot be displayed on the screen, so a series of editing of certain graphic data and generation of new data in another location is required. If you want to do the work, first.

Change the menu map to one that has a menu that displays the overall view, then specify that menu to display the overall view, and specify the menu that enlarges the area with the target data to enlarge that part. , Change the menu map to one from the graphic data editing function group, then specify the graphic data editing menu to edit, change the menu map to one from the graphic data display function group, and then specify the display area movement menu to display. The procedure is to change the area, change the menu map to that of the graphic data generation function group, and then specify the graphic data generation menu to generate new data, but the operation is to change the display of the menu map every time you select a menu. There was a drawback that it had to be done.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an interactive graphic data editing device which eliminates the drawbacks of the conventional art and enables most of the normal editing work to be performed using only the menus of a selection menu group including six menus that can be determined each time. The purpose is to provide a menu system.

(Means for solving problem a) The menu system of the interactive graphic data editing device of the present invention is as follows:
It consists of a menu group of hierarchically structured groups according to function, and a menu group that is a collection of menus that belong to the group according to function and are selected according to a certain rule.

(Function) By grouping menus as described above, when operating on an editing device, many operations can be performed using the menus in the selected menu group, and the menu map changes significantly each time a menu is executed. This makes it possible to improve operability.

(Example) An example of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 and 3.

FIG. 1 is a chart of menu grouping according to the present invention.

According to the inventor's research, even if there are many menus, the frequency of menu usage varies significantly.

As shown in FIG. 3, the menu execution frequency examples differ by an order of magnitude. The number of times each menu is used varies depending on the user's work content that day.

Therefore, in menu division, it is necessary to not only group menus by function, but also to add groups consisting of menus selected according to certain rules, such as execution frequency, in addition to groups by function.

First, the classification of menus by function is the same as the conventional method shown in Figure 2, and the selection menus include the full display menu and partial enlargement display menu from the display function group, and the line segment generation menu from the 1-figure data generation function group. , the rectangle generation menu was selected, the figure movement menu and figure deletion menu were determined from the figure data editing function group, and six menus were made available to the user to be determined each time they were used.

These menus are marked with a mark in Figure 1, and can be specified in the case of a rectangular generation menu, whether the menu map is displayed as a selection menu, or in the case of a graphic data generation function group. There is.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the present invention, in normal editing work, most of the work can be done only with the menus of the selection menu group including six menus that can be determined each time, and the menu map can be changed every time the menu is executed. This eliminates the need for such troublesome operations, significantly improving work efficiency, and the practical effects are extremely large.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a chart of menu grouping according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a chart of conventional menu grouping, and FIG. 3 is a graph showing an example of menu execution frequency. Patent applicant Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An interactive figure comprising a menu group of hierarchically structured groups according to functions, and a menu group that is a collection of menus that belong to the hierarchically structured groups according to functions and are selected according to a certain rule. Menu-driven data editing device.