JPH04118779A - Cad system with image retrieval function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily find out a designed drawing required for a designer by storing image information representing image of the whole drawing other than accurate vector information to specify each line of respective drawing. CONSTITUTION:Vector information which specifies each line forming a drawing at every designed drawing generated until the present time is stored in a vector information file 6, and also, the image information representing the whole drawing in secondary fashion at every drawing is stored in an image information file 7. When the designer inputs attribute information which specifies respective drawing, the image information in accordance with the attribute information is read out from the image information file, and is displayed on a display 3. Thereby, the designer can easily confirm respective drawing in a form of drawing image, and can find out a required designed drawing in a short time.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Purpose of the Invention (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention provides a method for creating drawings using a computer.
D (Computer Aided Design
) system, and particularly relates to a CAD system with an image search function that allows users to easily search for already designed drawings in image form.

(Prior Art) Generally, in a CAD system, a large number of designed drawings are stored in an external storage device such as an FDD. The system is configured so that the drawings can be searched as needed. Generally, when creating a drawing, each line forming the drawing is input as vector information. That is, one line is specified using the coordinates of the starting point of the line, the direction, and the length information. This vector information is then stored in the external storage device. By storing each line forming the drawing in the form of vector information in the external storage device, the storage capacity of the external storage device can be reduced.

When referring to the drawings stored in this external storage device, you can manually enter search data that specifies the relevant drawing, such as the drawing number and registration date. The vector information is displayed on the display.

Designers cannot visually grasp what the actual drawing looks like using only the vector information shown by numbers or symbols, so it is necessary to convert this vector information into image information and display it. . Generally, the process of converting vector data into image data is complicated, and a large amount of processing time is required to display one drawing made up of a large amount of vector information as an image.

Generally, when a designer designs a new product, unless the designer is designing a completely new product, the designer usually performs the design work while referring to drawings created in the past. Before adopting the CAD system, I would go through the already designed drawings in the drawing locker and find the drawings that would be useful for new designs, and use those drawings as reference when designing new drawings.

However, when a CAD system is adopted for designing, as mentioned above, the designed drawings are basically stored in an external storage device such as an FDD, so it is not possible to check each designed drawing in the form of a drawing. . Therefore, many designed drawings cannot be searched in a short time in the form of images (drawings).

As a result, there is a problem in that it is not easy to find the required designed drawings.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) In this way, in conventional CAD systems, it is not possible to search a large number of designed drawings in image form in a short time, so designers cannot easily find the drawing they need most. . As a result, the efficiency of design work is reduced, making the system extremely inconvenient for designers.

The present invention was made in view of these circumstances, and
By storing accurate vector information that identifies each line in each drawing as well as image information that represents the image of the entire drawing, a large number of designed drawings can be searched in an image state in a short time, which is useful for designers. To provide a CAD system with an image search function that can greatly improve operability by easily finding designed drawings.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the CAD system with an image search function of the present invention uses vector information that stores vector information that specifies each line forming each drawing. The relationship between the file, the image information file that stores the image information of each drawing, each attribute information that specifies each drawing, and each pointer for specifying each vector information and image information in the vector information file and image information file. A search information file to be stored, a search means for searching the search information file for a pointer corresponding to attribute information input from the outside, and a search means for reading out image information specified by the pointer searched by the search means from the image information file. and image information display means for displaying on a display.

(Function) In a CAD system with an image search function configured as described above, each line forming a designed drawing is stored in the vector information file in the form of normal vector information, and the image information of each designed drawing is stored in the vector information file. is stored in the image information file. Then, when the designer inputs attribute information specifying each drawing, image information corresponding to this attribute information is read from the image information file and displayed on the display. Therefore, the designer can easily check each drawing in the form of a drawing (image).

As a result, it becomes possible to find the required designed drawings in a short time.

(Example) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a CAD system with an image search function according to an embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a main control section composed of, for example, a microcomputer or a personal computer.

The main control unit 1 includes a keyboard 2 for entering various commands and data manually, and a display device such as a CRT for displaying created drawings, various data entered manually, and operation guidance. 3. A program memory 4 for storing various control programs including CAD programs is connected to an external storage device 5 such as a floppy disk drive (FDD).

As shown in the figure, a vector information file 6, an image information file 7, and a search information file 8 are formed in a storage medium such as an FD of this external storage device 5.

In the vector information file 6, vector information specifying each line forming the drawing is stored for each designed drawing created up to now.

Further, in the image information file 7, image information secondarily indicating the entire drawing is stored for each drawing.

In addition, in the search information file 6, for each drawing, each attribute information that specifies each drawing and each pointer that specifies each vector information and each image information in the vector information file 6 and image information file 7 are stored. The relationship is remembered. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, each drawing has a drawing number 8a.

Registration date 8b Attribute information identifying the relevant drawing such as registrant (designer) name 8C, vector information pointer 8d identifying vector information corresponding to the relevant drawing in the vector information file 6, and similarly the image information An image information pointer 8e for specifying image information corresponding to the relevant drawing in the file 7 is stored.

In a CAD system with an image search function configured as described above, when an operator creates a new drawing, the drawing number 8a, registration date 8b, registrant 8C, etc. shown in Fig. 2 are used to identify already designed drawings. When the user inputs a key from the keyboard 2 using the attribute information as a search command, the main control unit 1 searches the search information file 8 of the external storage device 5 with the input attribute information and displays the image information pointer 8 corresponding to the attribute information.
Read e. When the image information pointer 8e is read out, the image information file 7 is searched using this image information pointer 8e. Then, the image information specified by the image information pointer 8e is read out and displayed on the display 3.
Display to.

Further, drawings created using this CAD system with an image search function are stored in a vector information file 6 and an image information file 7.

Specifically, the vector information memory 6 stores the aforementioned vector information of each line forming the drawing as numerical data. That is, data strictly indicating the drawing is recorded in this vector information memory 6. Further, the created drawing is finally displayed as an image on the display 3 for confirmation by the designer, and the displayed image is stored in the image information file 7 as image information of the drawing. Therefore, each piece of image information stored in this image information file 7 visually informs the designer of the approximate shape (image) of the corresponding drawing, and a new drawing is created using the dimension values of this image information. It's not something you do.

According to the CAD system with the image search function configured in this way, when creating a new drawing, a designer can
Drawing number 8a that identifies drawings designed in the past, registration date 8b,
When attribute information such as the registered name 8c is input as search data from the keyboard 2, image information of the corresponding drawing is displayed on the display 3. In this case, since the image information for each drawing is recorded in advance in the image information file 7,
When the search data is entered manually, an image of the corresponding drawing is immediately displayed on the display 3.

Therefore, a large number of drawings can be searched in drawing form in a short time. Therefore, the designer can efficiently find the target drawing that he or she wants to refer to.

Once the target drawing is specified, the vector information of the drawing is read out, detailed examination is performed on each line forming the drawing, and this is used as study material for a newly created drawing.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the CA with image search function of the present invention
According to the D system, in addition to accurate vector information specifying each line of each drawing, image information indicating the image of the entire drawing is stored. Therefore, a large number of designed drawings can be searched in an image state in a short time, and designers can easily see the designed drawings they need, thereby improving the efficiency of the designer's design work. The operability of the entire system can be greatly improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a CAD system with an image search function according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the stored contents of a search information file in the same embodiment system. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Main control unit, 2... Keyboard, 3... Display unit, 4... Program memory, 5... External storage device, 6... Vector information file, 7... Image information File 8...Search information file. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue

Claims (1)

[Claims] A vector information file that stores vector information that specifies each line forming each drawing, an image information file that stores image information of each drawing, attribute information that specifies each drawing, and the vector information file and image information. a search information file that stores the relationship between each vector information and each pointer for specifying image information of a file; a search means that searches the search information file for a pointer corresponding to attribute information input from the outside; A CAD system with an image search function, comprising image information display means for reading image information specified by a pointer searched by a search means from the image information file and displaying the read image information on a display device.