JPH0452991B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a printed circuit board design device that automatically designs the connection pattern of a printed circuit board on which a plurality of components are mounted, and in particular, the present invention relates to a printed circuit board design device that automatically designs a connection pattern of a printed circuit board on which a plurality of components are mounted. This invention relates to the improvement of a function that checks whether components can be placed based on mounting restriction conditions.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, a key input device is composed of a key input device, a CRT (cathode ray tube) image display device, a photo plotter, a storage device, and a central processing unit that is coupled to each device and controls them appropriately. The connection pattern on the printed circuit board is calculated by the central processing unit according to the connection information on the printed circuit board given from There is a known printed circuit board design apparatus configured to output the printed circuit board as a photomask to a photoplotter.

When placing parts using such a device, the height of the parts is automatically checked. Data regarding the shape of each part is registered in advance in the database. When checking the height of a component, identify the height limit field on the printed circuit board, check whether the height of the component mounted within that field (there may be more than one field) exceeds the limit value, and then check whether the height of the component mounted within that field (there may be more than one field) exceeds the limit value, and then We are determining whether or not it is possible.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the conventional printed circuit board design apparatus, although the height of the restriction field can be set arbitrarily, the shape of the field is limited to a square or a rectangle. Therefore, as a field, it is necessary to specify a wide area that includes the area that you actually want to specify.In other words, it is no longer possible to specify a field that matches the part shape. There was a problem that it was not possible to check the height accurately.

Furthermore, since the height check is performed by selecting one part figure from a large number of parts one by one, it takes a lot of time to check the height, and it is impossible to check the height of the parts through interactive operations due to the time constraints.

In view of these points, it is an object of the present invention to provide a component height checking method that allows the height restriction field to be set to any shape, although it is rectangular, and that can shorten the processing time for component height checking. It is in.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve such an object, in the present invention, when determining whether or not to attach a component, the central processing unit (1) defines according to an instruction from the information input device. The minimum coordinate, represented by the minimum value of each of the X and Y coordinates, and the maximum coordinate, represented by the maximum value of each of the By comparing the minimum coordinate represented by the maximum value of the X and Y coordinates with the maximum coordinate represented by each maximum value, it is checked whether the part exists within the restriction field, and if it does not exist, the part placement is allowed, (2 ) If the height restriction field exists, clipping the component component for each divided area that has been previously divided into grid-like areas in each of the height restriction fields;
A feature of the present invention is that if a component component does not exist in the decomposition area, the component placement is allowed, and if it does exist, the component placement is rejected, thereby making it possible to determine whether the component placement is possible. do.

(Example) The present invention will be explained in detail below using the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a printed circuit board design apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a CRT image display device that can display figures and commands on the screen, 2 is an information input device with a keyboard and tablet, 3 is an input/output interface, 4 is a central processing unit, 5 is a storage device, and 6 is a It is a photo protuta. 7, various disk devices and the like are used. The central processing unit 4 is capable of exchanging information with each input/output device via the input/output interface 3.

The general operation in such a configuration will be explained as follows. Integrated circuits and other components are placed on a printed circuit board at predetermined positions or at positions determined by settings. Next, among the many pins or terminals of those integrated circuits and other components, connection information for those that need to be connected to each other is input using the keyboard or tablet of the information input device 2. This information is received by the central processing unit 4 via the input/output interface 3.

The central processing unit 4 processes this, determines the connection pattern on the printed circuit board, and uses this result.
It is displayed on the CRT image display device 1, and is also outputted as photographic graphic information for the photomast as appropriate.

Next, the operation related to component height checking, which is a feature of the present invention, will be explained with reference to the procedure explanatory diagram of FIG.

Component registration is performed through interactive processing (executed by the central processing unit) using the tablet and stylus pen of the information input device 2 in response to messages displayed on the CRT image display device 1.
When registering parts, the part name and related information (shape,
dimensions, number of pins, etc.), and these data are stored in the parts database of the storage device 5.

Next, fields are defined on the printed circuit board using the information input device 2 using an interactive processing method. This information is likewise stored in the storage device 5. The field may have a convex shape, a concave shape, or an uneven shape as shown in FIG. 3. It is sufficient if they have a shape that can be decomposed into rectangular elements a to f as shown in the figure. Further, the height limit can be set arbitrarily for each field.

Determine component placement in manual operation mode. For example, as shown in FIG. 4A, the mounting position A or the mounting direction of the selected part 41 is set by specifying the cursor or the X-Y coordinates.

When this setting of component placement is completed, the process moves to height check processing. In order to speed up the height check, it is processed in two steps, targeting only the limit field that is lower than the component height.

In the first step, the minimum coordinates for checking (Xmin, Ymin) are the minimum values of the X and Y coordinates in each field, and the maximum coordinates for checking (Xmax, Ymin) are the maximum values of the X and Y coordinates in each field.
Ymax), the same minimum coordinates (xmax, ymax) and maximum coordinates (xmax, ymax) of the part concerned.
ymax) to check whether the relevant part exists in the field. If it does not exist, a height check error will not occur and a similar check will be made for other fields. If no check error occurs in any field, it means that mounting of the component at that position is permitted, and the check process ends here.

When a height check error occurs, the process moves to the next step.

As shown in Figure 3, each field is divided into grid areas (rectangular shapes: a to c or d to f) in advance, and the elements constituting the part (drawing components of the part) are divided into grid areas (rectangular shapes: a to c or d to f) in advance. ,for example
These include LINE, ARC, CIRCLE, etc. ), for example, by clipping, etc., so that the component components overlap only within the field, and it is determined whether the component components exist within the rectangle. If the part component exists within the rectangle, it is determined that there is a height check error.

As shown in FIG. 4, when moving the part 41 (reference point A) to point B, height restriction field 4
Since a part of the part is placed in 2, an error occurs in the check in step 1. Therefore, we move on to step 2 and check again for each divided rectangular field, but in this case too, an error occurs because a part of the part is inside the restriction field, and for example, a warning sound (BEEP sound) is emitted. occurs and notifies the operator that movement is not possible. In this case, no movement of the parts takes place.

In addition, in the case of the parts arrangement as shown in Fig. 6A,
Although an error occurs in the check in step 1, no error occurs in the check in step 2 because each divided rectangular field is checked.
In addition, in the case shown in FIG. 4B, the shape of the part is checked using a shape that is close to the actual shape (the data is stored in a record to be described later), so an accurate check is performed and no errors occur.

By performing the height check in two steps in this manner, the overall height check processing time can be shortened. Furthermore, in order to speed up the height check process itself, a work file as shown in FIG. 5 is stored in advance in the external storage device 7 and transferred from the external storage device 7 to the memory at the stage of the check process. We are trying to make use of that data. A work file consists of a management block and a record section. The management block is a management block that manages the designation numbers (No. 1 to No. 51) of each height restriction field and the designation numbers of parts data (I in the same figure), and each management block has a corresponding record (No. A pointer indicating the address of (b) in the same figure is stored, and the contents of the corresponding record (b) of the same figure can be called by a block instruction from the management block.

In the case of a height restriction field, the record contents include the end address of the record, the number of rectangles, the minimum values of the X and Y coordinates of the field, the maximum values of the X and Y coordinates, the first rectangle information, Second rectangle information, third rectangle information, ... Nth rectangle information are stored,
In the case of part data, the end address of the record, the number of components of the part, the minimum values of the X and Y coordinates of the mounting surface of the part, the maximum values of the X and Y coordinates, type 1 information, type Type 2 information, type 3 information, . . . type M information are stored. Here, type means line, circle,
Indicates the type of arc, etc.

The CPU 4 saves such a record in the work area of the memory at the time of performing a height check to enable high-speed access.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the present invention has the following effects.

Since the height restriction field can be defined in detail, it is now possible to accurately check the height (appropriateness of part placement) according to the shape of the part.

By dividing the height check process into two steps, performing a coarse check in the first step and a fine check in the second step, the overall height check process time can be shortened.

To speed up the height check process itself by configuring a work file of various data for height check and saving the record contents in the work area during height check processing to enable high-speed access. was completed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a printed circuit board design apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the procedure, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram regarding fields, and Fig. 4 is an explanation of operation. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the work file, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the positional relationship between the height restriction field and the arranged parts. 1... CRT image display device, 2... Information input device, 3... Input/output interface, 4... Central processing unit, 5... Storage device, 6... Photo plotter, 41... Parts, 42... …Height restriction field.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An information input device that inputs information necessary for printed circuit board design, a central processing unit that performs appropriate processing to obtain a printed connection pattern based on the input information, and an analog printed circuit board. It is equipped with a storage device that stores various programs and data necessary for design, and a CRT image display device that is controlled by the central processing unit and displays the designed printed circuit board, etc., and connects based on information about the pattern given from the information input device. Obtain the pattern data, store it in the storage device, and store the connection pattern.
In a printed circuit board design device configured to be displayed on a CRT image display device, when deciding whether or not to mount a component, the central processing unit (1) determines each height limit defined by the instructions from the information input device; Minimum coordinates and X and Y represented by each minimum value of the field's X and Y coordinates
The limit field is determined by comparing the maximum coordinate represented by each maximum value of the coordinates with the minimum coordinate represented by each minimum value of the X and Y coordinates for the part. (2) If there is a part, it is checked whether or not there is a part in the area, and if there is no part, the part is placed. Clip the component components to the divided area,
A feature of the present invention is that if a component component does not exist within the decomposition area, the placement of the component is permitted, and if it does exist, the placement of the component is rejected, thereby making it possible to determine whether or not the component placement is possible. A method for checking the component height of printed circuit board design equipment.