JPH05174121A - Graphic processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten graphic preparation time by using two pointing devices, one exclusively for a command menu and the other exclusively for a graphic drawing area. CONSTITUTION:Two pointing devices are provided: a mouse 7 is a second pointing device equipped with a command determination button 7a, and a mouse 7 is a first pointing device equipped with a position determination button 8a. The mouse 7 moves only in a command menu area 2a and is dedicated to command input; while the mouse 7 moves only in a graphic plotting area and is dedicated to graphic pointing. Thus, the position selection in the graphic plotting area 2b can be made by moving the pointing device 8 while selecting the command within the command menu area 2a by moving the mouse 7, and, on the contrary, the command selection can be made within the command menu area 2a by moving the mouse 7 while selecting the position within the graphic plotting area 2b by moving the pointing device 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a graphic processing device,
In particular, it relates to a graphics processing device such as CAD (Computer Aided Design).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Regarding a conventional graphic processing device of this type,
This will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a conventional graphic processing apparatus, and FIG.
FIG. 6 is a front view of a display device for explaining the flow of graphic processing.

In FIG. 8, generally, in a graphic processing apparatus such as CAD, a central processing unit 1 for processing input information, a command menu area 2a for displaying a command and graphic elements including straight lines, circles and the like are displayed. A display device 2 having two areas, a graphic drawing area 2b, and a display device 2
A pointing device (mouse, digitizer, etc.) 3, which is used to select any position information or displayed processing command, and which has a decision button 3a for determining the selected command or position information, It is composed of a keyboard 4 for inputting characters and numerical values, an external storage device 5 for storing graphic data and the like, and a plotter 6 for outputting a graphic.

Conventional CAD drawing is performed through the following processes.

First, after the pointing device 3 is moved to the command menu area 2a where the processing commands are lined up and the processing command desired by the user is designated,
The decision button 3a is operated to decide the command. Next, the pointing device 3 is moved to the figure drawing area 2b for actually drawing, and after pointing a desired point, the enter button 3a is operated to make the decision. These operations are repeated to draw a figure.

A specific processing example for "drawing a line from point A to point B" will be described with reference to FIG. The arrow shown in the figure indicates the locus of the pointing device 3.

First, the "line" in the command menu area 2a
With the pointing device 3 and press the enter button 3a.
Then, "2 points" in the command menu area 2a is selected and determined (Fig. B). Next, move the pointing device 3 to the point A in the graphic drawing area 2b,
When the point A is determined (Fig. C) and the point B is further determined, the desired line is drawn (Fig. D). Here, the arrow α shown by the solid line is
The pointing device 3 is the command menu area 2a.
To the figure drawing area 2b, and an arrow β indicated by a broken line indicates that the pointing device 3 has moved from the figure drawing area 2b to the command menu area 2a.

[0009]

However, according to the conventional method, the operations indicated by the arrows α and β occur without fail because one pointing device 3 performs command selection to graphic drawing. , It always occurs when the next operation is performed. That is, it is necessary to repeatedly move the pointing device 3 from the command menu area 2a to the figure drawing area 2b repeatedly on the screen of the display device 2 as indicated by arrows α and β, which is basically troublesome for figure input. There was a problem that thinking was interrupted and it took time to create figures.

As a countermeasure against this, a method of switching between the command menu area 2a and the graphic drawing area 2b by pressing another button of the pointing device 3 has been proposed. With this method, command selection and position selection can be performed simultaneously. In addition, there is a problem in that the number of times of pressing the button of the pointing device 3 is significantly increased due to a large number of movements between regions, which takes up a considerable amount of work time for completing one drawing. there were.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and to provide a graphic processing apparatus in which the graphic creation time is short.

[0012]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention uses two pointing devices,
One is dedicated to the command menu area and the other is dedicated to the graphic drawing area.

[0013]

With the above structure, the pointing device on the command selecting side has only the command menu area as a movement in only one direction (for example, the vertical direction), and the pointing device on the side of drawing a graphic has a two-dimensional structure. Performs movement to move only the graphic drawing area.

By separating the figure drawing and the command selection in this way, the movement between the command menu area and the figure drawing area by the pointing device is greatly reduced, and furthermore, it is possible to make a decision by using two pointing devices simultaneously. The figure input is simplified and the figure creation time is reduced.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a graphic processing device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of a display device for explaining the flow of graphic processing according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a command menu area and 2 It is a front view of a pointing device of a stand.

In FIG. 1, the present embodiment differs from the conventional example shown in FIG. 8 in that the mouse 7 which is a second pointing device having a command decision button 7a and the first pointing device having a position decision button 8a. Equipped with two devices, mouse 8, one mouse 7 is specialized to move only the command menu area 2a and input commands, and the other mouse (hereinafter referred to as pointing device) 8 is a graphic drawing area. The point is that only 2b is moved and specialized for the graphic pointer. Since the other parts are the same as the conventional example, the same components are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

The operation of the graphic processing apparatus configured as above will be described.

As described above, the mouse 7 is specialized for command selection and its movement is corrected in the vertical direction. Therefore,
As shown in FIG. 3, no matter which direction the mouse 7 moves in the directions of arrows A, B and C, of the X-direction and Y-direction data output from the mouse 7, only the data in the Y-direction shown in B is displayed. It is read by the central processing unit 1 and reflected in the command menu area 2a in the display unit 2. That is, if the mouse 7 moves upward as indicated by the arrows A, B and C, the reverse character of the command indicating that the command has been selected is as shown by the arrow D, from "correction" of (d) to (a) in order. Move to the “point” of. Conversely, if the mouse 7 moves downward as indicated by arrows E, F, and G, the reverse character of the command indicating that the command has been selected is indicated by arrow H, as shown in arrow (a) to "d" (d). Move to “Modify”. When the movement to the desired command position is completed,
By pressing the command decision button 7a, the desired command is decided. Then, the pointing device 8 is used to perform drawing work in the graphic drawing area 2b.

Next, the electrical operation of the mouse 7, pointing device 8, central processing unit 1 and display device 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

FIG. 4 is a circuit block diagram centering on the central processing unit 1, and FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a drawing procedure.

In FIG. 4, the central processing unit 1 is a CPU
9, internal storage device 10 such as DRAM, screen control circuit 11,
It is composed of a serial data receiving circuit 12 having two ports A and B for receiving signals from the mouse 7 and the pointing device 8 and an image memory 13.

The mouse 7 and the pointing device 8 are respectively a command decision button 7a and a position decision button 8a, one-chip microcomputers 7b and 8b, X.
It comprises direction displacement data counters 7c and 8c and Y direction displacement data counters 7d and 8d.

The signal flow in the above configuration is as follows.
X-direction and Y-direction displacement data counters 7c, 8c, 7d
In the one-chip microcomputers 7b and 8b that have received the data signals from the CPUs 9 and 8d, the CPU 9 issues a command and causes the internal storage device 10 to store the commands via the serial data reception circuit 12. Further, the CPU 9 determines which position on the display screen from the stored data the mouse 7 or the pointing device 8
Is calculated and written to the image memory 13,
From there, it is sent as a video signal to the display device 2 whose screen is controlled by the screen control circuit 11. The mouse 7 and the pointing device 8 are separated into the port A, depending on whether the state of the address signal output from the CPU 9 is 0V or 5V.
This is done by switching B.

Next, with the above hardware configuration, CA
A flowchart of sampling of the pointing device when performing the work of D will be described.

In practice, the central processing unit 1 can simultaneously sample the moving position or moving distance of the pointing device 8 and the mouse 7. That is, when moving the pointing device 8 and the mouse 7,
(That is, when it is neither in the command decision state nor in the position input decision state), the central processing unit 1 side is in the input decision waiting state (as shown in the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 (a)). I wish I had it. That is, sampling of the amount of movement of the cursor of the pointing device 8, calculation of the screen position of the cursor, writing to the image memory 13, sampling of the position selected by the mouse 7, calculation of the selected command position, via the image memory 13 , It is only necessary to reverse the selected command and rotate the previously selected command forward. Therefore, during command selection, that is, even when the mouse 7 is moved, the position of the pointing device 8 can be moved to move the cursor indicated by the pointing device 8 to a position close to a desired position. Conversely, during position selection,
That is, when the pointing device 8 moves, the mouse 7
The position of can be moved close to the desired command, and work can be performed efficiently. The data structure in this embodiment is shown in FIG. 5 (b).

In the present embodiment, the same mouse is used as the two pointing devices in order to save man-hours. The difference between the two pointing devices is calculated by referring to the values of both X and Y data when the position selecting pointing device 8 calculates the position, but is sampled from the command position selecting mouse 7. Both X and Y data are
When calculating which command was selected, only the data in the Y direction is referenced. By doing so, the movement of the mouse 7 is corrected in the Y direction.

In the present embodiment, the method of correcting the movement of the mouse 7 is performed by software by ignoring the data in the X direction. However, in the hardware, the X direction displacement data indicating the movement distance in the X direction is corrected. A method of deleting the signal line or mechanically correcting the movement of the mouse 7 with a rail or the like can also be adopted.

At the time of command determination or position determination (that is, when the command and position determination buttons 7a and 8a are pressed), another task (for example, the graphic drawing area 2) is interrupted.
It is impossible to sample the moving position or the moving distance of the pointing device 8 or the mouse 7 because the work (such as drawing a line on b) is started. However, compared to using only one pointing device, the pointing device 8 can move the pointing device 8 and the mouse 7 at the same time without moving largely, and work can be performed efficiently and work time can be reduced. Significantly shortened.

When this method is applied to the example of "drawing a line from point A to point B" described in the conventional example, a series of flows shown in FIG. 2 is obtained. First, with mouse 7, command "line"
, And the command determination button 7a is used to determine (FIG. A), and the command “2 points” is selected and determined (FIG. B). Next, the pointing device 8 is moved to the point A, the point A is determined by the position determination button 8a (Fig. C), the point B is further determined, and the desired line is finished (Fig. D). As shown in the above example, it is understood that the moving distances of the arrows α and β are greatly reduced only by comparing the d diagram of FIG. 2 and the d diagram of FIG. 9.

In the present embodiment, the movement of the mouse 7 is corrected in the Y direction, but if sampling is performed in the X direction so as to roughly move in the X direction, the mouse 7 does not move out of the command menu and the command menu is displayed. It is clear that the case of 2 columns or more can be dealt with.

FIG. 6 is a front view of a main part showing the command menu area 2a in two rows and the mouse 7. When the mouse 7 is moved in the direction of arrow A as shown in FIG. When the menu selection state as shown changes to the left side and moves in the direction of arrow G as shown in FIG. 7C, the menu selection state as shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 shows a three-column command menu area 2a.
And a front view of the main part of the mouse 7 having three command decision buttons 7a, 7e and 7f in charge of each row, the movement of the mouse 7 is corrected only in the Y direction and corresponds to the desired command row. Command decision button 7a, 7e or 7
Command decisions can be made by pressing f.

As shown by the arrows A, B and C, the command menu selection is Y regardless of the direction in which the mouse 7 is moved.
Only in the direction, as shown in (a), the command in the horizontal 1 row is selected, and the desired command menu is
When the command decision button 7f in the column corresponding to the command is pushed as shown in FIG. 9B, the final decision of the desired command is made as shown in FIG.

In any of the above cases, the position of the figure drawing area 2b can be selected by moving the pointing device 8 while the mouse 7 is being moved to select a command in the command menu area 2a. Even while the pointing device 8 is being moved and the position of the figure drawing area 2b is being selected,
The mouse 7 can be moved to select a command in the command menu area 2a, which enables efficient drawing work.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention, 2
It is possible to provide a graphic processing device that can efficiently perform drawing work in a short time without interrupting thoughts, since positions can be selected at the same time when a command is selected and conversely position-selective commands can be simultaneously selected by using one pointing device. ..

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a graphic processing device according to the present invention.

[FIG. 2] “Draw a line from point A to point B” according to this embodiment
It is a front view of a display device for explaining a flow of a series of operations for drawing.

FIG. 3 shows a command menu area of one column in the present embodiment,
It is a front view which shows the movement of the mouse used for this.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a circuit showing an electrical connection between the pointing device, the central processing unit and the display device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the central processing unit when position selection and command selection are being performed in this embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing a two-row command menu area and a mouse used for the command menu area according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing a command menu area in three columns and a mouse used for the command menu area according to the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a conventional graphic processing device.

FIG. 9 is a front view of a display device for explaining a flow of a series of operations for performing drawing “drawing a line from a point A to a point B” by a conventional graphic processing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Central processing unit, 2 ... Display device, 2a ... Command menu area, 2b ... Graphic drawing area, 3a ... Enter button, 4 ... Keyboard, 5 ... External storage device, 6 ... Plotter, 7 ... Mouse (second pointing) Device), 7a, 7e, 7f ... Command decision button, 7b,
8b ... One-chip microcomputer, 7c, 8c ... X-direction displacement data counter, 7d, 8d ... Y-direction displacement data counter, 8a ... Position determination button, 8 ... Pointing device (first pointing device), 9 ... CP
U, 10 ... Internal storage device (DRAM), 11 ... Screen control circuit, 12 ... Serial data receiving circuit, 13 ... Image memory.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A display device having a command menu area displayed in one column in one direction and a figure drawing area for displaying figures and characters, an input device for inputting characters, numerical values and commands, and the figure drawing area. And a second pointing device for determining a command having at least one command determination button whose movement is corrected in one row in the same direction as the command menu area. A graphic processing apparatus comprising: a device. 2. A display device having a command menu area displayed in a plurality of columns in the vertical direction or a plurality of rows in the horizontal direction and a figure drawing area for displaying figures and characters, and an input device for inputting characters, numerical values and commands, A command having a first pointing device for indicating and determining the coordinates of the graphic drawing area and at least one command determination button whose movement is corrected in the same vertical column or the same horizontal row of the command menu area. A graphic processing device comprising a second pointing device for determining. 3. A display device having a command menu area displayed in a plurality of columns in the vertical direction and a figure drawing area for displaying figures and characters, an input device for inputting characters, numerical values and commands, and coordinates of the figure drawing area. A first pointing device for instructing and determining a command, and a command determination button whose movement is corrected in the vertical direction of the command menu area and the number of which is equal to or more than the number of columns, and which has one row and a plurality of columns in the vertical direction. And a second pointing device for deciding a desired command of the target row by the command deciding button.