JPH06251106A - Rough position determining device for electric parts - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a electric parts rough position determining device which can efficiently execute shape setting and an arrangement determination of a function block. CONSTITUTION:The electric parts rough position determining device is provided with a CAD data base store part 7 for storing parts information of electric parts to be arranged in a substrate, connecting information between the electric parts, and information related to a function block, a block area arithmetic part 5 for operating a substrate occupied area of every function flock, based on parts information and block information stored in the CAD data base store part 7, a block connecting information arithmetic part 6 for operating a connection degree between the function blocks, based on the parts information, the connecting information and the block information, a block position determining part 4 for determining an arrangement position of the function block in accordance with outputs from the block area arithmetic part 5 and the block connecting information arithmetic part 6, and an output display device 11 for displaying an arranged state of the function block determined by the block position determining part 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure of an electric component general position determining device for determining a layout position and a shape of a functional block including an electric component on a substrate in a printed circuit board design.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the conventional electrical component layout design, first, a schematic layout of functional blocks which are divided into functional units of a circuit on a printed circuit board is determined, and then a detailed layout of electrical components and a wiring route are determined. The layout design is being done. In this general layout design of functional blocks, the designer usually understands the connection relationship between blocks by referring to the positional relationship of fixed parts such as connectors and circuit diagrams whose layout position is determined on the printed circuit board. A method of determining the rough position and shape of the functional block is used.

After the general layout of the functional blocks is determined, individual electric components and wiring paths are specifically determined automatically or interactively using a printed board CAD device.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional method of roughly arranging functional blocks, the area, shape or arrangement position of the functional blocks is determined by the experience and intuition of the designer. However, information such as the connection relationship between functional blocks and the number of parts occupying functional blocks has not been fully considered. Therefore, at the stage of layout design of electrical parts, all the parts could not be accommodated in the function block because the area for securing the function block was small, and the layout relationship between the function blocks could not be wired. In some cases, the rough layout design of the functional blocks has to be redone again, and there is a problem that it takes too much design time.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and provides an electric component general position determination device capable of efficiently determining the shape and arrangement of functional blocks. The purpose is to

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric component general position determining device for arranging a functional block on which a predetermined electric component is arranged at a predetermined position on a substrate. Based on the component information and the block information stored in the information storage unit, the information storage unit that stores the component information of the electrical components to be arranged on the board, the connection information between the electrical components, and the information about the functional blocks. Block area calculation means for calculating the occupied area of the board for each functional block, and block connection information calculation for calculating the degree of connection between the functional blocks based on the component information, connection information and block information stored in the information storage means. Means, a block position determining means for determining the arrangement position of the functional block on the substrate according to the outputs from the block area calculating means and the block connection information calculating means, and a block position determining means. And a display means for displaying the arrangement of the functional block determined by the position determining means.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric component general position determining device further comprising an input means for inputting information for changing the arrangement and shape of the functional block determined by the block position determining means. The block position determining means is
The arrangement information of the functional blocks is changed based on the information given by the input means.

[0008]

In the electric component general position determining apparatus according to the present invention, the block area calculating means calculates the required area of the functional block based on the area data of the electric component included in each functional block to be arranged. . In addition, the block connection information calculation means calculates the degree of connection between the functional blocks based on the connection information between the functional blocks and the like. Then, the block position determining means determines the arrangement position of the functional block based on the required area information of each functional block and the degree of connection between the functional blocks.

In the general electric component position determining apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, when the block shape change data is input from the input means, the block position determining means changes the shape of the functional block according to the input data.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. (Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electric component schematic position determining device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, this electrical component schematic position determination device is configured by a block placement processing control unit 1, an input device 12, an output display device 11, and a CAD database storage unit 7.

Further, the block layout processing control unit 1 includes a man-machine interface unit 2, a block information display processing unit 3, a block position determination unit 4, a block area calculation unit 5, and a block connection information calculation unit 6. It is configured. The man-machine interface unit 2 controls data input from the input device 12 or outputs information from the block information display processing unit 3 to the output display device 11.

The block information display processing section 3 is based on the calculation results of the block area calculation section 5 and the block connection information calculation section 6 and the like, and displays the area display information of the blocks and the connection between the blocks and between the blocks and fixed parts such as connectors. The information is processed and the display information is output to the man-machine interface unit 2. The block position determination unit 4 sets / changes the block position in accordance with the block position and the block area change information given from the input device 12, outputs a display change signal to the block information display processing unit 3, or CAD. Block information storage unit 1 of database storage unit 7
A process of changing the content of 0 is performed.

The block area calculation unit 5 calculates the area area of each block based on the size of the component belonging to each block obtained from the component information storage unit 8 and the block information storage unit 10 of the CAD database storage unit 7. The block connection information calculation unit 6 indicates the connection relation between blocks from the component information storage unit 8, the connection information storage unit 9, and the block information storage unit 10 of the CAD database storage unit 7 and the connection relation between fixed components such as connectors and blocks. calculate.

The CAD database storage unit 7 is further composed of a component information storage unit 8, a connection information storage unit 9, and a block information storage unit 10. Parts information storage unit 8
Stores information about electric components such as size and arrangement surface of the electric component. The connection information storage unit 9 stores information about connection nets of electrical components.

The block information storage unit 10 stores information such as the type of electric component belonging to the block, the position and shape of the block, and the name of the block. Output display device 11
Is composed of, for example, a display, and displays the block arrangement state based on the display data given from the block information display processing unit 3. The input device 12 is composed of, for example, a keyboard and a mouse, and inputs a block layout position, change data thereof, and the like.

Next, the operation of the electric component general position determining apparatus according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. In step S13, first, the electrical component approximate position device is driven. In step S14, the block area calculator 5 calculates the area area occupied by each block. Specifically, this processing is to calculate the area occupied by the component belonging to the block based on the information extracted from the component information storage unit 8 and the block information storage unit 10. However, when calculating the area area of the block, the calculation is performed separately for the first surface (hereinafter referred to as the front surface) and the final surface (hereinafter referred to as the rear surface) of the substrate. In other words, the surface area of the block is calculated in consideration of the surface on which the component is to be arranged for the surface-mounted component, and for both of the front surface and the back surface of the penetrating component.

In step S15, the block connection information calculation unit 6 calculates the connection relationship between blocks and the connection relationship (the degree of connection) between a block and a fixed part such as a connector. The calculation of the connection relationship between the blocks is performed by the component information storage unit 8, the connection information storage unit 9, and the block information storage unit 10.
Is performed by extracting the nets that are connected across blocks from. The connection information between blocks is the number of connections and the type of one connection net, such as a net between front surface parts, a net between back surface parts, or a net between front surface parts and back surface parts. Information is calculated.

In step S16, the block layout information is displayed on the screen of the output display device 11 based on the calculation results of the block area calculation unit 5 and the block connection information calculation unit 6. A screen display example is shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, each of the displayed blocks 1 to 3 has the same area area,
It shall be placed on the same surface of the substrate. The shape of each block is displayed as a square having an area equal to the calculated area area. At this stage, since each block is not arranged, it is displayed on the outside of the board, and the connector 1, which is a fixed component, is arranged in the board. The number written between each block indicates the number of connections between each block. From this display, it can be seen that there are 10 connections between block 1 and block 2 and 6 connections between block 2 and block 3. Further, between the connector 1 and the block 2, three lines showing the connection relationship between each pin of the connector 1 and the block 2 are displayed.

In step S17, the block position determining unit 4 determines the arrangement positions of the unarranged blocks 1 to 3. The procedure will be described with reference to the example shown in FIG. First,
The user pays attention to the connection relationship between the connector 1 whose position has been determined and the unarranged block, and selects a block with a large number of connections. Then, focusing on the fact that the block 2 has three connections with the connector 1 from the screen display example of FIG. 3, the block 2 is arranged near the connector 1. Next, paying attention to the connection relationship between the block 2 and the remaining blocks, a block with a large number of connections is selected. Since the block 1 has ten connections with the block 2, the block 1 is arranged near the block 2. Finally, since the block 3 has six connections with the block 1, the block 3 is arranged near the block 1. The result of such position determination is shown in FIG.

In step S18, step S17
The block position determination unit 4 sets the block position information in the block information storage unit 10 of the CAD database storage unit 7 based on the information of the block arrangement determined in. Further, when the block position is changed or the block shape is changed (described later), the block information storage unit 1
Change the contents of 0.

In the block arrangement determined through the above processing, the area of each block is determined based on the area data of the electric parts included in the block. For this reason, it is possible to eliminate the inconvenience that the electric components can be arranged due to the lack of the area of the block in the detailed arrangement designing stage of the electric components. Further, each block is determined such that blocks having a close connection relationship are arranged at close positions by referring to the mutual connection relationship. Therefore, in a subsequent process, it is possible to prevent a situation in which connection wiring becomes difficult due to a bad positional relationship between blocks.

The following embodiments can be further applied to the general electric component position determining apparatus of the above embodiment. First, regarding the display form of the blocks shown in FIG. 3, the blocks on the front surface and the back surface of the substrate can be displayed simultaneously. That is, in step S14, both the surface area and the back surface area of the block are calculated. Therefore, it is possible to display one block so that the front surface and the back surface can be distinguished based on the calculation result. For example, in FIG. 5, the solid line indicates the front surface shape and the dotted line indicates the rear surface shape for one block. Of course, when it is desired to see only the front surface block shape for one block, only the rear surface block shape, or both, it is possible to select and display them.

The display of the connection nets between blocks is not limited to the case where the number of connection nets is displayed as a number, and another method may be used as long as the number of nets can be understood. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, it is possible to visually understand that the number of connections is five by connecting the blocks 1 and 2 with a line that matches the number of connections.

Further, the display can be changed according to the type of connection net. There are three types of connection nets: a net for front surface parts, a net for back surface parts, and a net for front surface parts / back surface parts. It is possible to easily understand the type of connection net by changing the display form according to the type. it can. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 7, three types of information are displayed by changing the type of line of the connection net between block 1 and block 2. Solid lines a and e are nets between front surface parts, dotted lines b and d are nets between back surface parts, and chain line c
Indicates a net between front surface parts / back surface parts.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the shape of the block is a square having the same area as the area required for arranging the respective parts, but other shapes such as a rectangular shape and a polygon other than the square are used. It is also possible. Further, this change can be performed during the block position determination process. By providing such a block shape changing function, even if a block cannot be placed on a substrate in the case of a square, the block can be placed well by changing the block shape according to the shape of the substrate. It becomes possible. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, it is assumed that the front surface of the block 1 can be changed to the shape shown by the solid line and the back surface can be changed to the shape shown by the dotted line. The area of the block whose shape has been changed is set equal to the area of the original square block.

[0026]

As described above, the electrical component schematic position determining device according to the present invention arranges each functional block at a predetermined position on the substrate based on the required area of each functional block and the degree of connection between the functional blocks. Since it is configured so as to have a sufficient area for arranging the electric parts arranged in the function block and the wiring connection is easy, it is possible to arrange the function block. From the function block layout design to the component layout design It is possible to improve the efficiency of the design work up to.

Further, in the electric component general position determining apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, since the function block shape changing process can be further performed, the accuracy of the functional block layout design can be further improved. it can.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electric component schematic position determining device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the electrical component general position determining apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a screen display example of block information of the electrical component schematic position determining device shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of determining a block position of the electrical component schematic position determining device shown in FIG. 1.

5 is an explanatory diagram showing a screen display example of blocks of the electrical component schematic position determining device shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

6 is an explanatory diagram showing a screen display example of a connection net between blocks of the electrical component schematic position determining device shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

7 is an explanatory diagram showing a screen display example of a connection net between blocks of the electrical component schematic position determining device shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a screen display example of positioning of blocks of the electrical component schematic position determining device shown in FIG. 1.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 block placement processing control unit 2 man-machine interface unit 3 block information display processing unit 4 block position determination unit 5 block area calculation unit 6 block connection information calculation unit 7 CAD database storage unit 8 component information storage unit 9 connection information storage unit 10 blocks Information storage unit 11 Output display device 12 Input device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electric component schematic position determining device for arranging a functional block, in which a predetermined electric component is arranged, at a predetermined position on a board, comprising: component information of the electric component to be arranged on the board; An information storage unit that stores connection information between components and information about a functional block, and an occupied area of the board for each functional block based on the component information and the block information stored in the information storage unit. Block area calculation means for calculating, block connection information calculation means for calculating a connection degree between the functional blocks based on the component information, the connection information and the block information stored in the information storage means, Block position determination for determining the arrangement position of the functional block on the substrate according to the outputs from the block area calculation means and the block connection information calculation means And means, and display means for displaying an arrangement state of the functional block determined by the block position determining unit, the electrical component schematic locating device. 2. The electrical component schematic position determining device further comprises input means for inputting information for changing the arrangement and shape of the functional block determined by the block position determining means, the block The position determining device according to claim 1, wherein the position determining means changes the arrangement information of the functional blocks based on the information given by the inputting means.