JPH0660148A - Printed circuit board design assisting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make work such as layout pattern check, addition and delete or the like efficient by providing the device with means generating a 3-dimensional structure image of the entire multilayer printed circuit board and displaying a stereoscopic picture. CONSTITUTION:This device is provided with a 3-dimensional picture generating section 24 used to express a wiring structure comprising several layers in a 3-dimensional way, a right eye picture memory 23 and a left eye picture memory 22 setting visual point and visual line direction for the right eye and the left eye respectively and storing a right eye picture and a left eye picture generated by the 3-dimension picture generating section 24, a stereoscopic picture control section 25 transferring the stored content in the right and left eye memories alternately to a frame memory 13 and outputting a switching signal 27 showing that the right eye and the left eye are switched, and a stereoscopic visual eyeglass 26. The stereoscopic visual eyeglass 26 covers the left or the right eye alternately by the switching signal outputted from the stereoscopic picture control section 25. In this case, a liquid crystal shutter is used to cover the left/right eyes.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a board design support device for a circuit board in electric products and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional board design support device displays a wiring pattern on a board as a two-dimensional image.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a conventional board design support device 10. In FIG. 3, the CPU 11 controls the entire board design support apparatus 10 by using the working RAM 12 as appropriate according to a program stored in the program ROM 16.

Further, the board design support device 10 includes an input / output unit 1
7, the operation related to the board design was performed while observing the image of the board displayed on the CRT 15 by the data or the command from the keyboard 19 or the mouse 20, and the wiring pattern was printed through the plotter 18 in some cases. .

FIG. 4 further shows a conventional board design support device 1.
The outline of the operation at 0 will be described.

First, as shown in FIG. 4A, I
The layout for mounting C, connectors, etc. is performed, and the power supply and ground are set and wiring is performed. On this occasion,
Aside from a simple board that uses only one side, the wiring pattern of the power supply and ground is divided into separate layers on a general board.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4 (B), wiring is performed along the circuit diagram. However, in the case of a complicated circuit, wiring is spread over a plurality of layers to avoid contact between patterns and the like. Will be. In addition, when the wiring pattern extends over a plurality of layers, wiring is performed so as not to contact the wiring pattern and the power ground layer.

In this way, the wiring pattern is the power supply layer,
It is divided into a plurality of layers such as a ground layer and other wiring layers. At this time, normal wiring pattern, power supply pattern,
The ground patterns are displayed in different colors so that they can be distinguished. Therefore, when changing the wiring pattern,
You can change it while displaying it by layer on the CRT 15. Further, when checking the wiring pattern, the wiring pattern is output on the CRT 15 or on a semi-transparent sheet by the plotter 18 layer by layer as shown in FIG.

[0009]

As described above, in the conventional board design support device, when checking is performed, it is displayed and output on a CRT or plotter. However, even if it is color-coded for each layer, it is two-dimensional. Since it seems to overlap, it is easy to make an illusion, it is very difficult to understand which wiring pattern is laid out, and also when adding or deleting patterns due to circuit change after layout. For that reason, the efficiency was poor.

[0010]

In order to solve such a problem, the present invention comprises means for displaying the wiring structure of the entire multilayer board as a stereoscopic image from the wiring data designed for each of the multilayer boards. Is.

[0011]

According to the present invention, the wiring structure of a printed circuit board consisting of several layers is three-dimensionally displayed, so that the work of pattern layout, addition, and deletion can be made more efficient.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall construction of this embodiment. The same parts as those in FIG. 3 are designated by the same reference numerals. As shown in FIG. 1, in the embodiment, in addition to the conventional configuration, a three-dimensional image generation unit 24 for three-dimensionally expressing a wiring structure composed of several layers and a viewpoint and a line-of-sight direction for the right eye and the left eye are set. A right-eye image memory 23, a left-eye image memory 22, a right-eye image, and a left-eye memory for respectively storing the right-eye image and the left-eye image generated by the three-dimensional image generation unit 24. Are alternately transmitted to the frame memory 13, and a stereoscopic image control unit 25 and stereoscopic eyeglasses 26 for outputting a switching signal 27 indicating that the right eye and the left eye are switched are provided. The stereoscopic spectacles 26 alternately cover the left and right eyes by the switching signal output from the stereoscopic image control unit 25. Here, the principle of easily viewing a stereoscopic image will be described. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram thereof. Images for the right eye and images for the left eye generated in advance based on binocular parallax are alternately displayed on the CRT, and at the same time, the right eye or the left eye is covered. Then, at a certain time, the left-eye image appears only in the left eye, and vice versa at a certain time. It is as if the left and right images of both eyes come in due to the afterimage, and it looks three-dimensional by the binocular parallax. At this time, a liquid crystal shutter is used to cover the left and right eyes, or the vertical synchronizing frequency of the CRT is adjusted to eliminate flicker.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the outline of the operation of this embodiment. First, the substrate shape and wiring structure are three-dimensionally registered (step SP10). Based on the binocular parallax, the viewpoint and the line-of-sight direction for the right eye and the left eye are set as to where to look (step SP11).

A three-dimensional image for the left eye and a three-dimensional image for the right eye are generated based on the set viewpoint and line-of-sight direction, and are stored in the dedicated left-eye image memory 22 and right-eye image memory 23, respectively (step SP12). . Further, the two images generated by the stereoscopic image control unit are alternately transferred to the frame memory 13 through the display controller 14, and the left and right switching signals 27 are output (step SP1).
3). While looking at the screen three-dimensionally using the stereoscopic glasses 26, work such as changing or adding a wiring pattern is performed (step SP14). If it is necessary to change the line of sight (step S
P15), step S to register the changes so far
Return to P10, and if finished (step SP1
6) Register the work contents up to now (step SP1
7) and the process ends.

[0016]

As described above, in the conventional board design support device, when checking is performed, the information is displayed and output by the CRT or plotter. However, even if the layers are color-coded, they overlap two-dimensionally. Because it looks like, it is very difficult to understand which wiring pattern is laid out, and circuit changes occur after layout,
For the same reason when adding or deleting a pattern, the one that was badly efficient is that by using the three-dimensional image generation unit and the stereoscopic means described above, even when each layer is displayed simultaneously, You can check and add layouts and patterns in order to check depth information in three dimensions.
The efficiency such as deletion will be improved.

Furthermore, by changing the positions of the viewpoints when generating the images for the right eye and the left eye, it is possible to generate various points on the substrate, for example, a drawing viewed from a point of a specific layer, so that they can be adjacent to each other. While grasping the pattern of the layers,
Work such as finer wiring, layout change, and addition becomes easier.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an outline of the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a conventional device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an outline of an operation in a conventional device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a concept of a principle of stereoscopically viewing an image.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 board design support device 11 CPU 12 working RAM 13 frame memory 14 display controller 15 CRT 16 program ROM 17 input / output unit 18 plotter 19 keyboard 20 mouse 21 CPU bus 22 left eye image memory 23 right eye image memory 24 three-dimensional image generation unit 25 stereoscopic image control unit 26 stereoscopic glasses 27 switching signal

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A multi-layer printed circuit board design support apparatus, comprising means for generating a three-dimensional structural image of the entire multi-layer board from wiring data designed for each multi-layer board and displaying a stereoscopic image. Board design support device.