JPH07105242A - Arrangement design assisting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To design a unit consisting of plural components while arranging those components and evaluating the performance of the whole unit simultaneously. CONSTITUTION:This device is equipped with a data base means (12) which stores characteristic data on the individual components constituting the unit, a means (31) which inputs specifications as to the unit to be designed, means (30 and 10) which sets target characteristics of the unit on the basis of the inputted specifications, and arithmetic means (21-24) which sets the components constituting the object unit and the layout of the individual components on the basis of the layout conditions of the unit and calculate the performance of the whole unit from the component characteristic data in the data base means on the basis of the characteristics of the components constituting the unit.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a layout design support apparatus, and more particularly to a design support apparatus for designing the layout of parts in a unit composed of a plurality of parts.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the progress of computer technology, so-called C
BACKGROUND ART Workpieces, parts, and units are actively designed using AD (computer aided design). The unit is composed of multiple parts. A technique for designing this unit by CAD is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
No. 3-168766. In this prior art, when arranging and designing a plurality of parts in a predetermined arranging place, an undecided part arrangement is calculated using the arrangement decision rule and the calculation procedure is stored as history information. Even if the placement of one component is determined, if the placement of the component is inconvenient, the target unit is designed by recalculating from the desired process while following the stored history. .

[0003]

However, although the design method in the above-mentioned conventional example is supported by the computer, the design is basically performed by trial and error. That is, the performance of the unit should be evaluated by the performance of the entire unit, and in the above-mentioned conventional example, when the individual parts are fitted to the unit, the performance of the unit depends on whether or not the parts can be arranged. Alternatively, it merely evaluates the function and does not consider the performance of the entire unit.

[0004]

The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and its purpose is to:
It is an object of the present invention to propose a layout design support device which can achieve the layout of a unit composed of a plurality of parts while simultaneously evaluating the layout of those parts and the performance of the entire unit. The configuration of the present invention for such an object is a layout design support device for designing a unit composed of a plurality of parts by deciding the layout of the parts, and for a plurality of units, characteristics of individual parts constituting the unit. Database means for storing data, means for inputting specifications for a unit to be designed, means for setting target characteristics of the unit based on the input specifications, and layout conditions for the unit And a computing means for setting the components of the target unit and the layout of the individual components, and computing the performance of the entire unit based on the characteristics of the components of the unit from the component characteristic data in the database means. It is characterized by doing.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows the overall configuration of a design system to which the present invention is applied. This design system includes an input device 2 including a pointing device such as a mouse, a keyboard or a digitizer.
And a calculation unit 3 for performing various calculations for design and graphic generation
And a database 4 for storing various databases and rules used for these calculations, and a display device 1 for displaying a graphic of a designed work.

FIG. 2 shows how data input from the input device 2 is processed by using various data stored in the database 4 and finally output in this form from this system. FIG. The data input by this system are "product concept" and "layout (L / O) condition".

The "product concept" means, for example, "10.
It is a "predicate type" knowledge of "steering with little vibration in 0 km driving". "Predicate type" knowledge is knowledge that has a static structure. In the goal setting database 10, various “goal setting rules” are “If, ...
It is stored in a rule format called (IF-THEN format). For example, a rule is stored that "if the steering wheel is a 100-km driving specification, the resonance frequency should be 30 Hz or less." Target setting calculation routine 2 of the calculation unit
0 determines whether or not the premise part in the input product concept is satisfied, and searches for a rule that satisfies the condition. If such a rule is found, the conclusion part of that rule is executed.
In the above example, when the input statement "Steering with less vibration during 100km driving" is input, this input and the precondition of the rule "If the steering is 100km driving specification, the resonance frequency should be 30Hz or less""Resonance frequency 30HZ
The goal is to design "steering below". The goal setting routine 10 sets this goal in the calculation unit 3
To the determination routine 23. This target routine 23 is
The target from the calculation routine 10 and the calculation result from the design consideration calculation unit 22 are collated to determine whether the design reaching the target has been obtained. At this point, the design consideration calculation unit 22
Since the calculation result from is not output to the determination routine 23, the determination result is output to the L / O change routine 24. In response to this result, this routine 24 outputs to the display device 1 some layout models that are likely to meet the set target. That is, the operator can confirm the layout that may match the target set by himself by looking at the display on the display device 1. In other words, by looking at this layout display, the operator can specify how to change the arrangement of which component (that is, specify the layout condition described later).

The "L / O" condition input from the input device 2 means a condition for changing the standard layout of the input product. The standard layout of individual parts of the product (as a unit) for each product is stored in the database 11. The database 11 includes "identifier" data of the parts that make up the unit, "dimension" data of each part, and rules regarding the "standard layout (L / O)" of those parts.

The calculation routine 21 inputs the input L / O conditions, the standard component layout of the database 11, the component dimensions, etc., and generates a new layout after the change.
This layout is sent to the study calculation routine 22. The examination calculation routine 22 performs structural check, performance calculation, weight calculation, etc. as a unit based on this layout, and outputs the result to the determination routine 23. The examination in this routine 22 is based on the database 12
This is performed based on "part characteristic / performance model" data of individual parts constituting this unit.

The "component characteristic / performance model" data has data on the characteristic, strength, etc. of each component for each component. The determination routine 23 is the calculation routine 22.
The suitability with respect to the target is judged based on the characteristic as the unit calculated by the above, the target calculated by the routine 20, and the target achievement calculation formula stored in the database 13. If the suitability determination is negative, the result is output to the change routine 24, which allows the operator to make further layout changes.

If the compatibility is positively determined, various data are passed to the output processing routine 25 of the calculation section 3,
Form data and drawing data are created and output to the display device 1 (or a printer (not shown)). The present invention can be variously modified without departing from the spirit thereof. For example, in the above embodiment, the steering design has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the "target" of the unit and the individual "characteristics" of the parts constituting the unit are set as a database. If it is possible, it can be applied to the following parts and works.

[0012]

The design support apparatus of the present invention described above is
For multiple units, a database means for storing the characteristic data of the individual parts that make up the unit, a means for inputting the specifications for the unit to be designed, and the target characteristics of the unit based on the input specifications Based on the means to set and the layout conditions of the unit,
Arithmetic means for setting the components constituting the target unit and the layout of the individual components, and computing the performance of the entire unit based on the characteristics of the components constituting the unit from the component characteristic data in the database means. Since it is provided, it is possible to design a unit composed of a plurality of parts while simultaneously arranging the parts and evaluating the performance of the entire unit.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a design system of an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the functional configuration of the system of FIG. 1 and the operation of each function.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A layout design support device for designing a unit composed of a plurality of parts by determining the layout of the parts, wherein characteristic data of individual parts constituting the unit is stored for the plurality of units. The database unit, the unit for inputting the specifications of the unit to be designed, the unit for setting the target characteristic of the unit based on the input specifications, and the target unit based on the layout condition of the unit And a computing means for setting the components and the layout of the individual components and computing the performance of the entire unit based on the characteristics of the components forming the unit from the component characteristic data in the database means. Layout design support device. 2. The layout design support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the database means stores data relating to a standard layout for each unit. 3. The layout design support apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the computing unit selects a component based on the one standard layout.