JPH07200647A - Designing support device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a designing support device which can facilitate its integrated management by providing a means which selects a specific designing support device and a storage means which connects the selected designing support means to a data base means and also stores a fact that a designing support means is selected and connected to the data base means as the history data. CONSTITUTION:An operator selects a design menu or a history menu. When a design menu is selected, a CAD system, for example, is started. In this integrated support system 110, the application programs of a CAD/CAM system 110, a CAT system 113 and a CAE system 112 can be started in a multiplex way. When a history output menu is selected, a file 141 is opened and the work contents data and the work sequence data which are written in the file 141 are written into a file 142 as the design history data and then outputted to a printer 122.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a design support device using a computer or the like, and more particularly to a design support device having a plurality of design support means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Currently, for design support using a computer, for example, CAD (computer aided design), CAM (co
computer aided manufacturing), CAT (computer aided manufacturing)
teaching), CAE (computer aided engineering), etc. These are individually connected to a single host system or a plurality of supporting means are independently connected to one host system.

As a proposal using a computer for design support, there is, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-113369. This technique is to detect undetermined information based on the design history.

[0004]

By the way, many design support systems are connected to one host computer,
Various problems arise when those support systems are integrated and used for one design object. For example :: Since it is unknown in what order the support system was started, we cannot deal with the problem when it occurs. : Skill is required to master multiple design support systems. : Not easy to change.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and to propose a design support apparatus which facilitates integrated management of design support means. The configuration of the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned object is a design support device including a plurality of design support means and a database means connectable to these design support means, and a specific design support means is selected. Means for connecting the selected design support means to the database means, and storage means for storing, as history data, the fact that the design support means has been selected and connected.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, the design support device of the present invention is applied to the performance design of an automobile.
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the design support system of the embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 100 denotes a host computer as a control unit. The host computer system 100 includes an integrated support system 110 and a CAD / CAM system 11
1, the CAT system 113 and the CAE system 112 are operating. The host computer 100 includes various databases, CAD data 130, CAT data 132, C
It has AE data 131 and other data files 133. The storage area 140 stores where these various databases are stored in the storage device. The storage area 141 stores data regarding work content and order, and the storage area 142 stores data regarding design history.

FIG. 2 shows a system in which a CAD / CAM system 111 and a CAT are provided under the integrated support system 110.
The system 113 and the CAE system 112 are shown to be operating. The role of the integrated system 110 is CAD / CA in which different application programs operate.
This is for ensuring data compatibility between the M system 111, the CAT system 113, and the CAE system 112. That is, if the CAD / CAM system 111 and CAE
When the system 112 is operating at the same time, as shown in FIG. 3, the window for the CAD application program is on the left side of the CRT screen (EWS screen) and the CA is on the right side.
When the window for the E application program is displayed, the CAE application program is programmed to perform the cooling performance calculation, for example, based on a certain cooling model, and the CAD application program and the CAE application program are It is assumed that the calculated cooling performance calculation data is received, and the radiator is programmed based on the data. That is, the calculation result data of the CAE program is transferred to the CAD program.

To ensure such data compatibility, C
The radiator design program of the AE application program has a data format as shown in FIG. In this data structure, the application program A calls a part of the program of the application program B via the integrated system 110 to execute the partial program to generate data, and the data is transferred via the integrated system 110. To get back. TAG is a tag indicating that the data has such a property. The next originator ID is the program of the other party that should generate the data. The data position indicates the data position on the destination program, and the data length indicates the length of the data.

The application program B which has received such data from the integrated system 110 refers to the data position and the data length, and the application program A
Generates the data required by and returns it to the application program A via the integrated system 110. FIG. 5 shows a mode of printing out the design history information. In this example, a designer "Otoko Koyama" uses a file "living design" to design a cabin. According to this history information, we first designed "driver attitude setting" and then "seat slide guarantee".
It means that the design "B pedal setting" was performed next. Such history information is
The integrated support system 110 writes in the storage areas 141 and 142. The integrated support system writes the “work content data” and the “work order” data written in the area 141 as design history data in the storage area 142, and further outputs the data to the printer 122.

In addition to the design drawing, as shown in FIG. 6, such history information is filed and further output: I: Information for organizing work by use is accumulated. II: An expert can learn the designing method from the history table, and even a beginner can obtain a certain level of design quality. III: Information about the design is automatically accumulated. IV: By unifying the data structure and maintaining compatibility,
Easy to handle changes. You can get the effect.

FIG. 7 shows a support system 11 in the embodiment.
The control procedure of 0 is shown. In step S100, the operator waits for menu selection. There are two menus, "design" and "history". When the design is selected, for example, the CAD system is started in step S102. Under the true issue system 110, the CAD / CAM system 1
11 application programs, CAT system 1
13 application programs, CAE system 1
Twelve application programs can be activated in multiple. In step S104, design data is input through an operator's operation. In step S106, arithmetic processing is performed according to the input data,
At 108, the calculation result is written in the file 141. Further, in step S110, the calculation result is displayed as a design drawing. In step S112, it is determined whether or not the result is OK, and if NO, the process returns to step S104 and is repeated. In step S114, the result is written in the file 141.

On the other hand, when the output of history is selected, the process proceeds to step S120, and the file 141 is opened. This file 141 is read and the file 142
Create (Fig. 5). In step S124, this file 142 is output. The present invention can be variously modified without departing from the spirit thereof. For example, in the above embodiment,
Although the description has been given by taking the design of an automobile as an example, the present invention is not limited to this.

[0013]

According to the design support apparatus of the present invention described above, when a plurality of design support means can be activated, the history of the operation results is accumulated to manage each support means in an integrated manner. You can

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a software configuration of an embodiment system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating data compatibility between two different application programs.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure for maintaining data compatibility.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a history file.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing types of files output from the system.

7 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the integrated system 110. FIG.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A design support device comprising a plurality of design support means and a database means connectable to these design support means, wherein the design support means selects a specific design support means and the selected design support means. A design support device comprising: a means for connecting the means to the database means and a storage means for storing, as history data, that the design support means is selected and connected. 2. The design support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an output unit that is connected to the storage unit and that visually outputs the stored history data. 3. The design support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of design support means is capable of executing a designing program, and the individual programs have data compatibility.