JPH08190638A - Diagram editor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To change an inadequate graphic component in terms of meaning, which is generated when a diagram is edited on a diagram editor, into a proper graphic component. CONSTITUTION: This diagram editor is provided with a component table wherein conditions as to whether or not another graphic component is connected to one graphic component are defined and a conversion table wherein a graphic component to replace the graphic component unless no graphic component is connected to the graphic component as defined in the component table is defined. When the graphic component to which a graphic component to be connected is not connected is detected by applying the definitions of the component table to the graphic component constituting the diagram, the detected graphic component is changed into the due graphic component by referring to the conversion table.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a diagram editor, and more particularly to a diagram editor for editing a diagram composed by connecting a plurality of graphic parts.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, various diagram editors have been proposed which support the creation and editing of diagrams used in various fields. The graphic parts handled by these diagram editors each have a unique meaning, and a new meaning is obtained by combining a plurality of graphic parts. However, the conventional diagram editor does not handle the graphic parts by recognizing the meanings of these graphic parts, but edits and operates the parts uniformly. Therefore, a figure that should not exist semantically may be displayed, or a figure that is not semantically correct may be created during the process of editing operation.

Related to the diagram editor, for example, SEW3, a product of Hitachi, Ltd.
/ There are manuals related to ANALYSIS.

[0004]

The above-mentioned prior art has a problem in that the meaning of a graphic is not taken into consideration, and a graphic that should not exist semantically is created and displayed.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a diagram editor which, when a figure which should not be semantically present is detected, is changed to a correct figure.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] As for graphic parts constituting a diagram (also referred to as a diagram), there are some graphic parts that exist independently and have meaning, and those that have meaning only when other graphic parts are connected. is there. The parts table of the present invention is a table that defines conditions that exist depending on whether or not a graphic part is connected to another part as described above.
The conversion table is a table that defines a graphic component to be changed for a graphic component that cannot exist due to the existence condition of the component table. In some cases, there are no graphic parts to be changed and the original graphic parts disappear. The diagram editor of the present invention applies the existence condition of the parts table to the graphic parts forming the diagram, and when a graphic part that cannot exist is detected, it is changed to a graphic part to be changed by referring to the conversion table.

[0007]

When a part of the diagram is cut out or the diagram is divided into two parts, the graphic parts adjacent to the cut end may not exist as they are because of the loss of the connecting line. According to the diagram editor of the present invention, such a graphic component is changed to an appropriate graphic component by applying the existence condition of the component and the conversion rule.
It is possible to reduce the operation of the user of the diagram editor to correct an incorrect graphic part to an appropriate graphic part.

[0008]

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

FIG. 1 defines the names and shapes of figures used for explaining in this embodiment. In the figure, a graphic part represented by a box indicates a class, and two related classes are represented by connecting two boxes with line parts. A figure showing the inheritance relationship between the upper class and the subclass inherited from this class is represented by connecting boxes, lines and triangular parts. In addition, three classes that are related to each other except the inheritance relationship are represented by connecting boxes, lines, and diamond-shaped parts to show a three-term relationship. In general, an n-ary relation is expressed by connecting n boxes to one (n + 1) polygonal part by n lines.

FIG. 2 shows a parts table, in which the figure shown in FIG. 1 is arranged in units of parts, and the existence condition in which each part can exist is expressed by the table. The existence condition of the line 1 representing the relation in the figure indicates that there are connection points at both ends, and therefore it cannot exist independently and can exist only when there are connection points with other graphic parts at both ends. . Triangular parts are the upper superclass and one or more lower subclasses, typically n subclasses,
Since it is a component that indicates that it has an inheritance relationship with, the existence condition is that there is a connection point with these other components. The diamond must also have a box and a connection point to indicate the three classes. In general, the same applies to (n + 1) polygonal parts.

FIG. 3 shows a conversion table for registering convertible figures, conversion conditions and converted figures. A rhombus 2 representing a ternary relation indicates that it can be converted into a line 3 representing a relation when the number of boxes connected to the rhombus is two, and cannot be converted and erased when the number of boxes connected to the rhombus is less than 2. It is shown that. If line 1 has only one connection point, it will be erased. Also, when the triangular part loses its connection point with the superclass, the remaining subclasses are changed to connections with line 1. Also, in general (n +
1) Since a polygonal part exists when it is connected by n lines, when the number of connected lines becomes (n-1), it is converted into an n-sided part and the connected line is ( n-
It will be understood that when the number of pieces becomes 2), the pieces are converted into (n-1) polygonal parts.

FIG. 4 shows a state of a display screen when converting a figure using the present invention. Boxes 4, 5, and 6 representing classes are diamonds 7 and lines 8 and 9, which represent triple relations.
They are connected by 10, and are cut out by the selection range 11.

FIG. 5 shows a list for managing the figure shown in FIG. 4. A box 4 representing a class has a pointer of a line 8 representing an association, and the line 8 also has a pointer of the box 4.
Further, the line 8 has a pointer of a diamond 7 representing the relation of three terms, and the diamond 7 also has a pointer of the line 8. The same applies to boxes 5 and 6, lines 9 and 10. This makes it possible to search for other parts that are connected to a part from anywhere. The box that is the source of the arrow is a pointer that indicates the storage location at the end of the arrow, and the box that does not show the arrow indicates the end of the pointer.

FIG. 6 shows a selection list for managing the figures selected by the selection range 11 shown in FIG. 4, and the graphic parts 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 selected by the selection operation are pointers as shown in the figure. Connected with and registered in this list. Each part on the figure management list shown in FIG. 5 has information about the coordinate position and size on the display screen. When the figure is cut out by the selection range 11, it is checked one by one whether each part is included in the selection range 11 based on the coordinate range of the selection range 11. The selection list shown in FIG. 6 is obtained by sequentially connecting only the components included in the selection range 11. The order of parts in the selection list only means the order in which they are checked.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing of the diagram editor for converting into a semantically correct figure in this embodiment. First, one graphic part is taken out from the selection list shown in FIG. 6, and the existence condition is taken out by referring to the part table shown in FIG. Whether the extracted existence condition is satisfied or not is checked while following the pointers in the graphic management list shown in FIG. 5 and the selection list shown in FIG. 6 (steps 21 and 22). According to the selection list, the first item is a diamond 7 indicating the relation of three terms, and the existence condition is that there is a connection with three classes according to the parts list. Here, according to the figure management list, the figures connected to the diamond 7 are lines 8, 9 and 10, and the figures connected to the lines 8, 9 and 10 are boxes 4, 5 and 6. Further, when the selection states of the boxes 4, 5 and 6 are checked by the selection list, the boxes 4 and 5 are registered but the box 6 is not registered. Therefore, the existence condition that the diamond is connected to the three classes, which is the existence condition, is not satisfied.

If it cannot exist, then graphic conversion is performed (step 23). The graphic conversion corresponds to the graphic parts registered in the conversion table shown in FIG. 3, and if they match, the conversion is executed according to the conditions. Here, the rhombus is registered in the conversion table, the state of the rhombus 7 is connected to two boxes, and the box with the condition of connection = 2.
Applies to. Therefore, the diamond 7 is converted into the line 3 showing the relation, and the selection list is updated accordingly (step 2).
4).

The existence check and the graphic conversion are repeated until the end of the selection list (step 25 NO). As a result of repetition, the stored figure becomes a semantically correct figure. FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a figure stored as a result of repeating the selection list to the end. 7'is a line created as a result of converting the rhombus. The graphic management list is updated according to the graphic selected by the selection range 11, or the updated graphic management list is created separately.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the difference between the same editing operation when the conventional technique and the conversion of the present invention are applied. The figure 13 cut out by the conventional technique becomes a figure with an incorrect meaning,
The figure 14 cut out by applying the present invention has a correct meaning.

In the above embodiment, a box representing a class is given as an example of a part, but this is only an example, and the present invention is not limited to a class, and generally a figure formed by connecting a plurality of kinds of parts. Applicable to The diagram editor of the present invention is realized by an information processing device such as an electronic computer having a input device and a display device, a workstation, a personal computer. The parts table of FIG. 2, the conversion table of FIG. 3, the graphic management list of FIG. 5, and the selection list of FIG. 6 are information stored in the storage device connected to this information processing apparatus. Further, the diagram for performing the processing shown in FIG. 7 is realized by executing the program stored in the storage device of the information processing apparatus.
The display device is used to display the display screen shown in FIG. 4, and the input device is used to instruct the information processing device of the selection range 11. Since the control method of these devices by the information processing device is well known in the prior art of the present invention, the description thereof is omitted.

[0020]

According to the diagram editor of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the generation of a semantically inappropriate figure that occurs when a diagram is being edited and to correct the incorrect figure by the user. The burden can be eliminated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing names and shapes of figures used to explain an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a parts table in which graphic parts and their existence conditions are registered.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a conversion table for registering convertible figures and their conditions.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a display screen showing an application example in which a graphic component is changed by using the present invention.

5 is a diagram showing a structure of a graphic management list for the graphic of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a selection list for registering a graphic selected by a selection operation.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of a diagram editor of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a selection list after changing a graphic part.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a result of performing the same editing operation by comparison between a conventional technique and the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a diagram editor for editing a diagram composed of a plurality of graphic parts, a part table defining conditions for determining whether or not another graphic part is connected to the graphic part and a part table defined in the part table As described above, storage means for storing a conversion table that defines a graphic component to which the graphic component should change when another graphic component is not connected to the graphic component, and definition of the component table for the graphic component that constitutes the diagram. And a processing means for changing the detected graphic component to a graphic component to be changed by referring to the conversion table when detecting a graphic component to which another graphic component to be connected does not exist. A diagram editor to do.