JPH09179892A - Design method and design support device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to display data needed for low-cost product designing. SOLUTION: The design information, attribute value range, and shape feature data of standard components are stored in a data base 10, and the design information, attribute information, and shape feature data of example components are stored in a data base 20. An attribute value that a component to be designed needs to have is inputted through an input part 30 and shape feature data are inputted through an input part 40. Standard components having ranges of attribute values and shape feature data matching the attribute value and shape feature data of the component to be designed are retrieved by a standard component retrieval part 50 from the data base 10. Standard components which have ranges of attribute values similar to the attribute value of the component to be designed and also have shape feature data similar to the shape feature data of the component to be designed are retrieved by a similar standard component retrieval part 60 from the data base 10. Further, a similar example component retrieval part 70 retrieves example components having attribute values similar to the attribute value of the component to be designed and shape feature data similar to the shape feature data of the component to be designed from the data base 20.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is capable of efficiently designing a product in which parts having specifications similar to the required specifications are combined and modified to realize a product satisfying the required specifications. The present invention relates to a design support device capable of presenting a combination of components that can be reduced and efficiently managing designed component data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Case-based reasoning (Ca is used as an inference method for solving a problem using a case similar to a given problem).
se Based Reasoning (CBR) has been known for some time, and there is an example of applying such an inference method to support design (Journal of Artificial Intelligence 1992.7). That is, design cases are stored in “case base”, the contents of each characteristic item expressing the required specifications are input as keywords, and compared with each characteristic item of the design case stored in the case base, and similar to the required specifications. Search for the designed cases. It is a system that enables efficient design that meets the required specifications by correcting the retrieved similar design cases.

However, in order to correct the retrieved design case and realize a design satisfying the required specifications, it is necessary to have sufficient knowledge about the target, and an inexperienced designer should search the retrieved case. It is difficult to modify and realize a design that satisfies the required specifications.

On the other hand, parts that satisfy a certain range of required specifications are defined as parametric CAD data,
Standard parts are created in advance so that the attributes of the required specifications and the parametric dimensions of CAD can be corrected in conjunction with each other, and the dimensions of the CAD data can be corrected by giving the required specification attribute values to the standard parts. It is possible to do so. If a product is designed by combining such standard parts, even a designer who does not have sufficient knowledge about the design can design the product simply by giving the attribute values of the required specifications.

However, it takes time to create such standard parts, and it is difficult to determine the applicable range.

According to the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-187352, when designing an elevator, a plant, etc., similarity is obtained based on the similarity between the important words of the equipment to be designed and the important words of past cases. An apparatus that supports design work by selectively displaying cases is disclosed.

Further, according to the technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-89314, a design having a function of registering and correcting knowledge of constraints and procedural know-how in accordance with an inputted attribute item for an elevator as a target product. A support device capable of constructing a model and determining design specifications is disclosed.

Further, according to the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-274378, design experience and knowledge are made available to the system, and design drawings are output using an attribute information database of products composed of various parts. A CAD system for automatic design is disclosed.

Further, according to the technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-88530, there is disclosed a support device for obtaining a design solution based on a past design case database.

[0010]

As described above, in the conventional system, in the case-based system, an inexperienced designer corrects a similar design case that has been searched and creates a consistent design. Difficult to do, and
Even if a design that does not have a structural problem can be performed, the design has not been sufficiently evaluated for manufacturability, and thus the product cost may be high.

Further, since the design result is registered as a case in the case base, the number of cases in the case base increases and the search time for the case also increases.

On the other hand, in the design using standard parts, even a beginner designer can design a product which is advantageous in terms of cost. A huge number of man-hours is required to create.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and makes it possible to present a combination of case parts and standard parts necessary for a design that realizes the required specifications, and it is easy to construct a standard parts database. An object of the present invention is to provide a design support device.

According to the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-187352, there is no idea that standard parts and cases are combined to support the design, and therefore, the present invention is not affected.

Further, according to the technique described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-89314, there is no idea of utilizing cases, so that the present invention is not affected.

Further, according to the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-274378, there is no idea of utilizing cases, so that the present invention is not affected.

Further, according to the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-88530, there is no idea of standardizing the case parts group, so that the present invention is not affected.

[0018]

In order to achieve such an object, according to the present invention, design information including data defining a basic structure of a standard part and an attribute value defining a detailed specification applicable to the standard part are provided. And the shape feature data expressing the outline feature of the shape of the standard part are stored in association with each other, the means for storing the standard part database and the structure of the case parts constituting the product designed in the past are defined. A means for storing a case part database in which design information including data, attribute information including an attribute value applied to the part, and shape feature data expressing a general feature of the shape of the case part are registered in association with each other. , Attribute input means for inputting the attribute value required for the part to be designed, and shape feature data expressing the outline feature of the shape required for the part to be designed A standard part search for searching the standard part database for a standard part having shape feature input data and a range of attribute values and shape feature data matching the attribute values and shape feature data required for the part to be designed. A means and a range of attribute values including an attribute value representing a detailed specification similar to the detailed specification represented by the attribute value required for the part to be designed, and an outline represented by the shape feature data of the part to be designed. A standard part having shape feature data representing a schematic shape similar to the physical shape, and a similar standard part search means for searching the standard part database, and detailed specifications represented by attribute values required for the part to be designed. Attribute values that represent similar detailed specifications and shape feature data that represent a rough shape similar to the rough shape expressed by the shape feature data of the part to be designed. The similar case part search means for searching the case part database having the above-mentioned case part and the part searched by the standard part search means are displayed, and the similar standard part search means and the similar case part search means are searched. The search result display means for displaying the ordered parts according to the degree of similarity, the data operation means for correcting the data of the parts searched according to the instruction, and the data of the parts corrected by the data operation means are included. Design information includes an attribute value input by the attribute input means, shape feature data input by the shape feature input means, and case part registration means for associating and registering the case information in the case part database. be able to.

Further, there is provided a standardization promoting means for extracting a set of similar case parts that are frequently used and creating design information of standard parts, a range of attribute values, and shape feature data that conform to the extracted set. You can also

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION It is possible to input attribute information of required specifications with attribute input means and shape characteristic data of required specifications with shape characteristic input means, and standardize parts that satisfy the input required specifications. From the parts database and case parts database, standard parts search means, similar standard parts search means,
The similar case part search means is searched in order, and the searched standard parts or case parts are displayed by the search result display means. The designer checks the parts in the search results and selects the parts if there is no problem. Then, the CAD data of the assembled product is corrected by the CAD data operating means so as to satisfy the required specifications. By performing the search in such a search order, the parts that satisfy the required specifications as much as possible are searched, so the correction amount is small, and furthermore, the standard parts are preferentially presented as the search result. It is possible to reduce the cost of the product by selecting from the parts that are manufactured at low cost.

Further, the parts corrected by the CAD data operating means so as to satisfy the required specifications by the retrieved standard parts and case parts are registered in the case part database by the case part registration means as case parts. If the number of case parts registered in this way increases, there is a higher possibility that cases that satisfy the required specifications will be retrieved. On the other hand, when the amount of data of the case parts increases, the search processing time increases, but here, the standardization promoting means extracts the case parts with high frequency of use from the case parts database, and further If the standard parts are created from the case parts by categorizing according to the degree of similarity, it becomes possible to efficiently construct the standard part database from the standard parts that are highly necessary.

Further, according to the present invention, the required component parts and the assembly model registered in the assembly model database are searched by the assembly model search means based on the attribute of the required specification input by the attribute input means, and the search result is obtained. Based on the above, the necessary parts are searched for from the standard parts database and the case parts database using the standard parts search unit, the similar standard parts search means, and the similar case parts search means.
Further, the retrieved parts are assembled on the assembly model by the parts assembling means. Finally, the structure of the product should be presented with the combination of the search results.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a design support apparatus according to the present invention.

In this embodiment, the case where the elevator is designed based on the specifications required by the customer will be described. Here, in particular, the case where the special design of the interior of the elevator is designed is targeted. The required specifications of the elevator design are determined by the building owner and the architectural design office, and the required specifications are given to the elevator designer. In addition to the attribute information such as the size of the elevator car, the required specifications include information about the shape such as a rough sketch that is an image of the design part. The elevator designer designs the elevator based on the attribute information and the shape feature data that is the image sketch data.

In the design support apparatus of this embodiment, the standard part database 10 includes design information such as CAD data of standard parts which are frequently used and whose manufacturing process is standardly defined among the parts constituting the product. The standard part application condition indicating the required specification attribute value range to which the standard part can be applied and the standard part shape feature data expressing the shape feature of the standard part are associated and registered in advance. The CAD data of this standard part has dimensions that are defined parametrically and has a constraint relationship with the attributes of the required specifications that are input, and when the attribute values of the required specifications are given, the parametric dimensions are linked and modified by the constraints. Data is defined as follows. FIG. 3 shows an example of standard parts.

Further, this CAD data has a coordinate system showing the position of the reference of the part, and the three-dimensional CAD shown in FIG.
The three-direction arrow at the center of the data part becomes the reference coordinate system. Parts are assembled on CAD using this coordinate system.

The case parts database 20 also includes design information of CAD data and drawings of parts designed in the past, and shape feature data of required specifications when the parts were designed.
It is registered in advance in association with required specifications, attribute information such as costs and delivery dates. FIG. 4 shows an example of case parts.

The assembly model database 130 stores combinations of product component parts, conditions of attribute values of product required specifications that determine the combination, and CAD assembly data that defines a product structure from the combination of component parts. , An assembly model database that is associated and registered in advance. FIG. 5 shows an example of the assembly model.

The attribute input section 30 is a section for reading the attribute information included in the required specifications from an input device such as a keyboard or a mouse or a file.

The shape feature input section 40 is a section for reading the shape feature data of the required specifications from an input device such as a mouse or a file.

In the standard part search section 50, the attribute value of the required specification input by the attribute input section 30 is the standard part database 1
A standard part satisfying the standard part application condition of 0 is searched, and the shape feature data of the required specification input by the shape feature input unit 40 matches the shape feature data of each standard part registered in the standard part database 10. Whether or not to do so is evaluated, and the degree of conformance to the standard part application conditions is comprehensively evaluated to search for standard parts that satisfy the applicable requirements as much as possible.

The similar standard part retrieving section 60 retrieves a standard part similar to the input required specification attribute and shape feature data from the standard part database.

The similar case part search unit 70 searches the case part database for a case part similar to the input required specification attribute and shape feature data.

The search result display section 80 is the standard part search section 5
0, the similar standard parts search unit 60, and the similar case parts search unit 70
The parts searched by are ordered by the degree of similarity and displayed.

The assembly model retrieving unit 120 retrieves the assembly model of the product from the assembly model database 130 based on the attribute of the required specification input by the attribute input unit.

The parts assembling means 90 comprises an assembly model searching section 1
The standard parts and case parts selected from the parts displayed in the search result display section 80 are assembled on the assembly model searched by 20.

The CAD data operating unit 100 is a component assembling unit 9
It is a general CAD system that corrects the CAD data of standard parts and case parts assembled in 0.

The case part registration unit 110 inputs the CAD data of the standard part and the case part corrected by the CAD data operation unit and the attribute of the required specification input by the attribute input unit 30 and the shape input unit 40. It is registered in the case parts database 20 as a case part in association with the shape feature data of the required specifications.

The standardization promoting unit 140 extracts a set of case parts that should be standard parts from case parts that are frequently used,
Support the creation of standard parts.

The flow of product design that satisfies the required specifications by using the above-mentioned support device is as shown in FIG. Further, this flow will also expand the case parts database.

On the other hand, when the number of case parts has increased to some extent, the standardization promoting unit 140 sets the case parts database 2
A case part group to be made into a standard part is extracted from 0, and based on the extracted case part group, a standard part is created or a standard part already registered is corrected. FIG. 14 shows the flow of standard part creation in the standardization promoting unit.

First, the flow of designing a product based on the required specifications will be described with reference to FIG.

A case of designing the required specifications as shown in FIG. 2 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the required specifications include attribute data such as a main size of the product and a format indicating the product structure, and shape feature data indicating the shape feature of the product. In the present embodiment, rough sketch data that simply expresses the ceiling portion of the elevator is the shape feature data included in the required specifications. The required specification data and the attribute data are S
With the attribute input of 61, the shape feature data is input with the shape feature input of S62. The shape feature is input using a graphical user interface using a mouse or the like.
The input attribute data obtained as a result of inputting the required specifications shown in FIG. 2 is shown in FIG.
Shown in As shown in FIG. 7, the input attribute data has a hierarchical structure. As the attribute value is input to the attribute, necessary attributes are activated under the input attribute to create a hierarchical structure. For example, if the value of the attribute “ceiling design classification” is input as “no double ceiling media”, the attributes required for “no double ceiling media” are “ceiling material”, “ceiling frontage dimension”, and “ceiling”. Depth dimension "" Number of lighting lenses "
"The number of indirect lights" is activated. The shape feature attribute is also defined as an attribute in this hierarchical structure. The attributes under the attributes "number of illumination lenses" and "number of indirect illuminations" are shape feature attributes. Further, among the shape feature attributes, the attributes "position X" and "position Y" representing the position are expressed by being normalized to the overall size. Such normalization is performed so that, in the similarity evaluation process to be performed later, even if the overall size is different, it is possible to determine that the components are similar if the arrangement state of the components is similar. This is because In this case,
The "ceiling frontage dimension" and "ceiling depth dimension" are normalized so as to be "1". The position X of the first lens is

[0044]

[Equation 1]

Is normalized as

Next, the assembly model is searched based on the input attribute data (S63). The assembly model database 130 in which a plurality of assembly model data as shown in FIG. 5 are stored is searched for an assembly model whose input required specification attribute satisfies the assembly model application condition. The retrieved assembly model data has assembly model component data indicating a combination of components required as assembly model components, and assembly model CAD data required to assemble the components. Here, the assembly model CAD data shown in FIG. 5 has a coordinate system as two-dimensional CAD data, and is expressed by assembling component parts to each coordinate system, but has a coordinate system as three-dimensional CAD data. The components may be assembled (FIG. 15). Further, the relative positional relationship between the respective components may be held as CAD data so that the components can be assembled.

For example, when arranging the "guide board" for the parts in FIG. 15, the relative positional relationship with other parts such as "door", "left front side plate", "right front side plate" is defined. For example, the lower surface of the "guidance board" contacts the upper surface of the "door", and the inner surface of the "guidance board" is located 50 mm further inside than the inner surface of the "door". The right side surface of the "guide panel" that contacts the "left front side plate" is defined in advance by a relative positional relationship such that it contacts the "right front side plate", and based on this information, assembly is performed based on this information.

In the following steps from S64 to S69, only the number of components included in the assembly model component data is repeated to retrieve and assemble the components.

Next, a search process for each component is started.

First, a standard part search is performed (S6).
4). The standard parts database 10 is searched for standard parts whose application conditions satisfy the attribute data of the required specifications. The retrieved standard part is displayed, and when the designer selects the standard part, the similar standard part search S65 and the similar case part search S are performed.
The process of 66 is skipped, and the process proceeds to the parts assembly process (S68).

The standard part search will be described in detail. One standard part registered in the standard part database 10 is taken out and the input attribute values are compared. As an example, the process of taking out the standard part shown in FIG. 3 will be described. The retrieved standard parts are expanded into internal data having a structure as shown in FIG. 8 for the retrieval process. This is called standard part data. The standard part data in FIG. 8 is interlocked with the restrictions of the standard part in FIG. 3, and data representing the shape feature (position X, position Y, etc.) is calculated. When this standard part data and the input attribute data of FIG. 7 are overlapped and all the input attribute values match all the standard part data or satisfy the condition, the standard part is searched.

If a standard part satisfying the required specifications cannot be found as a result of the standard part search, or if a standard part that has been found but has not been selected by the designer, the process moves to the next similar standard part search process (S65).

In the similar standard part search, the standard part data registered in the standard part database 10 is searched for and displayed with data similar to the required specifications. Similar to the standard part search, when the designer selects the search result from the displayed results, the process of the similar case part search S66 is skipped, the process moves to the part assembly process (S68), and if the designer does not select, The similar case component search process is performed (S65).

The process of searching for similar standard parts will be described with reference to FIG. First, the standard part data shown in FIG. 8 is converted into standard part attribute data (S91). This is because the standard part data has data as a range of attribute values and columns of values that the attributes can take, so it is unknown which attribute value should be used to evaluate the similarity. Therefore, each attribute is converted into standard part attribute data having a specific attribute value so that the similarity can be evaluated.

For example, the standard part data of FIG. 8 is converted as follows based on the input attribute data of FIG. First, the standard material for the ceiling material is "SUS mirror finish or
Although the attribute value "SUS hairline finish" can be taken, since the input attribute data is "SUS mirror finish", the conversion result data is "SUS mirror finish". In addition, the ceiling front dimension is "1400 mm ≤
The attribute value can be taken in the range of `` ceiling width dimension ≤ 2600 mm '', but since it is "1700 mm" in the input attribute data, it is in the range of the attribute value of standard part data, so the conversion result data is "1700 mm". Become.

As a result, the standard part attribute data is shown in FIG.
become that way. The attributes of the standard part attribute data and the input attribute data are compared (S92). Here, there are three types of comparison methods: table, formula, and shape feature comparison, and each attribute has these comparison methods as shown in FIG. 11, and each attribute value is compared by the comparison method. However, in the shape feature comparison, the lower attributes of the data hierarchical structure are collectively processed. Therefore, since it takes a lot of processing time, only the comparison processing other than the shape feature comparison is performed in the comparison in S92.
The comparison by the table is, for example, in the attribute "ceiling design classification",
The degree of similarity is calculated based on the table shown in FIG. 12, and the similarity is evaluated. The table shown in FIG. 12 is empirically determined in advance by the user. In this example, the input attribute value and the standard component attribute value are both "no double ceiling image", so the similarity is calculated as "1.0". Next, as a comparison using an equation, for the attribute "ceiling frontage dimension", the degree of similarity is calculated by the following equation to evaluate the similarity.

[0057]

[Equation 2]

When the process of comparing the table with the formula in S92 is completed,
It is determined whether the shape feature comparison of S93 is performed. This determination uses the degree of similarity of each attribute obtained in the comparison processing of S92, and makes the determination based on the degree of similarity of the upper attributes of the attributes for which shape feature comparison is performed. The shape feature comparison process is performed only when the degree of similarity of the higher-level attributes exceeds a certain value. In this example, the determination is made with "0.5". In this example, “the number of lenses for illumination” and “the number of indirect illuminations” are attributes for which shape feature comparison is performed, and the upper attribute thereof is “ceiling design classification”, and the similarity of “ceiling design classification” obtained in S92 is Since it is “1.0”, shape feature comparison processing is performed. By this determination, the shape feature comparison process for only the useful search target is executed, and the useful information can be found at high speed.

When it is determined in S93 that "perform shape feature comparison", the shape feature comparison is performed in S94. The shape feature comparison process will be described in detail later. When the shape feature comparison in S94 is completed, the overall similarity of the standard parts to be searched is calculated from the similarities calculated in S92 and S94 (S95). The total similarity is calculated by the following formula.

Total similarity = Σ (similarity × weight) In this example, the result is as follows. Here, the weight is empirically determined by the user.

[0061]

[Table 1]

Next, the shape feature comparison process will be described in detail. FIG. 13 shows an outline of the processing. First, the degree of similarity between the components expressing the shape is calculated. The components include an illumination lens and indirect illumination. In the input attribute data (Fig. 7) resulting from inputting the required specifications,
For example, there is one component from the "first shape" under "Number of illumination lenses", and there are a total of five components in the input attribute data. Similarly, there are five component parts in the standard part attribute data (FIG. 10). The number of combinations of these five and five component parts, that is, the degree of similarity between 25 component parts is calculated. The calculation method is calculated by performing the process of S92 of FIG. However, regarding the position X and the position Y, the similarity of the position is calculated by the following formula.

[0063]

(Equation 3)

After the attributes are compared in this way, the total similarity is calculated as in S95 of FIG. That is the similarity between the components. Similarly, the similarity between all the components is calculated (S131). Next, the optimum combination of components is determined using the calculated similarity (S1).
32).

[0065]

[Table 2]

When the similarity between the components is calculated as in the table above, the standard component having the maximum similarity is determined for each input component. In this case, “Lens 1-Lens 1” on the upper left to “Indirect lighting 1-Indirect lighting 1” on the lower right
The combinations of diagonals to have the maximum at the similarity “0.8”, so that combination is determined.

Next, the similarity of the combinations obtained in S132 is averaged (S133). In this case all "0.8"
So the average is "0.8". This “0.8” is the similarity calculated by the shape feature comparison.

With the above, the search for similar standard parts is completed,
The search results are presented to the designer. When the designer selects a search result as a result of the presentation, the process of the similar case part search S66 is skipped, and the process proceeds to the part assembly process (S68). If the designer does not select, the next similar case part search process is performed. Move.

In the similar case part search, the case parts registered in the case part database 20 are searched for a case part similar to the required specifications and displayed. The selected result is passed to the parts assembly process (S68). The process of calculating the degree of similarity is exactly the same as the similar standard part search, and S in FIG.
91 does not generate standard part attribute data, but only changes to "read case part attribute data". The shape feature comparison process is exactly the same as the similar standard part search, and is the process of FIG.

The case component attribute data is data having the same data structure as the data in which the input attribute data shown in FIG. 7 is stored, and FIG. 4 shows an example of the case component, which is the result of reading the data. FIG. 16 shows the case part attribute data.

When the above search is completed, a part assembly process (S68) of assembling the selected part into the assembly model is performed. This is performed by matching the reference coordinates in the searched component by the process on CAD and the coordinate of the component on the assembly model. For example, in the case of a ceiling, the standard coordinates in the CAD data of the standard part shown in FIG. 3 and the ceiling coordinates of the assembly model CAD data shown in FIG.

By repeating the above steps from S64 to S69 for the number of component parts (S69), the component parts required for the product are assembled on one CAD data.

If all the required specifications are satisfied with the assembled CAD data, the design is finished.

On the other hand, if the required specifications are not completely satisfied, the CAD data is corrected so that the required specifications are satisfied (S70).

The corrected CAD data is registered in the case parts database 20 by the case parts registration process (S7).
1). For registration, CAD data is registered in association with attributes and shape features so that it will be the target of the next search.

By designing according to the flow described above, standard parts are preferentially searched, so that it is possible to design a product that is cost effective. Furthermore, since the parts of the product designed by this system are registered in the case parts database as case parts, the case parts database will be expanded, and parts similar to the required specifications may be searched for in the next design. Is getting higher.

However, when the case parts are expanded, the data to be searched increases and the search processing time increases. Therefore, it is necessary to organize / integrate the case parts and register them as standard parts. . Therefore, it becomes necessary to reduce the number of case parts by organizing / integrating the case parts as standard parts by the standardization promoting unit. In addition, this makes it possible to increase the number of standard parts.

Next, the standardization promoting section will be described with reference to FIG.

First, all the case part data is called from the case part database 10, and the same process as the similarity calculation of the similar case part search process is performed by using the attribute data and shape feature data of each case part. The similarity between the case parts is calculated according to (S71). The calculated similarity is regarded as the distance between the case parts, and clustering is performed to generate a case part group (S72). The number of cases belonging to each case group is totaled as the diversion frequency of the generated case parts group (S73). The obtained case parts group having a large diversion frequency is extracted as a case parts group to be standardized (S7).
4). CAD of standard parts including the extracted case parts group
Data is created, the range of the attribute which is the standard part application condition is determined, and the range is registered in the standard part database 10 in association with the standard part CAD data (S75). Next, the case parts made into standard parts are deleted from the case parts database (S76).

The standard parts can be efficiently created by the standard part creation using the standardization promoting section.

If the standard component DB can be efficiently expanded by such a method, the standard component is a component which can be automatically designed if the required specifications are given as shown in FIG. It is possible to reduce the cost. Further, if many such standard parts are stored in the standard part database, even a novice designer can efficiently design. Also, since the parts registered as standard parts are frequently used in design, the manufacturing department prepares the manufacturing equipment and stocks these standard parts in advance so that they can be manufactured quickly. By doing so, it becomes possible to manufacture quickly and reduce the manufacturing cost.

[0082]

As described above, according to the present invention, in designing the required specifications, the cost-effective standard parts are preferentially presented, so that it is possible to guide the user to design a low-cost product. Therefore, even an inexperienced designer can easily design by using standard components. In addition, CAD of the parts of the product designed by this system
Since the data is registered in the database in association with the required specification data as the case part data, the design result will automatically be the search target data at the next design point,
Database construction will proceed automatically. Furthermore, when the amount of data in the database increases, the standardization promoting mechanism extracts a group of case parts to be standardized, and by supporting the construction of the standard parts database, it is possible to create standard parts in an appropriate range. Since it is possible to organize / integrate the cases of the case parts database, it is possible to prevent an increase in the search processing time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of a design support device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an example of required specifications.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of an example of standard parts.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an example case model.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an example of an assembly model.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of design using the design support apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing input attribute data.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing standard component data.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of a similar standard part search.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of standard part attribute data.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of comparing attributes.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a table for comparison.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the flow of shape feature comparison.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the flow of standardization promotion processing.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a three-dimensional assembly model.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of case part attribute data.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Standard Parts Database 20 Case Parts Database 30 Attribute Input Section 40 Shape Feature Input Section 50 Standard Parts Search Section 60 Similar Standard Parts Search Section 70 Similar Case Parts Search Section 80 Search Result Display Section 90 Parts Assembly Section 100 CAD Data Operation Section 110 Cases Parts registration section 120 Assembly model search section 130 Assembly model database 140 Standardization promotion section

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Noboru Shibata 1070 Ma, Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture Inside Mito Plant of Hitachi, Ltd.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A method of designing a product, comprising design information including data defining a basic structure of a standard part, a range of attribute values defining detailed specifications applicable to the standard part, and a shape of the standard part. The standard part database that stores the shape feature data expressing the outline features of the product in association with each other is stored, and the design information including the data that defines the structure of the case parts that make up the product designed in the past and the part A case parts database that stores the attribute information including the applied attribute values and the shape feature data that represents the general characteristics of the shape of the case part in association with each other is stored, and the attribute values required for the part to be designed are stored. An attribute input step of inputting, a shape feature input step of inputting shape feature data expressing a rough feature of a shape required for a part to be designed, and a design attempt A standard part search step for searching the standard part database for a standard part having a range of attribute values and shape feature data that match the attribute values and shape feature data required for the product, and a part required to be designed. Has a range of attribute values including an attribute value representing a detailed specification similar to the detailed specification represented by the attribute value, and expresses a rough shape similar to the rough shape expressed by the shape feature data of the part to be designed. A similar standard part searching step for searching a standard part having shape characteristic data from the standard part database; an attribute value representing a detailed specification similar to the detailed specification represented by the attribute value required for the part to be designed; The case part having shape feature data expressing a rough shape similar to the rough shape expressed by the shape feature data of the part to be tried is referred to as the case part. A similar case part search step for searching from the database, and the parts searched by the standard part search step are displayed, and the parts searched by the similar standard part search step and the similar case part search step are ordered by the degree of similarity. In the attribute input step, the search result display step for displaying the result, the data operation step for correcting the data of the part searched according to the instruction, and the design information including the data of the part corrected in the data operation step. A design method, comprising: inputting attribute values; shape feature data input in the shape feature input step; and a case part registration step of associating and registering in the case part database as a case part. 2. The design method according to claim 1, wherein a set of case parts that are frequently used and are similar to each other is extracted, and the design information of the standard parts, the range of attribute values, and the shape feature data that match the extracted set are extracted. And a standardization promoting step for creating a. 3. A design support device for supporting product design, comprising design information including data defining a basic structure of standard parts, and a range of attribute values defining detailed specifications applicable to the standard parts. , A means for storing a standard part database for associating and registering the shape feature data expressing the outline feature of the shape of the standard part, and data for defining the structure of the case parts constituting the product designed in the past A means for storing a case parts database in which design information, attribute information including an attribute value applied to the part, and shape feature data expressing general features of the shape of the case part are registered in association with each other, Attribute input means for inputting the attribute value required for the part to be designed, and shape feature input for inputting the shape feature data expressing the outline feature of the shape required for the part to be designed And a standard part search means for searching the standard part database for a standard part having a range of attribute values and shape feature data matching attribute values and shape feature data required for a part to be designed, Similar to the detailed specification represented by the attribute value requested for the part to be designed. Has a range of attribute values including the attribute value representing the detailed specification, and is similar to the rough shape represented by the shape feature data of the part to be designed. And a detailed specification similar to the detailed specification represented by the attribute value required for the part to be designed, and the similar standard part search means for searching the standard part database for the standard part having the shape feature data expressing the outlined shape. A case that has an attribute value that represents a shape and shape feature data that represents a rough shape similar to the rough shape expressed by the shape feature data of the part to be designed. A similar case part search means for searching for a product from the case part database, a part searched by the standard part search means, and a part searched by the similar standard part search means and the similar case part search means. Are displayed in order of similarity according to the degree of similarity, data operation means for correcting the data of the parts retrieved according to the instruction, and design information including the data of the parts corrected by the data operating means. A case part registration means for associating with the attribute value input by the attribute input means, the shape feature data input by the shape feature input means, and registering it in the case part database as a case part. Design support device. 4. The design support apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a set of similar case parts that are frequently used are extracted, and design information of standard parts, attribute value ranges, and shape features that conform to the extracted set are extracted. A design support apparatus having standardization promoting means for creating data. 5. The design method according to claim 1, wherein a combination of product component parts, a condition of an attribute value of a product required specification, and a CAD assembly model for defining a product structure from the combination of the component parts. , An assembly model database for storing an assembly model database to be registered in association with the assembly model database for searching for an assembly model of a product associated with a condition of an attribute value matching the attribute of the requirement specification input by the attribute input means And a component assembly step of assembling the component data corrected by the data operation step onto the assembly model. 6. The design support apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a combination of product component parts, a condition of an attribute value of a product required specification, and a CAD assembly model for defining a product structure from the combination of the component parts. And a means for storing an assembly model database to be registered in association with the assembly model database for searching the assembly model database of the product associated with the condition of the attribute value matching the attribute of the required specification input by the attribute input means. A design support apparatus comprising: an assembly model search means; and a part assembly means for assembling the data of the part corrected by the data operation step onto the assembly model. 7. The design support apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the attribute of the input required specification is managed in a hierarchical structure, and the input can be hierarchically performed according to the attribute managed in the hierarchical structure. Support device.