JPH096980A - Graphic plotting method and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To plot a graphic by changing easily the shape of the graphic under plotting without discontinuing the plotting operation. CONSTITUTION: A user selects a desired plotting graphic out of a menu of graphics shown at a display part 4 by operating an input part 1. Then a graphic plotting control part 2 starts execution of a program to draw an arrow showing an end point from a start point. Then the user decides a start point on the screen of the part 4 by means of a mouse of the part 1 and then drags the mouse. When the user pushes a control key of the mouse while plotting an arrow showing the end point, for example, the part 2 switches the present program to another to plot the arrow showing the start point from the end point to wait for input of the end point that is done by the mouse. When the end point is inputted, the part 2 shows the arrow showing the start point from the end point at the part 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a graphic drawing device for drawing a graphic of various forms on a screen by operating a mouse in a document creating device, and more particularly to a graphic drawing method for changing a graphic being drawn. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a personal computer, a document creation device, or the like having a graphic drawing program installed is used as a graphic drawing device, and a user operates a mouse or the like to display various forms of graphics on the screen of the display device. Can be drawn on.

Such a conventional graphic drawing apparatus generally has a function of normalizing a graphic being drawn, for example, a rectangle into a square and an ellipse into a circle by using a shift key for mouse operation. However, none of them have the function of changing the form of a figure in the middle of drawing.

For example, it is not possible to change the direction of the arrow from the end point to the start point while drawing the arrow from the start point to the end point. I had to stop and restart the arrow drawing operation with the arrow in the opposite direction.

In particular, even if the start point and the direction are the same and only the direction of the arrow is different, the drawing state of the start point or the like which has already been input by the user cannot be effectively used, and the user has to perform the backtracking work. , Could not draw another form of arrow.

[0006]

In the conventional method of drawing a figure, the form of the figure being drawn cannot be changed on the way, and the user temporarily interrupts the drawing operation of the current figure and newly The operation of drawing the figure to be changed must be performed from the beginning, and there is a drawback that the efficiency of creating the figure is poor.

In view of the above situation, the present invention uses a graphic drawing method and a method for drawing a graphic by changing the form of the graphic being drawn on the way without interrupting the graphic drawing operation. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a graphic drawing device.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a graphic drawing method for drawing a graphic in various forms by executing drawing program information of a selected graphic based on input graphic drawing information. If there is a predetermined instruction while inputting the graphic drawing information for drawing the selected graphic or while executing the drawing program information of the same graphic, the drawing program information to be executed is used as the instruction. A method is adopted in which the drawing program information is changed to other predetermined drawing program information correspondingly, and the changed drawing program information is executed to draw a figure.

The invention of claim 2 adopts a method of drawing a figure by executing the changed drawing program information based on part or all of the figure drawing information of the figure inputted before the change of the drawing program information. are doing.

According to the third aspect of the invention, after changing the program information to be executed, if the same instruction is given again, the program information to be executed is returned to the original program information before the change.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in a figure drawing apparatus for drawing figures of various forms by executing drawing program information of a selected figure based on the inputted figure drawing information, a plurality of figure drawing programs are provided. A storage unit for storing information and an instruction to change the shape of a drawing figure while inputting drawing information for drawing the selected figure or while executing drawing program information of the same figure When the instruction is input from the input means, the specifying means for specifying the drawing program information predetermined in correspondence with the instruction from the storage means and the drawing program information to be executed And a drawing figure changing unit for changing the drawing program information specified by the specifying unit.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, storage means for storing the graphic drawing information input to draw the drawing program information, and input before the change of the drawing program information and saved in the storage means. The drawing control means is provided for drawing a figure by executing the changed drawing program information based on a part or all of the drawn figure drawing information.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, when an instruction is input from the input means after changing the program information to be executed by the drawing figure changing means, it is determined whether the instruction is the same as the instruction input immediately before. When the determination unit determines that the instruction is the same as the determination unit, the drawing figure changing unit has a configuration in which the program information to be executed is returned to the original program information before the change.

[0014]

According to the figure drawing method of the present invention, in the middle of inputting the figure drawing information from the user for drawing the selected figure or during the execution of the drawing program of the same figure. Then, when there is a predetermined instruction from the user, the drawing program to be executed is changed to another drawing program which is predetermined according to the instruction, and the changed drawing program is executed to draw a figure. To do.

In the graphic drawing method according to the second aspect of the present invention, the changed drawing program is executed based on part or all of the graphic drawing information of the graphic input by the user before the change of the drawing program. To draw a figure.

In the graphic drawing method according to the third aspect of the present invention, after changing the program to be executed, when the user again gives the same instruction, the program to be executed is returned to the original program before the change, Continue drawing the shape.

In the graphic drawing apparatus of the fourth aspect of the present invention, the storage means stores the drawing programs for a plurality of figures. The input means gives an instruction to change the form of the drawing figure from the user while inputting drawing information from the user to draw the selected figure or while executing the drawing program of the same figure. input. When the instruction is input from the input means, the specifying means specifies a drawing program predetermined in correspondence with the instruction from the storage means. The drawing figure changing means changes the drawing program to be executed to the drawing program specified by the specifying means.

In the graphic drawing apparatus of the fifth aspect of the present invention, the saving means saves the graphic drawing information input by the user for drawing the drawing program. The drawing control means draws a figure by executing the changed drawing program based on part or all of the figure drawing information input by the user before the change of the drawing program and stored in the storage means. .

In the graphic drawing apparatus according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, when the judging means changes the program to be executed by the drawing graphic changing means and then an instruction is inputted from the input means, this instruction is inputted immediately before. It is determined whether it is the same as the specified instruction. When the determination unit determines that the instructions are the same, the drawing figure changing unit returns the program to be executed to the original program before the change.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a graphic drawing apparatus in a document creating apparatus adopting the graphic drawing method of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a keyboard and mouse, and an input unit for inputting a figure drawing instruction and the like from a user. Reference numeral 2 denotes a display unit 4 for writing figures of various forms on a display memory 5 in accordance with a figure drawing instruction from the user. A graphic drawing control unit 3 for controlling the drawing on the screen
A memory unit such as a RAM for holding various data and programs necessary for the operation of the device, 4 a display unit such as an LCD or CRT for displaying a graphic expanded in the display memory 5, and 5 a display unit 4. A display memory in which graphic data to be stored is expanded, and 6 is an external storage device such as an HDD for storing programs for drawing various forms of graphics and created graphic data.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. When the user wants to create a figure, he operates the input section 1 to input a figure creation command to the figure drawing control section 2, and the figure drawing control section 2 displays on the display section 4 a menu screen for selecting the type of created figure. indicate.

A user who sees this screen displays, for example, FIG.
When the menu for drawing a one-way arrow from the start point to the end point as shown in (1) is selected, thereafter, the operation of drawing the arrow is performed using the mouse of the input unit 1 in the procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG.

First, when the user presses the mouse button of the mouse in step 201, the figure drawing control unit 2 which receives the mouse button receives the start point a as shown in FIG. 3A in step 202.
Is displayed on the screen of the display unit 4. After that, the user drags the mouse in step 203, and the graphic drawing control unit 2
Holds the drag information at this time.

When the user wants to draw an arrow whose direction is opposite to the direction of the arrow drawn while dragging the mouse and wants to change the figure being drawn, the mouse control is performed. You can press the key, but if you do not need to change it, continue dragging the mouse.

As a result, the graphic drawing control unit 2 determines in step 204 whether or not the control key of the mouse is pressed. If the mouse is pressed, the process proceeds to step 205. If not, the process proceeds to step 206. move on.

The graphic drawing control unit 2 specifies a program for drawing an arrow in which the direction of the arrow being created is reversed in step 205 from the memory unit 3 and switches the program to be executed to the specified program. The graphic drawing information such as the starting point drawn up to and the held drag information is held as they are.

When the mouse being dragged reaches the end point of the arrow in step 206, the user releases the mouse button. Therefore, the graphic drawing control unit 2 in step 207 indicates the position where the mouse button is released by the arrow. If the control key is not pressed after determining that the position is the end point b of
As shown in FIG. 3A, when the arrow pointing from the start point a to the end point b is drawn on the screen of the display unit 4 in step 208 and it is determined in step 204 that the control key is pressed, the form of the drawing figure is changed. Is changed to draw an arrow pointing from the end point b to the start point a on the screen of the display unit 4 in step 208 as shown in FIG. 3B.

Next, even when the user selects a menu for drawing a double-headed arrow connecting the start point and the end point as shown in FIG. The operation of drawing the arrow with a mouse is performed according to the procedure shown in the flowchart.

Also in this case, the graphic drawing control unit 2 determines in step 204 whether or not the control key of the mouse being dragged has been pressed, and if not pressed, step 2
At 08, the two-way arrow shown in FIG. 4 (A) is drawn on the screen of the display unit 4, and if the control key is pressed, the form of the drawn figure is changed at step 208 to change to FIG. 4 (B). The one-way arrow shown is drawn on the screen of the display unit 4.

Further, even when the user selects a menu for drawing a parallelogram having diagonal points at the start point and the end point as shown in FIG. The parallelogram is drawn with a mouse in the procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG.

Also in this case, the graphic drawing control unit 2 judges in step 204 whether or not the control key of the mouse being dragged is pressed, and if not pressed, step 2
At 08, a parallelogram is drawn on the screen of the display unit 4 such that the points other than the start point and end point shown in FIG. 20
The drawing figure is changed at 8 and a parallelogram is drawn on the screen of the display unit 4 such that the points other than the start point and the end point are the midpoints of the Y axis as shown in FIG. 5B.

Further, the user selects from the menu screen for selecting the type of created figure, for example, the upper 1/4 as shown in FIG. 6 (A).
Even if the menu for drawing an ellipse is selected,
The operation of drawing the ellipse with the mouse is performed in the procedure as shown in the flowchart of FIG.

Also in this case, the graphic drawing control unit 2 determines in step 204 whether or not the control key of the mouse being dragged is pressed, and if not pressed, step 2
At 08, the upper 1/4 ellipse shown in FIG. 6A is drawn on the screen of the display unit 4, and when the control key is pressed, the form of the drawn figure is changed at step 208 to change the shape of FIG. B)
The lower 1/4 ellipse is drawn on the screen of the display unit 4 as shown in FIG.

Next, when the user selects a menu for drawing a fan shape as shown in FIG. 7A from the menu screen for selecting the type of created figure, the procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG. Then, the operation of drawing the fan shape with a mouse is performed.

First, when the user presses the mouse button of the mouse in step 901, the graphic drawing control section 2 which receives the button presses the center point O as shown in FIG. Displayed on the screen of. Step 9
The mouse is dragged at 03, and the graphic drawing control unit 2 holds the drag information at this time.

The user releases the mouse button when the mouse being dragged reaches the position of the fan-shaped radius in step 904. Therefore, the figure drawing control unit 2 determines the position based on the position of the mouse button released in step 905. To determine the radius of the sector.

Next, the user moves the mouse to determine the start point and the end point in step 906, but if the angle of the center of the fan shape to be drawn needs to be changed to 180 degrees or more, the operation of pressing the mouse control key. If you don't need to change it, just keep moving the mouse.

As a result, the graphic drawing control unit 2 determines in step 907 whether or not the mouse control key is pressed. If yes, the process proceeds to step 909. If not, the process proceeds to step 908. move on.

In step 908, the graphic drawing control unit 2 specifies from the memory unit 3 a program for drawing a fan shape having a center angle of 180 degrees or more, and switches the execution program to this specified program. The graphic drawing information such as the center point drawn so far is retained as it is.

When the user moves the mouse at step 909 to the end point of the fan shape, the user clicks the mouse. Therefore, the graphic drawing control unit 2 moves the mouse click position to the end point of the fan shape at step 910. If the control key is not pressed after the position is determined, FIG.
A fan shape having a center angle of 180 degrees or less as shown in (A) is drawn on the screen of the display unit 4 in step 911, and when it is determined that the control key is pressed, the form of the drawing figure is changed. As shown in FIG. 7B, the central angle is 1
The fan shape of 80 degrees or more is displayed on the screen of the display unit 4 in the same step 91.
Draw with 1.

Further, even when the user selects a menu for drawing a partial circle having a central angle of 180 degrees or less as shown in FIG. 8A from the menu screen for selecting the type of created figure, the menu shown in FIG. The operation of drawing the partial circle with a mouse is performed in the procedure as shown in the flowchart.

Also in this case, the graphic drawing control unit 2 determines in step 907 whether or not the control key of the mouse being dragged has been pressed, and if not pressed, step 9
In FIG. 11, the partial circle shown in FIG. 8 (A) with a central angle of 180 degrees or less is drawn on the screen of the display unit 4, and if pressed, the form of the drawing figure is changed in step 911. 8
A partial circle having a central angle of 180 degrees or more as shown in (B) is drawn on the screen of the display unit 4.

Here, the memory section 3 of the figure drawing control section 2 has a program for drawing various figures corresponding to a menu which allows the user to select the type of drawing figure. Among these, regarding the graphics drawing programs shown in FIGS. 3A to 8B, when the mouse control button is pressed while drawing one of the graphics, the graphics drawing control unit 2 Switches to the other drawing program and controls the drawing of a figure whose form has been changed based on the figure drawing information such as the start point and the center point already input by operating the mouse.

Therefore, if the user initially intends to draw an arrow as shown in FIG. 3 (A) and wants to change the arrow to that shown in FIG. 3 (B) while operating the mouse, he or she presses the control button of the mouse. The drawing figure can be changed as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2, and the same applies to the examples of FIGS. 4 to 8.

According to this embodiment, when the user wants to change the drawing figure while drawing the figure using the mouse, the figure being drawn can be changed by simply pressing the control button of the mouse.
Moreover, since the figure being drawn can be drawn based on the figure drawing information input by mouse operation up to that point, the user can change the form of the figure being drawn without interrupting the figure drawing operation. The drawing efficiency can be remarkably improved.

In the above embodiment, the figure drawing control unit 2 is instructed to change the form of the drawn figure by pressing the control button of the mouse, but the present invention is not limited to the control button.
The same effect can be obtained by using other instructing means (specific keys of the keyboard, etc.) as long as the figure drawing control section 2 can discriminate them.

In addition, during the graphic drawing operation by the user's mouse after the graphic drawing program to be executed is changed by pressing the mouse control button in step 204 or step 907 of FIG. 2 or 9 of the above embodiment. In addition, when the mouse control button is pressed again, the program to be executed can be changed again to the original graphic drawing program before the change, which can be easily realized with the same configuration. Further, the operability of the device can be improved.

To give a concrete example, initially, FIG.
I started drawing with the mouse in order to draw the arrow, but in the middle of that, I changed to drawing the arrow in Fig. 3 (B) and pressed the control button of the mouse to continue drawing. If you think that the arrow in Fig. 3 (A) is good, press the mouse control button again,
The arrow of FIG. 3A originally intended to be drawn is drawn by the figure drawing control unit 2.

In such a case, since the figure to be drawn is annoyed, the original figure originally intended to be drawn may be acceptable in some cases. Therefore, by adopting the above configuration, the figure drawing is performed. The operability of can be further improved.

Further, in the above embodiment, in order to draw the figure initially intended to be created, after the form is changed based on the figure drawing information such as the starting point, the center point, the radius length, etc. input by the user with the mouse. Although the figure is drawn, after the figure form is changed, the same figure drawing information is input overlapping the already entered figure drawing information so that the form is changed using only the newly entered figure drawing information. It goes without saying that the figure can be drawn.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining an application example of the above embodiment. This example shows an example in which any one of the shapes of the arrows shown in FIGS. 10A to 10D can be changed to the remaining one of the shapes of the arrow during drawing. In this case, it is assumed that the memory unit 3 of the graphic drawing control unit 2 holds a drawing program for each graphic shown in (A) to (D) of FIG.

In step 204 of the flow chart of FIG. 2, the graphic drawing control unit 2 presses a control button of the mouse or a specific key of the keyboard of the input unit 1 to select one of the remaining arrows other than the arrow currently being drawn. When there is an instruction to change the arrow to, the program is switched to a program for drawing an arrow corresponding to this instruction, and then the arrow whose shape is changed is drawn on the screen of the display unit 4 in step 208.

As a result, in the present example, the figure currently being drawn can be changed to any one of the three different types, which has the same effect as in the above-mentioned embodiment, and the degree of freedom in changing the figure is increased. Can be improved.

However, in this example, it is necessary to define in advance four kinds of key operations for individually instructing the graphic drawing control unit 2 which of the four kinds of graphics should be changed in step 204. Also, it is possible to easily realize that the change figure is any of three types or five or more types in the same manner.

[0055]

As described above, according to the graphic drawing method and apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to easily change the form of the graphic being drawn without interrupting the graphic drawing operation. The drawing efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a graphic drawing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a graphic drawing procedure by the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a graphic drawn on a display unit 4 of the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another example of a graphic drawn on the display unit 4 of the apparatus shown in FIG.

5 is a diagram showing another example of a graphic drawn on the display unit 4 of the apparatus shown in FIG.

6 is a diagram showing another example of a graphic drawn on the display unit 4 of the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of a graphic drawn on the display unit 4 of the apparatus shown in FIG.

8 is a diagram showing another example of a graphic drawn on the display unit 4 of the apparatus shown in FIG.

9 is a flowchart showing another graphic drawing procedure by the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining an application example of the embodiment shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Input part 2 ... Graphic drawing control part 3 ... Memory part 4 ... Display part 5 ... Display memory 6 ... External storage device

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Shunichi Mizumi 1381 Shinmachi, Ome-shi, Tokyo Within Toshiba Computer Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takashi Kusubashi 1381 Shinmachi, Ome-shi, Tokyo Toshiba Computer Data Engineering Co., Ltd.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A graphic drawing method for drawing a graphic in various forms by executing drawing program information of a selected graphic based on input graphic drawing information, and a graphic for drawing the selected graphic. While inputting drawing information or while executing drawing program information of the same figure,
When a predetermined instruction is given, the drawing program information to be executed is changed to another drawing program information which is predetermined according to the instruction, and the changed drawing program information is executed to draw a figure. Drawing method characterized by. 2. The figure is drawn by executing the changed drawing program information based on a part or all of the figure drawing information of the figure inputted before changing the drawing program information. Drawing method described. 3. After changing the program information to be executed,
3. The graphic drawing method according to claim 1, wherein when the same instruction is given again, the program information to be executed is returned to the original program information before the change. 4. A memory for storing drawing program information of a plurality of figures in a drawing apparatus for drawing various types of figures by executing drawing program information of a selected figure based on inputted figure drawing information. Means and input means for inputting an instruction to change the form of the drawing figure while inputting drawing information for drawing the selected figure or while executing drawing program information of the figure. When the instruction is input from the input means, the specifying means for specifying the drawing program information determined in advance corresponding to the instruction from the storage means and the drawing program information to be executed are specified by the specifying means. And a drawing figure changing means for changing the drawn drawing program information. 5. Storage means for storing the graphic drawing information input for drawing the drawing program information, and graphic drawing information input before the change of the drawing program information and stored in the storage means. 5. The figure drawing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising drawing control means for drawing a figure by executing the changed drawing program information based on part or all of the above. 6. When the instruction is input from the input means after changing the program information to be executed by the drawing figure changing means, the determining means determines whether or not the instruction is the same as the instruction input immediately before. 6. The graphic according to claim 4 or 5, wherein when the determination unit determines that the instructions are the same, the drawing graphic changing unit restores the program information to be executed to the original program information before the change. Drawing device.