JPH113363A - Circuit diagram design supporting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prepare a circuit diagram to be easily viewed and read by executing processing allocated to a command button at the time of detecting a click event corresponding to the command button and changing the property of element information so as to edit a symbol graphic during the preparation of the circuit diagram. SOLUTION: A symbol graphic is specified and element information in the graphic is extracted. Whether the element information exists or not is checked, and when the element information exists, whether the change of its property is permitted or not is checked. When the checked result is true, whether the element information is grouped with other element information or not is checked, and when the information is grouped and the element information has a common changeable property in the group, the group is defined, the objective property of single element information or grouped element information is changed and a user 15 urged to select the rewriting of the changed symbol graphic in a library or the addition of the changed symbol graphic to the library as a new graphic.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention supports the operation of arranging symbol graphics read from a library on a screen and connecting between symbol graphics and between symbol graphics and terminals to complete a desired circuit diagram. To a circuit diagram design support device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Since diverting existing design resources is effective for short-term creation of circuit diagrams, many design departments appropriately select design data in a library, arrange them on a screen, and connect them. For example, a circuit diagram design support device (hereinafter, may be abbreviated as a support device) that can create a desired circuit diagram simply by performing such operations is used.

FIG. 9 is a schematic flow chart of a conventional circuit diagram design support apparatus. In this figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a library containing existing design resources. The designer activates the support device to create a work area (drawing frame) for creating a circuit diagram (P1), arranges circuit parts such as symbols and terminals in this work area (P2), and After performing an editing operation of connecting parts to obtain a desired circuit diagram (P3 to P5), design data such as a hard copy of a drawing and, if necessary, a net list and a part list are output (P6).

[0004] Here, the symbol figure is a pattern of electronic parts, element circuits, and the like. Particularly, in the case of a substantial component (for example, an IC), it is often symbolized to resemble its shape. FIG. 10 is an example of a symbol figure. In this figure, four lead lines are drawn on each long side of a horizontally long rectangle, and a predetermined symbol (“NJM4200” in the figure) is drawn inside the rectangle. A component having a similar shape is, for example, an IC having eight pins.
In this case, the NJM4200 provides the name (model number) of the IC,
The number attached to the leader line is the pin number. Needless to say, the data stored in the library 1 is not limited to only the actual parts. Naturally, design data of an element circuit (there is no entity) in the IC may be included.

Generally, the management of symbol figures in the library 1 is performed in a hierarchical (layer) manner. For example, FIG.
In the case of a symbol figure of 0, each element of the figure, that is, a symbol name (“NJM4200”), a frame line, a pin, a pin number (“1” to “8”), and the like are managed in a hierarchical manner. The top layer is assigned to unique information that does not overlap with other parts. For example, if "NJM4200" is unique information, "NJM4200" is entered in the uppermost layer, and other information (frame line, pin, pin number) is sequentially entered in lower layers. The reason for using such a management method is that by simply searching for the information on the top layer, the information on the lower layers can be obtained collectively, and a new figure can be created by combining multiple figures, such as a frame line. This is also easy. As a management method other than the hierarchical structure, there is a method using a relational database. For example, "NJM
4200 "as a key, and a frame table, a pin table and a pin number table having secondary keys having the same contents as the" NJM4200 ".
By simply searching for "00", all related records of the frame table, pin table, and pin number table related thereto can be extracted.

[0006]

The above-mentioned conventional support device is advantageous in that efficient design work can be performed using design resources in the library. Since the symbol figure is used as it is, there is a limit in creating an easy-to-read circuit diagram, and there is room for improvement.

For example, as shown in FIG. 11, when the wiring is shifted to the part A due to the circuit diagram, a detour wiring must be drawn at the part B. This is a simple example, but a complicated drawing would result in a large amount of bypass wiring. This not only makes it difficult to check the validity of the wiring but also prevents reading errors, so the wiring layout must be as regular and simple as possible. When all the operations are performed manually, as shown in FIG. 12, the pin positions can be moved to eliminate the detour wiring. However, such a movement of the pin positions is impossible with the conventional support device. This is because the symbol figure in the library can be used as it is.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to edit a symbol figure during the creation of a circuit diagram, thereby making it possible to create a circuit diagram that is easy to read and read.

[0009]

The invention according to claim 1 is
Means for detecting an on-focus event, a click event or a double-click event of a symbol figure placed at an arbitrary position in the work area of the screen, and a means for acquiring information on on-focus coordinates in response to the event; Means for displaying or enabling a command button corresponding to a changeable property among the properties of the element information when the acquired information is the element information of the symbol figure; and detecting a click event of the command button. Then, means for executing a process assigned to the command button to change the property of the element information is provided.

According to this, when an arbitrary position of a symbol figure is on-focused (mouse cursor is set), clicked (mouse button is set and mouse button is clicked on) or double-clicked during creation of a circuit diagram,
If the property of the position (attribute of the object) can be changed, a command button corresponding to the property can be used. Therefore, by simply clicking the command button, the property at the position of the symbol figure can be changed.For example, if the property is moved, the object at the position can be moved in any direction by dragging, and during the creation of the circuit diagram, You can now edit symbol shapes.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, after changing the property of the element information, the library in which the symbol graphic is stored is updated in order to overwrite the original symbol graphic. Or means for additionally storing the new symbol graphic in the library as a new symbol graphic. According to this, the symbol figure once edited can be overwritten or additionally stored in the library, so that the library can be updated in parallel during the circuit diagram creation, and it is necessary to start an application for updating the library. There is a merit that there is no.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 8 are diagrams showing one embodiment of a circuit diagram design support apparatus according to the present invention. First, the difference between the schematic flow chart in the support apparatus of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 and the conventional flow chart (FIG. 9) is that the symbol figure from the library 1 is edited (moved, copied, deleted, etc.). Stage edits for the entire symbolic figure),
A step (P10) for editing each part of the symbol figure before entering the connection layout is added.

In this step (P10), for example, movement, rotation, enlargement / reduction, attribute change, etc. can be performed as appropriate, depending on the editing portion of the target symbol figure. These edit items are, in short, property items of the target object. For example, in a close example, each character constituting a character string input by a word processor is an object, and the entire character string is also an object. Character font and font size are properties of each character, and character spacing is a property of a character string. Application software capable of freely changing such properties is a word processor.

Although the properties of this embodiment are as described above, other properties may of course be included or some of the examples may be excluded. The setting of the property should be performed by a command button arranged on a pop-up form as shown in FIG. 2 in consideration of recent graphical user interface (GUI) requirements. For example, it is preferable that the moving property of the selected element can be changed by simply clicking the moving button of the element. The required procedure must be set for the click event action of each command button. This procedure has a function to check whether the selected element information is that of a symbol figure. If the selected element information is that of a symbol figure, the change of the target property is permitted (and the target property itself is Event activation in which a function to check whether or not element information exists (if the result of these checks is True, sets a value in a property targeted by the element information and updates the display, etc.) is described in code. Become a shape program.

If the properties of some pieces of element information of the symbol figure can be changed collectively, operational efficiency is high. The command buttons surrounded by “group” in FIG. 2 are for that purpose. For example, when the mouse is dragged (moves the cursor while holding down the mouse button) so as to include two or more pieces of element information, grouping can be performed. In the case of grouping, the available property of the "element" command button is set to False (the title is made thin), and the available property of the "group" command button is set to True (the title becomes black).
It is desirable to present only the operation of the group property to the user.

Step (P10) added in this embodiment
Is roughly as shown in FIG. In this figure, first, a symbol graphic is designated (P11), and element information in the graphic is extracted (P12). This extraction can be performed based on the coordinates of the mouse cursor. Next, when it is confirmed that the extracted element information is a part of the symbol figure (P13), if a target property (for example, movement property) exists in the element information, and if it exists, the property is changed. Is checked (P14). And the above confirmation is T
In the case of "rue", it is confirmed whether or not the element information is grouped with other element information (P15). Confirm (P16), then
After changing the target property of the single element information or the grouped element information (P17), select whether to write the changed symbol graphic back to the library 1 or add it to the library 1 as a new graphic. To the user (P18) and perform a process according to the selection result (P1).
9).

FIGS. 4 to 8 show some examples of graphic changes by the step (P10) added in this embodiment.
FIG. 4 shows an example in which the pin position is moved (moved to the left by a predetermined amount in the figure), FIG. 5 shows an example in which the pin position is rotated (in the figure, it is rotated 90 degrees while moving the position), Example of changing attribute of frame line (line type attribute is changed in the figure), FIG. 7
Is an example of changing a character attribute (in the figure, a character font is changed). FIG. 8 is an example of a message that prompts the user to update the library 1 after the graphic change. This message may be displayed by, for example, an event action after the change of the figure. Alternatively, a submenu may be displayed by clicking the right button of the mouse, and "addition" or "update" may be selected.

[0018]

According to the present invention, if an arbitrary position of a symbol figure is on-focused, clicked, or double-clicked during the creation of a circuit diagram, if a property at the position can be changed, a command button corresponding to the property is changed. Now, the user can change the property of the symbol graphic at the position by simply clicking the command button. Therefore, the symbol figure can be freely processed and edited while the circuit diagram is being created, so that it is possible to create a circuit diagram that is easy to read and read, and it is possible to improve the efficiency of drawing acceptance and avoid reading errors.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic flowchart of one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an example layout of command buttons according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the added steps of one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram (part 1) of a graphic change according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a diagram (part 2) of a graphic change according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a diagram (part 3) of a graphic change according to an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a diagram (part 4) of a graphic change according to the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a message display diagram of a library update in one embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic flowchart of a conventional example.

FIG. 10 is an example diagram of a symbol figure.

FIG. 11 is an undesired circuit diagram including a bypass wiring.

FIG. 12 is a preferred circuit diagram that does not include a bypass wiring.

[Explanation of symbols]

 P1 to P6 and P10: Step

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Junichi Nishihara 4-1-1 Kamikadanaka, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside Fujitsu Limited (72) Inventor Emi Kobayashi 4-1-1 Kamiodanaka, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture No. 1 Inside Fujitsu Limited

Claims (2)

[Claims] A means for detecting an on-focus event, a click event, or a double-click event of a symbol figure placed at an arbitrary position in a work area on a screen; Means for acquiring, when the acquired information is element information of the symbol figure, means for displaying or enabling a command button corresponding to a changeable property among the properties of the element information; and the command button When a click event is detected,
Means for changing the property of the element information by executing a process assigned to the command button. 2. After changing the property of the element information, the library in which the symbol graphic is saved is updated to overwrite the original symbol graphic, or is additionally stored in the library as a new symbol graphic. 2. The circuit diagram design support device according to claim 1, further comprising: