JPH03238557A - Cad system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a CAD system, and particularly to a CAD system for designing patterns of printed circuit boards.

Mushroom uL technology The number of components mounted on a printed circuit board and the number of connection information (nets) used to connect each component depend on the high degree of integration of the circuit mounted on the printed circuit board, especially when analog components are used. The amount of data to be input into a CAD system increases dramatically even if the substrate area remains the same as before. Therefore, there is a problem in that it takes a very long time to design a pattern for a printed circuit board using a CAD system.

The reason why printed circuit board pattern design takes longer than before is not only due to the increase in circuit scale, but also because multiple circuit blocks designed individually by each designer are mounted on a single printed circuit board. Because I have to
This is because the person in charge of designing the printed circuit board pattern is often unable to pattern the printed circuit board for circuits that he or she does not know about.

Purpose The present invention has been made in view of these circumstances,
An object of the present invention is to provide a CAD system having an editing function that improves work efficiency in designing patterns for printed circuit boards.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION A CAD system according to the present invention includes an input means for inputting various data including connection information and component information of circuit elements constituting a circuit block in which one circuit content to be designed is divided into a plurality of blocks; a storage means for storing various data inputted by the means; and a storage means for reading the connection information and component information of each circuit block from the storage means, and a pattern of each virtual printed circuit board corresponding to each circuit block from the connection information and component information. At the same time, connection information between circuit elements and component information on each virtual printed circuit board are stored in the storage means, and if a design change occurs at the pattern creation stage of each virtual printed circuit board, the content of the design change is stored. Correct the connection information stored in the storage means of each virtual printed circuit board according to the above, and correspond to the circuit diagram of each circuit block based on the finally determined virtual printed circuit board connection information and component information. and data processing means for aggregating a plurality of virtual printed circuit board patterns into one printed circuit board pattern.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of a CAD system according to the present invention. In the figure, the CAD system includes a CAD main body IO that performs circuit design and printed circuit board pattern design, and a CAD main body IO that provides preliminary circuit design and technical information to support circuit design and printed circuit board pattern design. It consists of a peripheral system 12 that performs searches, information management, etc.

The CAD main body IO includes a main computer 100, graphic human power devices 102 and 104, and a program input device 10.
6, an electrostatic block 108, and a printer 110, and is mainly responsible for circuit design and printed circuit board pattern design work.

The main computer 100 includes a CPU, lif! It consists of a storage device such as a magnetic tape device or a magnetic disk device, an interface, a modulation/demodulation device, and the like.

The graphic input devices 102 and 104 are devices for manually inputting various data when designing a circuit and designing a pattern for a Benont board.

The program input device 106 inputs various programs such as a netlist (data including circuit element connection information and component information) creation program, component placement/wiring program, design rule check program, output system program, and component search program to the main computer 106. This is a device that stores the data in the storage device of 120 or in the storage device of a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a personal computer) 120 for collecting pigs.

The electrostatic plotter 108 is a graphic output device that draws circuit diagrams, print patterns, etc. designed by the CAD main body IO.

The printer 110 outputs data such as a netlist and a parts list as a hard copy.

The peripheral system 12 includes a data aggregation personal computer 120 and a circuit diagram input device 1 connected to the data aggregation personal computer 120 via telephone lines 200 and 202 and located at the design base.
22, 124. Here, in this embodiment, the data aggregation personal computer 120 is configured to be connected to the circuit diagram human-powered devices 122 and 124 located at the design base via a telephone line, but the invention is not limited to this.
NfLocal Area Network).

The CAD main body IO has a conversation function and automatic creation function corresponding to each design work item.

Next, design work using the CAD system having the above configuration will be explained. Figure 2 conceptually shows the stages from the circuit design stage of multiple circuit blocks to the pattern design of the printed circuit board of the circuit that integrates these multiple circuit blocks, and Figure 3. shows the procedure. In step fI) in these figures, each design person divides each circuit block (in this example, two circuit blocks A and B) in which one circuit content to be designed as a design goal is divided into multiple blocks. While individually checking the circuit diagram manual devices 122 and 124 of the peripheral system 12 on the display screen, the connection information and component information of the circuit elements constituting the circuit block, that is, the net list, are summarized by the telephone lines 200 and 202, and the pig total. computer 12
0 to the main computer 100 of the CAD main body lO
Transfer to the internal storage device. The connection information that is input when designing a circuit includes the names of groups (collections of circuit elements) that are connected to each other and the names of the bins that are connected, and the component information that is input is the order number of parts and the circuit diagram. Information on the component position on the circuit diagram, information indicating the orientation of the component on the circuit diagram, component name (registered component name), reference number, (Parts are grouped by each element, such as IC, transistor, resistor, etc.) There are numbered items within each group (fRl, Ql, IC1, etc.) and board component names (component names when developed on a board). The component generation order number is a number assigned to distinguish individual components because a reference number has not yet been attached to the component data when the component data is extracted from the component file.

Next, in step f II l, the design data of each circuit block (including circuit element connection information and component information) stored in the storage device in the main computer 100 of the CAD main body 10 is read out, and the graphic input device 102 ,
While checking on the screen 104, print patterns for virtual printed circuit boards A and H corresponding to circuit blocks A and B, respectively, are designed based on the conversation function and automatic creation function of the CAD main body IO.

Here, as shown in FIG. 6, a virtual printed circuit board A600.
It is assumed that a series circuit of two resistors is to be formed on each printed circuit board B602. In this case, the reference number of the resistor is printed circuit board A600. It is given by a program stored in the storage device in the main computer 100 in the CAD main body 10 so as not to be duplicated on the printed circuit board B602.

However, connection information between circuit elements on virtual printed circuit boards A and B designed corresponding to each circuit block exists redundantly. In other words, since the software is created so that connection information between circuit elements is sequentially attached on the CAD main body 10 side to each virtual printed circuit board of each circuit block, duplicate numbers naturally occur6.For example, as shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, for connection information S01 indicating that terminal 2 of resistor R1 on printed circuit board A600 and terminal 1 of resistor R2 are connected, terminal 2 of resistor R3 on printed circuit board B700 and terminal 1 of resistor R4 are connected. The connection information SOI indicating that the two are connected overlaps.

At this stage +Ill, the virtual printed circuit board A,
Connection information between circuit elements and component information in B are stored in the storage device in the main computer 100 in the CAD main body IO during the period in which the print pattern is designed. On the other hand, in the CAD system according to this embodiment, reference numbers of components to be mounted on virtual printed circuit boards designed corresponding to each circuit block are given so as not to overlap. The reference numbers of the specified parts are valid when each virtual printed circuit board is assembled, and the duplicate reference numbers attached to other parts are
may be changed to another reference number.

Next, in the step (step f II in III l), if a print pattern design change occurs in either or both of the virtual printed circuit boards A and B, the design change is temporarily stored in the storage device in the main computer 100. The above connection information and parts information are corrected and stored again in the storage device within the main computer 100.

In this way, the contents of the connection information and component information of the virtual printed circuit boards A and B are finally determined after the design work in stage (II) is completed.

Furthermore, in step +[V], the virtual printed circuit board A designed corresponding to each circuit block in step (II l) is
, B, the patterns of the virtual printed circuit boards A and B are collected as one printed circuit board pattern based on the finally determined connection information and component information of the virtual printed circuit boards A and B. With reference to FIG. 4, a case will be described in which the printed patterns of the printed circuit board A300 and the printed patterns of the printed circuit board B502 are aggregated. In this case, the printed circuit board A300
, the virtual terminal name on printed circuit board B502 is JP-1.
-001. This group with the same virtual terminal name is used as connection information indicating that the virtual printed circuit boards corresponding to each circuit block, for example virtual printed circuit boards A and B, are connected to one point when they are assembled as a single printed circuit board. The netlist has been created based on the connection information and component information of the virtual printed circuit boards A and H that were finally determined in step +1111 as described above. This netlist is stored in the storage device in the main computer 100 in the CAD main body IO. This virtual terminal is set as a wiring target in each circuit block, and a virtual printed circuit board corresponding to each of these circuit blocks is designed.

By operating the graphic input device 102 (or 104), the netlist is read from the storage device in the main computer 100 and used as a decoy, and a collection of circuit elements with the same virtual terminal name on the two virtual printed circuit boards A and B is created. Search for the pig (connection information) that identifies the group that is the body,
Perform screen operations to connect while checking on the display screen. For example, as shown in Figure 4, the printed circuit board A30
0. It is assumed that JP-1-001 exists as the same virtual terminal name on the printed circuit board B502. Through an input operation on the graphic input device 102 (or 104), data specifying the name of the component connected to the virtual terminal JP-1-001, the name of its terminal, and the connection information of these circuit elements are displayed on the screen. . That is, printed circuit board A
5001 fJP-1-001 as connection information of 300
R2-001, IC-008) is also printed circuit board B
3D2(7) 5OO8fJP-1-00 as connection information
1, Q8-003) is displayed as a list, and the print pattern shown in FIG. 4 (in the same figure, for convenience of explanation, it is shown as a symbol of a circuit element) is displayed. Here data 5001fJP-1-001, R2
-001, IC-008), the terminal 001 of the resistor R2 and the terminal 008 of the integrated circuit IC3 are connected to the virtual terminal 300A fJP-1-0011 in the printed circuit board A300, and the connection information name indicating the content of this connection is 3001. It shows that there is. Similarly, 8008 fJP-1-001゜Q8-003) is the virtual terminal 0 in the printed circuit board B502.
03 (reducing that transistor Q8 is connected to JP-1-0011).

In the above example, printed circuit board A300 and printed circuit board B5
When the print patterns of 02 are aggregated, the virtual terminal 30
0A (JP-1-0011 and virtual terminal 003 fJP
The data is changed so that JP-1-001+ is connected, and the virtual terminal JP-1-001 disappears. At this time, the connection information of the assembled circuit blocks is changed,
For example, 5004 (R2-001, IC3-008, Q8-
003). This connection information 5004
Only one exists in the printed circuit board 30 in which the printed patterns of the printed circuit board A300 and the printed circuit board B502 are assembled.

In FIG. 4, for convenience of explanation, printed circuit board A300. B
Although only one group of circuit elements is shown in 502, a plurality of groups having the same virtual terminal name are aggregated using the same procedure. That is, as shown in FIG. 5A, the Bunont substrate A400. It is assumed that each printed pattern of the printed circuit board B500 is created according to each circuit block. On the printed circuit board A400, the wirings 401, 402, and 403 are connected, respectively.
Virtual terminal JP1. JP2. JP3 is established,
Their connection information is S01. S02°SO3.

On the other hand, on the printed circuit board B500, wirings 501, 502.
503, virtual terminals JPI, JP3. J
P2 is provided, and their connection information is SO5, S
O6, SO].

Printed circuit board A40 having the above printed pattern
0 and the printed circuit board B500 are assembled. That is,
As shown in FIG. 5A, connect virtual terminals with the same virtual terminal name, and change the name of new connection information after the connection in order. For example, between virtual terminals JPI-JPI, Between JP2 and JP2, JP3 and JP3
The printed bases 1'N 30 are assembled by connecting them through wirings 700, 701, and 702, respectively.
-h so far printed circuit board A400 and printed circuit board B
The virtual terminals provided for SO1, S02.500 disappear, and new connection information is created. SO3 is given.

In this embodiment, the plurality of virtual printed circuit boards are integrated based on the connection information and component information of the plurality of virtual printed circuit boards designed corresponding to the circuit blocks in which the circuit contents to be designed are divided into a plurality of blocks. Since the circuit blocks are configured to be assembled into one printed circuit board, even if a design change occurs during the design stage of the virtual printed circuit board corresponding to each circuit block, it becomes possible to respond to the design change (6).

EFFECTS - As explained above, in the present invention, each circuit block is designed by dividing the contents of one circuit to be designed into a plurality of blocks, and the connection information and component information of the circuit elements of each designed circuit block are divided into multiple blocks. At the same time, we design a virtual printed circuit board corresponding to each circuit block based on The plurality of virtual printed circuit boards are assembled into one printed circuit board based on the connection information and component information of each virtual printed circuit board that are finally determined. The work efficiency of pattern design can be improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the CAD system according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a circuit design stage of a plurality of circuit blocks, and a pattern design of a printed circuit board of a circuit that aggregates these plurality of circuit blocks. Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing the procedure for each step shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a collection of printed circuit board patterns corresponding to multiple circuit blocks. FIGS. 5A and 5B are explanatory diagrams showing an example of the contents of connection information when the patterns of multiple printed circuit boards are aggregated, and FIGS. Fig. 5B is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship before aggregation, Fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship after aggregation, and Fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship after aggregation. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a state that occurs. Explanation of main parts 10, , , CAD body 2 30° 100. 102.104 06 108. 110. 20 122.124

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] Input means for inputting various data including connection information and component information of circuit elements constituting a circuit block obtained by dividing one circuit content to be designed into a plurality of blocks; a storage means for storing various kinds of data, and reading out the connection information and parts information of each circuit block from the storage means, creating a pattern of each virtual printed circuit board corresponding to each circuit block from the connection information and parts information, and , storing connection information between circuit elements and component information in each virtual printed circuit board in the storage means, and when a design change occurs at the pattern creation stage of each virtual printed circuit board, corresponding information is applied according to the content of the design change. The connection information stored in the storage means of each virtual printed circuit board is modified, and a plurality of virtual prints corresponding to the circuit diagram of each circuit block are created based on the finally determined virtual printed circuit board connection information and component information. 1. A CAD system comprising: data processing means for aggregating circuit board patterns into one printed circuit board pattern.