JPH03250265A - Method and device for supporting wiring design - 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] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a wiring design support method and device using a CAD system, etc., and is particularly suitable for making screen display easier to see when designing complicated wiring. The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for supporting IIA design.

[Conventional technology] When designing wiring patterns for LSIs and printed circuit boards,
Nowadays, CAD systems are used to design wiring patterns while drawing them on a screen such as a CRT.

FIG. 7(a) is an explanatory diagram of adding wiring in conventional wiring design. It is assumed that existing wiring 5.6 is drawn along the wiring grid 1. The existing wiring 6 is a line drawn on the first layer,
The existing wiring 5 is a line drawn to the second layer, and both are connected by a through hole 7. Now, a case will be described in which a connection 11A4 connected to g5 already described in the second layer is added to the first layer.

The designer is.

By specifying the connection start point 2 of the wire 4 with a pointing device such as a mouse or stylus pen, and then specifying the end point 3, a line 4 is drawn connecting both points 2 and 3, and the wire 5 and wire 4 are connected. A connecting through hole 7a is added. In this case, if the starting point 2 is specified on the existing wiring 5, this existing wiring a5 will be divided into line segments 5a and 5b. The line segment 5b is a wiring necessary to connect the additional wiring 4 and the existing wiring 6, but the line segment 5a is an unnecessary wiring because it is a redundant wiring that is not connected to anything other than the starting point 2. Conventionally, the existence of such surplus wiring itself is not a violation of the wiring rules, so it is necessary for the designer to delete the surplus wiring after designing the wiring pattern.

In addition, when specifying the starting point 2 and the ending point 3, it is practically impossible to specify them without shifting on the grid point, so when specifying within a certain range from the grid point, the conventional technology specifies that grid point. There is Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-244113 as a technique for correcting the line connecting the starting point 2 and the ending point 3 so that it follows the wiring grid when it is oblique to the wiring grid. Design system H
ICAD/LOGJ (Document number 8090-7-048)
However, since these techniques are not directly related to the present invention, further explanation will be omitted.

FIG. 7(b) is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example in which wiring is added in the same direction as the existing wiring 6. If you try to add a wiring in the same direction as the existing wiring 6 and specify the starting point 2 of the additional wiring and then specify the ending point 3, if the starting point 2 is not at the end of the existing wiring 6 but inside the ending as shown in the diagram. , part 6 that overlaps with the wiring
Since a appears, it is a violation of the wiring rules. In this case, this entire additional wiring violates the wiring rules, and after canceling the previous designation, it is necessary to start over from designating the starting point 2.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a screen display when the additional wiring violates the wiring rules. Broken in the diagram! 4d is the additional wiring that violates the wiring rules. In the conventional case, all the additional routes of this additional wiring 4d are displayed, a violation mark 4e is displayed in all the areas where the additional wiring 4d is violated, and furthermore, an example of text usually provided at the bottom of the screen is displayed. Error messages such as the reason for the violation and countermeasures are displayed in the display area 4f.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the above-mentioned conventional technology, when an additional wiring is connected in the middle of an existing wiring (this includes a case in which a second additional wiring is connected in the middle of a first additional wiring). (in this case, the first additional wiring is referred to as an existing wiring), the occurrence of the above-mentioned surplus wiring cannot be avoided. In the conventional case, these surplus wirings were checked one by one and unnecessary surplus wirings were deleted. This is because even if the other end side is free and appears to be surplus wiring, it may be necessary wiring.

However, in recent years, as multi-layer wiring printed circuit boards such as 6 or 8 layers have become common, or as the degree of integration such as VLSI has increased, it has become necessary to design complex and dense wiring patterns. When this happens, the number of surplus wires that must be deleted becomes enormous, and many surplus wires are forgotten to be deleted. The remaining surplus wiring is found to be in violation of the wiring rules by checking the wiring rules using the batch method, but the problem is that the wiring design process must be returned to and deleted, which increases design man-hours. There is.

Also, when designing wiring while looking at wiring patterns in a wide area at once, each wiring pattern becomes smaller (wiring grid spacing becomes narrower), and if a continuous wiring in the same direction is added to the existing wiring, As explained in Figure (b), it is difficult to specify the end points of existing wiring, and there are many cases where wiring rules are violated. In this case, it is necessary to enlarge the screen display and repeat the wiring addition process again, which increases the design time.

Furthermore, as shown in Figure 8, if a wiring pattern that violates the rules is displayed over other wiring patterns or patterns such as through holes or wiring prohibited areas, the line color and line type (solid line , dashed line.

Even if the patterns (such as chain lines) or the thickness of the lines are changed, it is difficult to distinguish these patterns with the naked eye, and there is a problem that it becomes difficult to correct them again. Furthermore, in the conventional case, in order to easily find locations where wiring rules are violated, violating wiring patterns, violation marks, etc. are highlighted in a large and conspicuous color. However, if the wiring rule violation area covers a wide area, only the violation area becomes conspicuous.
This causes problems in that the wiring pattern becomes difficult to see and wiring correction becomes difficult. Furthermore, with the conventional technology that displays error messages in a character string display area provided at the bottom of the screen, when multiple error messages are displayed, it is difficult to tell which violation the error message is for. Since there is a limit to the number of characters that can be displayed in the display area, there is a problem that the number of violations and the number of error messages do not correspond one-to-one, and the error messages are not very useful.

Each of the above problems, which did not pose much of a problem in the past,
This problem has arisen as the number of printed circuit boards has increased and the degree of integration of LSI has increased, and in view of the technological trends toward multilayering and higher integration, it is necessary to solve the above problems. That cannot be avoided.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a wiring design support method and an apparatus therefor that allow easy viewing of a display screen and facilitate the design of wiring patterns in a short time.

[Means to solve the problem] The above purposes are wiring terminal information and inter-terminal wiring information.

In a wiring design support method in which wiring rule information is retrieved from a storage device storing wiring rule information and displayed to support wiring pattern design, when adding a wiring using an existing wiring as an end point, the above information specified with a pointing device is used. If the end of the existing wiring divided at the end point is not connected to any wiring terminal or other wiring route, and the length to that end is less than the threshold, the part with the length less than the threshold is This is achieved by automatic deletion (inventions described in claims 1 and 6).

The above objective can also be achieved by immediately checking the additional wiring using wiring rule information when a wiring is added, and in case of violation of the rules, displaying the entire route of the additional wiring by shifting it from the added position. (The invention according to claims 2 and 7).

The above purpose is also to immediately check the added wiring using the wiring rule information when a wiring is added, and if it violates the rules, only one symbol indicating violation of the rules is displayed for each wiring that violates the rules. , is achieved (inventions according to claims 3 and 8).

The above purpose is also This is achieved by immediately checking the added wiring using the wiring rule information when a wiring is added, and if it violates the rules, displaying a character string indicating the reason for the violation, countermeasures, etc. near the violating wiring. (Invention according to claims 4 and 9).

The above purpose can also be achieved by displaying an error message only for the first added wire among those wires that violate the rules, when multiple wires are added and there are multiple additional wires that violate the wiring rules. (Invention according to claim 5, 1.0).

The above purpose is also to automatically delete the dividing line of the existing wiring, which is divided at the end point and whose other end is not connected to anything, when adding a wiring parallel to the existing wiring with the end point on the existing wiring. Achieved (invention according to claim 11.12)
.

[Operation] In the invention described in claims 1 and 6, short dividing lines below the threshold are deleted as surplus wiring, and long dividing lines are not deleted because they are highly likely to be necessary wiring, so the display screen of the wiring pattern is enlarged. The number of operations such as , shrinking, moving, etc. is greatly reduced, and wiring design can be done quickly and easily. In addition, the surplus wiring in the overlapping line portion explained in Fig. 7(b) is automatically deleted, so even if a wiring rule violation occurs before deletion, the violation will be resolved as a result of deletion, reducing the trouble of making corrections. (The same applies to the invention described in claims 11 and 12).

In inventions other than the above, it becomes easier to see correspondence with illegal wiring patterns and error messages on the screen on which complicated wiring patterns are displayed, making it easier to design.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a wiring design support device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The wiring design support device includes a display device 21 such as a CRT, an input device i22 such as a keyboard and a mouse, and a wiring pattern It consists of a display system 24 and two storage devices 23. In the storage device 23, wiring terminal information,
Wiring information between terminals.

Wiring prohibition information, wiring rule information, etc. are stored.

The wiring pattern system 24 includes a wiring route correction function 25, an unnecessary wiring route deletion function 26, and a wiring rule violation pattern display function 27.

Before the operator makes the correction, the storage device w23 retrieves information on the detailed pattern of the wiring route to be corrected and displays it on the display device 21. While looking at this display screen, the operator selects the starting point 2 of the wiring route to be added from the input device 22.
and end point 3. Based on this, the wiring route correction function 25 in the wiring pattern display system 24 operates to correct the added wiring route on the wiring grid. At this time, the unnecessary wiring route deletion function 26 operates to delete a part of the unnecessary existing wiring, as will be described in detail later.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the intersecting relationship of wiring routes drawn on the wiring grid, where solid line segment 8 is already wired, broken, $I9
is additional wiring. The wiring grid is on the X axis.

Since it is parallel to the Y axis, the wiring route is also parallel to the X and Y axes. Therefore, the intersecting relationships of the wiring routes are shown in (a) to (Q) in Figure 4.
), there are 12 ways.

(a) The existing wiring 8 and the additional wiring 9 have no connection relationship.

(b) The additional wiring 9 is parallel to the existing wiring 8 and contacts the existing wiring 8 at the end point.

(C) A portion of the additional wiring 9 overlaps with the existing wiring 8.

(d) The additional wiring 9 is included in the existing wiring 8 and has one end point the same.

(e) Additional wiring 9 is included in existing wiring 8 and the end points are not the same.

(f) The additional wiring 9 and the existing wiring 8 are completely the same.

(g) The additional wiring 9 includes the existing wiring 8, and one end point is the same.

(h) The additional wiring 11A9 includes the existing wiring 8, and the @ points are not the same.

(i) The additional wiring 9 is perpendicular to the existing wiring 8 and touches each other at their end points.

(j) The additional wiring 9 is perpendicular to the existing wiring 8, and the end points of the existing wiring 8 are on the route excluding the end points of the additional wiring 9.

(k) The additional wiring 9 is perpendicular to the existing wiring 8, and the end point of the additional wiring 9 is on a route excluding the end point of the existing wiring 8.

(i2) The additional wiring 9 and the existing wiring 8 are orthogonal.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2(a),
When wiring 4 is added to , among the dividing lines of the existing wiring 5 that are divided at the connection end point 2 of the wiring 4, the other end of the dividing line is not connected to anything and the length is less than the threshold length. is automatically deleted when the wiring 4 is added (deleted from the wiring route information in the storage device 23 and also deleted from the display).

Further, as shown in FIG. 2(b), when adding a wiring 4 parallel to the existing wiring 6 and having its end point 2 on the existing wiring route, a part of the existing IIA 6 in the overlapping part is added to the wiring 1IJ4. Delete at the same time as adding. According to the wiring rules in this embodiment, if a part of the wiring overlaps as shown in FIG. 2(b), it is a violation of the rules, but as a result of deleting the violating part at the same time as wiring 4 is added, the violation of the rules is resolved. It turns out.

Next, details of the above-mentioned wiring correction procedure will be explained according to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the support device reads the existing wiring data in the correction range specified by the operator, reads the corresponding data from the storage device, and displays it on the display screen.

Then, it waits for operator input. The operator is
When adding and modifying wiring, the starting point and ending point are input, so the support device calculates the additional wiring route from the starting point and ending point, and also calculates the route of the existing wiring that is divided at the starting point or ending point of the additional wiring. Find split wiring. Then, a wiring rule check is immediately performed on the additional wiring.

Figure 4 (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (h
), (U), it is determined that there is an error in this wiring rule check. In this case,
Next, it is determined whether the error occurred because the divided wiring was included in the additional wiring.

In the cases shown in FIG. 4(d), (e), (h), and (Q), it cannot be said that the wiring is "included," and therefore the wiring rules are violated. If there are intersecting relationships as shown in FIGS. 4(c), (f), and (g), the divided wiring is included in the additional wiring, so a deletion flag is set for the divided wiring in the next step.

Figure 4 (a) t (b) , (j) , (j) , (k
), the determination result of the wiring rule check will be that there is no error. If there is no error, then it is determined whether there is a split wiring that is not connected to any wiring terminal or wiring route and whose length is less than the threshold value.

The judgment results are shown in Figure 4 (a), (b), (i)
In the case of +(j), it becomes rNoJ, and in the case of FIG. 4(k), it becomes rYesJ. If the determination result is Yes, a deletion flag is set in the same manner as described above. If the determination result is No or if the deletion flag is set, then a through hole to be added is determined from the wiring route to be added.

When an additional through hole is determined, a wiring rule check is immediately performed on the additional through hole, and then it is determined whether or not there is an error in this check. If there is no error, the divided wiring for which the deletion flag is set will be deleted in the first step.
, (f), and (g) are deleted, and the surplus wiring with free end points in (k) of the same figure is deleted. ), the additional wiring route is stored in the storage device and displayed on the screen, the additional through-hole data is stored in the storage device and displayed on the screen, and this process ends.

If there is an intersecting relationship shown in FIG. 4(d), (e), (h), or (Q), or if there is an error in the additional through hole.

It is necessary to clearly display to the operator that there is an error. Therefore, first, all of the additional wiring routes are displayed as wiring rule violation patterns shifted from the added positions.

A display example is shown in FIG. Then, one representative location of violation of the wiring route is displayed for each wiring route. That is, only one violation mark 4b is displayed for each violation location. In addition, Figure 5 (a) is an example of display when there is only one violation location.
FIG. 5(b) is an example of display when there are multiple violation locations. Next, if there are multiple violating locations, an error message 4C is displayed near the wiring added earliest among the violating locations, and the process ends. The error message 4C is displayed, for example, with a display reference point set on the right side of the violation mark 4b indicating the rule violation pattern.

Next, details of this error display will be explained. When a wiring rule check is performed on the additional wiring route and a rule violation is found, the wiring rule violation pattern display function 27 shown in FIG. 3 shifts the rule violation pattern from the additional position and displays it with a broken line as described above. , the display coordinate position of the rule violation pattern is calculated from the following equation.

RX=FLOAT (IX)+0.2 RY=FLOAT (IY)+0.2 Here, (IX, IY) are the integer coordinate values of the input point, and (RX, RY) are the coordinate values converted to the display coordinate system. The second real coordinate value is 9, that is, as shown in FIG. 5, the rule violation pattern 4a is displayed shifted by 0.2 with respect to the wiring grid.

In this embodiment, the violation mark 4b is displayed at a point to the right of the leftmost point by l lattice valve if the rule violation pattern path is parallel to the X-axis. If it is parallel to the Y axis, it is displayed at a point one grid point above the bottom point.

The above is the details of the wiring design support method according to the embodiment of the present invention.The method for determining the 6-intersection relationship and which part to delete in the case of what kind of intersection relationship are determined depending on the design target to which the present invention is applied. Bye. Next, FIG. 6(a) shows an example of an algorithm for examining intersection relationships.

(b) and an example of the deletion algorithm are shown in FIG. 6(c) for reference.

The algorithms illustrated in FIGS. 6(a) and (b) are written in Fortran, and the intersection relationships (a) to (R
) are each expressed as a numerical value from 0 to 11. Also, set the starting point of the existing wiring to (KX2.KY2) and the ending point to (KX3.KY3).
, However, KX2≦KX3. KY2≦KY3, and the starting point of the additional wiring route is (IX2°IY2) and the ending point is (IX3.
IY3), however, if X2≦IX3. IY2≦IY3. In this algorithm, all variables are integers.

By executing this algorithm on all the newly added wiring paths including the existing wiring divided into two and all existing wiring in the vicinity thereof and checking the value of KOUSA, the intersection relationship can be determined. In this algorithm, all the wiring routes to be added other than the additional wiring route to be investigated are treated as if they were already wired.

Also in the deletion algorithm shown in FIG. 6(C), all variables are integers. ERRCD is an error code,
If the value is O, it indicates normal completion, and if it is 1, it indicates an error. LIMIT is a threshold, and if the length is longer than this, the divided wiring will not be deleted. If it's short, delete it. Here, the threshold value is set to 1o grid length, but this value can be freely set by the operator. Also, DELE
TE has a function to delete the wiring route specified by the argument in the subroutine. This is a flag indicating that the wiring route is other than that.

In this algorithm, 1 judgment (1) is shown in Fig. 4(f),
This is the process (g), in which existing wiring that overlaps the additional wiring route is deleted. Judgment (2) is the process shown in FIG. 4(c), in which the split wiring that overlaps the additional wiring route is deleted. Judgment (3)
is the process shown in FIG. 4(k).

Delete split wiring with a length less than LIMIT.

Judgment (4) is shown in Figure 4 (d), (e), (h)
, (Q), and such intersecting relationships cannot be processed, so the addition of the wiring route is invalidated.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, the display screen is easy to see, and wiring patterns can be easily designed in a short time.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1(a), (b), and (e) are flowcharts showing the processing procedure of a wiring design support device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2(a) and (b) are shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating deletion of surplus wiring according to a processing procedure; FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a wiring design support device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4(a)
, (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g),
(h), (i), l). (k) and (Q) are diagrams showing the intersecting relationship between existing wiring and additional wiring, Figures 5 (a) and (b) are error display screen diagrams according to an embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 6 (a). , (b) is an explanatory diagram of the intersection relationship determination algorithm, FIG. 6(c) is an explanatory diagram of the deletion algorithm, FIGS. 7(a) and (b) are explanatory diagrams of problems in the conventional technology, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram of an error display screen according to the technology. 4a... Rule violation pattern, 4b... Violation mark,
4c...Error message, 21...Display device, 22
...Input device, 23...Storage device, 24...Wiring pattern display system, 25...Wiring route correction function, 2
6...Unnecessary wiring route deletion function, 27...Wiring rule violation pattern display function.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a wiring design support method for supporting the design of a wiring pattern by extracting and displaying information from a storage device storing wiring terminal information, inter-terminal wiring information, and wiring rule information, When adding wiring with the upper end as the end point, the end of the existing wiring divided at the end point specified with the pointing device is not connected to any wiring terminal or other wiring route, and the length to that end is A wiring design support method characterized in that when the length is less than a threshold value, a portion having a length less than the threshold value is automatically deleted. 2. In a wiring design support method in which wiring terminal information, inter-terminal wiring information, and wiring rule information are retrieved from a storage device that stores these information and displayed to support wiring pattern design, when wiring is added, the additional wiring The wiring design support method is characterized in that the wiring rule information is used to immediately check the rules, and if the rules are violated, all of the additional wiring routes are shifted from the additional position and displayed. 3. In a wiring design support method in which wiring terminal information, inter-terminal wiring information, and wiring rule information are retrieved from a storage device that stores these information and displayed to support wiring pattern design, when wiring is added, the additional wiring A wiring design support method characterized in that a check is immediately performed using the wiring rule information, and in the case of a violation of the rules, only one symbol indicating violation of the rules is displayed for each wiring that violates the rules. 4. In a wiring design support method in which wiring terminal information, inter-terminal wiring information, and wiring rule information are retrieved from a storage device that stores these information and displayed to support wiring pattern design, when wiring is added, the additional wiring A wiring design support method characterized in that a check is immediately performed using the wiring rule information, and in the case of a rule violation, a character string representing the reason for the violation, countermeasures, etc. is displayed near the violating wiring. 5. In a wiring design support method in which wiring terminal information, inter-terminal wiring information, and wiring rule information are retrieved from a storage device that stores these information and displayed to support wiring pattern design, multiple wirings are added and wiring rules are added. A wiring design support method characterized by displaying an error message only for the first added wiring among those wirings that violate the rules, when there are multiple additional wirings that violate the rules. 6. In a wiring design support device that extracts and displays wiring terminal information, wiring information between terminals, and wiring rule information from a storage device that stores these information to support the design of wiring patterns, wiring is performed using existing wiring as connection points. means for checking whether each of the end points of the existing wiring that is divided at the connection point specified by a pointing device is connected to a wiring terminal or another wiring route when a wiring is added; means for determining, when the means determines that there is an end point that is not connected, whether or not the length of the dividing line between the end point and the connection point is equal to or less than a threshold; and the determining means A wiring design support device comprising means for automatically erasing the dividing line when it is determined that the dividing line is below a threshold value. 7. In a wiring design support device that retrieves wiring terminal information, inter-terminal wiring information, and wiring rule information from a storage device that stores these information and displays them to support the design of wiring patterns, when wiring is added. A wiring design support device comprising means for immediately checking wiring using the wiring rule information, and means for displaying all routes of the additional wiring shifted from the additional position in the case of violation of the rules. . 8. In a wiring design support device that retrieves wiring terminal information, inter-terminal wiring information, and wiring rule information from a storage device that stores these information and displays them to support the design of wiring patterns, when wiring is added. The wiring is characterized by comprising means for immediately checking the wiring using the wiring rule information, and means for displaying only one symbol indicating violation of the rules for each rule-violating wiring in the case of violation of the rules. Design support equipment. 9. In a wiring design support device that retrieves wiring terminal information, inter-terminal wiring information, and wiring rule information from a storage device that stores these information and displays them to support the design of wiring patterns, when wiring is added. The present invention is characterized by comprising means for immediately checking the wiring using the wiring rule information, and means for displaying a character string representing the reason for the violation, countermeasures, etc. in the vicinity of the violating wiring in the case of violation of the rules. Wiring design support device. 10. In a wiring design support device that retrieves and displays wiring terminal information, wiring information between terminals, and wiring rule information from a storage device that stores these information to support the design of wiring patterns, multiple wirings are added and the wiring rules are updated. A wiring design support device characterized by comprising means for displaying an error message only for the first added wiring among these rule-violating wirings when there are a plurality of additional wirings that violate the rules. 11. In a wiring design support method that retrieves and displays wiring terminal information, inter-terminal wiring information, and wiring rule information from a storage device storing these information to support the design of a wiring pattern, A wiring design support method characterized in that, when adding a wiring parallel to a wiring, a dividing line of the existing wiring that is divided at the end point and whose other end is not connected anywhere is automatically deleted. 12. In a wiring design support device that retrieves and displays wiring terminal information, inter-terminal wiring information, and wiring rule information from a storage device that stores these information to support the design of a wiring pattern, A wiring design support device characterized by comprising means for automatically erasing a dividing line of the existing wiring which is divided at the end point and whose other end is not connected to anywhere when a wiring parallel to the wiring is added.