JPH04304565A - Display device for wiring editor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently discover a wiring route between unconnected elements by displaying the direction of the opposite connection party of the unconnected element at the internal part of the endpoint or at the peripheral part of the end point of the unconnected element. CONSTITUTION:The unconnected wire endpoints 3-8 which are not wiring objects are displayed by an arrow, etc., pointing the direction of the connection party element in the neighborhood of the unconnected wire endpoints 3-8 in a conversational wiring editor which displays output data adding the unconnected element from an automatic wiring device in a display device 1 so as to process it. Thus, the complication of a display screen 2 in the display device 1 is dissolved so that a wiring possible area is easily grasped. Furthermore, a pulling-out direction which is profitable to the wiring is clearly expressed in the respective unconnected endpoints 3-8 so that the wiring area which is succeedingly used by another connection wire is predicted as to the area in the neighborhood of the unconnected wire endpoint which is a wiring object at present. Therefore, connection wire can be previously installed by avoiding the wiring area so that the handling time at the time of installing a wiring pattern is reduced.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to means for indicating between unconnected elements in a mounting CAD system for integrated circuits and printed circuit boards.

[0002] In recent years, the number of mounted elements in integrated circuits and printed circuit boards has increased due to the improvement in the degree of integration, and the number of connecting wires has also increased accordingly. Therefore, the wiring density becomes high, and a situation may occur in which existing automatic wiring devices cannot satisfy all connections. In such a case, the unconnected portions are connected by the implementation designer using an interactive wiring editor. At this time, elements that should be connected by wiring, but are not connected in the data (hereinafter referred to as unconnected wires), can be connected graphically so that the operator can recognize them according to the operator's instructions. must be displayed.

0003

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a conventional display device. In FIG. 3, a portion of an integrated circuit or a substrate is displayed on a display screen 22 of a display device 21. In FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, in the conventional interactive wiring editor display, unconnected wires 23 to 28 are connected by curved lines.

[0004] In FIG. 3, for ease of explanation, a part of the normal screen content is enlarged to form a single screen. An actual display screen is more densely populated with unconnected wires and curved lines connecting them. Further, the wiring pattern that has already been routed is also displayed, and in addition, other unconnected wires on the wiring route may also be displayed. In other words, in order to select a route that has as little influence on subsequent wiring as possible, unconnected wires that should be displayed by scrolling the screen may be displayed in an empty area on the same screen without scrolling the screen. be.

[0005]

As described above, in the case of conventional display devices, when handling data with a large number of unconnected wires, a large number of figures showing unconnected wires are generated over a wide range on the display screen. Since necessary unconnected elements interfere with the display of other unconnected elements and are hidden, it becomes difficult to find an empty part of the wiring. However, unless an unconnected display is performed, it is impossible to predict the wiring area near the end point of an unconnected wire that will be used in subsequent wiring, resulting in a drawback that it takes time and effort to rewire later.

The present invention simplifies the display of unconnected wires other than those to be wired, eliminates interference between existing elements and unconnected figures, makes it easier to see already wired elements during wiring, and allows the operator to efficiently An object of the present invention is to provide a display device that allows wiring routes to be found.

[0007]

According to the invention, the above objects are achieved by the means set out in the claims. That is, the present invention provides an interactive wiring editor that displays and processes output data including unconnected elements from an automatic wiring device on a display device, in which the unconnected elements are placed inside or around the end points of the unconnected elements. A display device for a wiring editor comprising means for displaying a direction of a connection partner of a connection element.

[0008]

[Operation] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a display device according to the present invention. In the present invention, the display of unconnected wire end points 3 to 8 that are not targeted for wiring is changed to
The direction of the connected element is displayed near the arrow, etc. This eliminates the complexity of the display screen 2 of the display device 1 and makes it possible to easily grasp the area where wiring is possible.

Furthermore, in the display device according to the present invention, since a lead-out direction that is advantageous for wiring is clearly indicated at the end point of each unconnected wire, the area near the end point of the unconnected wire currently targeted for wiring will be explained in a different manner from now on. Since the wiring area to be used by the connection wire can be predicted, the connection wire can be drawn avoiding the wiring area in advance. Therefore, the effort required when laying the wiring pattern is reduced.

0010

Embodiment FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2(a) shows unconnected wire end points 11-14 using display means according to the invention. Since the four types of unconnected wire end points 11 to 14 are all displayed pointing toward the upper right, it is easy to see that the unconnected wire end points of the corresponding connection partner elements are toward the upper right.

The two unconnected wire end points 11 and 12 on the left side of FIG. 2(a) have indications indicating the direction inside the unconnected wire end points, and the two unconnected wire end points 13 on the right side of FIG. , 14 have markings indicating the direction around the end points of the unconnected wires. In addition to this, for example, a display indicating the opposite direction of the connection direction may also be considered.

FIG. 2(b) is a diagram illustrating the end points of unconnected wires in the opposite direction to the connection direction. It can be seen that the unconnected wire end points 15 and 16 shown in the opposite direction to the connection direction are to be connected later in the vertical direction in the figure. Further, the unconnected wire end points 17 and 18 are connected in the horizontal direction in the figure.

[0013] Here, when connecting the unconnected wire end point 17 and the unconnected wire end point 18, the route indicated by the dotted line indicated by the letter A is normally taken. However, this path cannot be used because it crosses the area that will be used later by the connecting wires at the unconnected wire end points 15 and 16. Therefore, the wiring is performed by taking a route along the direction opposite to the connection direction indicated by the unconnected wire end point 16, that is, a route indicated by the solid line indicated by the alphabetic character B.

By employing the system configuration shown in FIG. 4, unconnected wires can be wired in the following procedure. - Indicate the end point of the unconnected wire on the graphic display 30 with the mouse cursor 29 as the starting point of the wiring. - Indicate the unwired position as the passing point of the wiring pattern. A straight wiring pattern connecting the points is registered on the mounting design data and immediately displayed on the graphic display 30 ■Repeat ■ unless the specified point is the end of an unconnected wire ■ Unconnected The connection is usually completed by wiring the wires.
Before (2), the operator activates the unconnected wire display command in order to determine the unconnected wires to be routed. The unconnected wire display command allows the operator to specify the unconnected wire to be displayed, and graphically displays the unconnected wire end points shown in FIG. 1 for the specified unconnected wire. Thereafter, at the stage ■ or ■, the operator activates the connection direction display function 41 as necessary. The connection direction display function 41 is
The operator is requested to specify a rectangular area, and connection directions as shown in FIG. 1 are displayed for unconnected wire end points within the specified area, excluding those for which unconnected wires have already been displayed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a system configuration according to the implementation of the present invention. FIG. 4(a) is a hardware configuration diagram. The processing device 31 has two built-in hard disks 33 as auxiliary storage devices 32 . Here, logical design data, implementation design data, OS, interactive wiring editor, etc. are stored. The graphic display 30 displays character information and graphic information. The keyboard 34 is used to input characters and other information to the OS and wiring editor. When the operator moves the mouse 35 on a desk or the like, movement information is digitized and transmitted to the processing device 31. In addition, the mouse 35 is equipped with two buttons.
At the same time as the movement information, the button press information is sent to the processing device 3.
1. Since the OS or the like reflects numerical information from the mouse 35 on the position information of the mouse cursor 29 on the screen at any time, the operator can move the mouse cursor 29 by moving the mouse 35 on the desk.

FIG. 4(b) is a diagram showing an example of a system block configuration related to the wiring editor. The wiring editor 39 has an unwired connection display function 40 and a connection direction display function 41 as internal commands. The graphic display processing section 39 is called by the wiring editor and displays a graphic on the graphic display 30 of FIG. 4(a). The operator issues a command to the OS 37 using the keyboard 34 or mouse 35 shown in FIG. 4(a) and starts the wiring editor 39. At this time, if a serious error is detected, a system call 36 is activated. The CAD data of the printed circuit board to be wired is
The data is read out from the hard disk 33 in FIG. 4(a), converted into a graphical display by the wiring editor 39 and the graphical display processing unit 38, and displayed on the graphical display 30 in FIG. 4(a). Wiring editor commands are activated by moving the mouse cursor 29 to a distinct area displayed on the screen of the graphic display 30 in FIG. 4(a) and pressing the button of the mouse 35. . Here, the unwired connection display function 40 and the connection direction display function 41 are realized as internal commands of the wiring editor 39.

[0017]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, the interference between each wiring element and the unconnected wires, which tend to be complicated on the display screen, is significantly reduced, so that the wiring target can be understood. It becomes easier. Therefore, it has the advantage that it greatly contributes to improving the efficiency of manual wiring work.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a conventional display device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a system configuration according to the implementation of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 21 Display devices 2, 22 Display screens 3 to 8, 11 to 18, 23 to 28 Unconnected wire end points 29 Mouse cursor 30 Graphic display 31 Processing device 32 Auxiliary storage device 33 Hard disk 34 Keyboard 35 Mouse 36 System call 37 OS 38 Graphic display processing unit 39 Wiring editor 40 Unwired connection display function 41 Connection direction display function

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an interactive wiring editor that displays and processes output data including unconnected elements from an automatic wiring device on a display device, the unconnected elements are placed inside or around the end points of the unconnected elements. A display device for a wiring editor, comprising means for displaying a direction of a connection partner of an element.