JPH0568741B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention is a product information layout device, sometimes used in flyers, catalogs, etc., for product information layout that allocates images, explanatory texts, etc. of products consisting of a plurality of products on each page. Regarding equipment.

[Conventional technology]

When a product is made up of multiple parts, a large number of finished products can be created by changing the combination of the component parts. When displaying such products on flyers, catalogs, etc., it is necessary to allocate a photo, explanatory text, etc. to each product.
Conventionally, when creating such leaflets, catalogs, etc., photographs have been allocated in the following manner.

(1) Replace the parts one by one to produce a large number of finished products, take photos of each one,
Assign this photo.

(2) Take a photo of each part and cut and paste the part photos to create a photo of the finished product.

(3) Draw an illustration and replace it with a photograph.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, the above-mentioned methods all have the problem of requiring a great deal of labor and time. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a product information allocation device that can reduce the labor and time of the operator.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention provides a parts information input device that defines parts constituting a given product, inputs multiple types of parts information for each part, and stores the input parts information for each part. a storage device; a combination specifying device for specifying a combination of parts information such that one part information is extracted for each part from the storage device in order to form information about one product; and a display device for displaying information, and the combination designation device is configured to display information related to the selected types in accordance with a type selection input indicating selection of types of parts constituting the product as a combination of the parts information. A list creation device that generates all combinations, and a combination of predetermined types of parts that make up the above product is permitted,
a combination definition device for setting combination mode regulation conditions that prohibit other combinations; This is a product information layout device characterized by having a function of displaying a list on the same screen of a display device.

[Effect]

Using the apparatus according to the present invention, the operator only needs to input product information for each part. This input product information for each part is held in the storage device. Thereafter, when the operator inputs part combination information according to the products to be allocated, the combination designation device retrieves the necessary parts information from the storage device, and allocates and displays the finished products on the display device.

The combination designation device includes a list creation device and a combination definition device, and in the list creation device, types are selected for some of the plurality of parts constituting the product. Then, for the part whose type is selected, various variations are created by combining various types of other parts with the specified part according to the specification. Furthermore, with this list creation device, these various variations are displayed as a list of variations on the same side of the display device, excluding those that do not meet the combinable conditions defined in the combination definition device. Ru. Therefore, when an operator wants to decide on the type to use for at least one part and look at the others, the operator can see the various variations at a glance by displaying the list.
In addition, since the various variations can be compared with each other, it is easy to make a selection. and,
The variations to be selected are only those that satisfy the conditions set by the combination definition device, so if the combination definition device can set various restrictions such as size and design as necessary, the operator can As a result, there is no need to consider constraints regarding the size, design, etc.

In this way, by using the apparatus according to the present invention, necessary assignments can be made with easy operation and in a short time.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be described below based on illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a product information allocation device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The product information input device 10 is a device for inputting component information for each component defined as a component of a predetermined product. In this embodiment, this part information includes part image data created based on a photograph of the part,
An example using product attribute data consisting of numerical values and signals such as part model and price will be shown. The parts information input device 10 of this apparatus has a color scanner for inputting part image data and a tablet for inputting part attribute data. The data input from this component information input device 10 is stored and saved in the storage device 20. By combining this parts information, information on the finished product can be obtained. In other words, one finished product is determined by one combination. The combination designation device 30 is a device that designates a combination of parts information based on operator input, and when a combination is designated, extracts the designated part information from the storage device 20. When these are combined, product information is formed as a finished product, and this is displayed on the display device 40. In this embodiment, the combination designation device 30 includes a component selection device 31, a list creation device 32, and a combination definition device 33. The parts selection device 31 is a device that specifies one combination selected by the operator, and the list creation device 32 is a device that generates all combinations that satisfy predetermined conditions input by the operator. Further, the combination definition device 33 is a device for defining possible combinations in advance by setting combination mode regulation conditions, which will be described later. Note that in reality, the storage device 20 is a memory inside a computer,
The combination designation device 30 is realized by the input device and software of this computer. Furthermore, as the display device 40, a color display is used in this embodiment.

Next, a procedure for allocating product information to one page of a catalog using the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be explained. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a color display screen as the display device 40. As shown in FIG. This screen includes an allocation area 41, a command area 42, a selection area 43
It consists of three areas, and the operator will proceed with the following operations while looking at this screen. Here, an example using an entrance unit as a product will be explained. The entrance unit as a finished product is
It consists of three parts: door D, sleeve S, and transom R.
The entrance unit is completed by arranging these three parts as shown in Figure 3d.

First, the operator uses the parts information input device 10 to input parts information for each of the three parts, door D, sleeve S, and transom R. In this embodiment, as described above, component image data, that is,
Data of a photographic image of the part is taken into the storage device 20 by a color scanner. Further, the attribute data of the part, ie, the model, price, and dimensions of the part, are loaded into the storage device 20 by the tablet.
This reading by the tablet is performed by sequentially specifying alphanumeric characters displayed on the screen and command area 42 shown in FIG. 2 with a cursor. The photographic image, model number, and
Since the price and dimensions are displayed in the layout area 41 of the screen as shown in FIGS. 3a to 3c, the operator can easily check them. Furthermore, if necessary, the photographic image may be trimmed on this allocation area 41. Figure 3 a, b, and c are door D, sleeve S, and transom R, respectively.
A display example is shown when inputting each part one by one. In this way, several types of doors D, several types of sleeves S,
Part information for several types of transoms R is loaded into the storage device 20.

One entrance unit is completed by extracting arbitrary part information one by one from the parts information imported into the storage device 20 as described above, combining them, and arranging them as shown in FIG. 3d. However, this combination cannot be completely random. In order for the completed entrance unit to function properly,
Certain conditions must be met. Therefore, the operator inputs this condition using the combination definition device 33. For example, if the width of the entrance unit is W and the height is H, and the width and height of each part are indicated by the symbols D, R, and S indicating the parts, with subscripts w and h, then W = Sw + Rw = Sw + Dw , H=Sh=Rh
+Dh condition is required. Therefore, the combination definition device 3 uses these as combination mode regulation conditions.
Enter 3. Further, although it is possible to combine them functionally, there are some combinations that are undesirable when considering the design of the entrance unit. Therefore, such inappropriate combinations, for example,
The prohibition conditions are defined as Di-Rj-Sk (subscripts indicate numbers for each part) and input into the combination definition device 33.

Next, product information is assigned on the screen,
This device allows allocation using two methods. The first allocation method is performed using the component selection device 31. First, by specifying a command in the command area 42 with a cursor, the operator calls up a previously input background image to the allocation area 41, and further specifies an allocation area on this allocation area 41. FIG. 4a shows this state. The house pattern is the background image, and the hatched area is the designated allocation area. Next, the operator makes an input to select a part.
This is done by specifying the cursor within the selection area 43. As shown in FIG. 2, the selection area 43 includes a door selection area 4 in which images of a plurality of doors D imported into the storage device 20 are displayed in a reduced size.
3D, a sleeve selection area 43S in which images of a plurality of sleeves S are displayed in a reduced size, and a transom selection area 43R in which images of a plurality of transoms R are displayed in a reduced size are provided, and the operator, while viewing this reduced display, All you have to do is specify the desired door, sleeve, and transom on the reduced display one by one with the cursor. The combination designation device 30 extracts component information from the storage device 20 based on this designation. In this way, information about one product is formed by combining the extracted part information by selecting one type of each part one by one, and this formed information is displayed on the display device 40. Fourth
Figure b shows this display device. In the allocation area,
The photographic image data of each part is shown combined according to the arrangement rule shown in FIG. 3d, and on the right side of the screen, the model and price of each part are shown combined according to the predetermined arrangement rule. In this example, the model number is a combination of consecutive model character strings for each part, and the price is a combination of the numerical values of the prices of each part added together.
If a hard copy of the screen display as shown in FIG. 4b is made, it can be presented to the customer as is. Note that such combination rules may be defined in advance in the combination designation device 30 by the operator. In addition, if the combination selected by the operator is a prohibited combination defined in the combination definition device 33, measures such as not displaying this combination or displaying it but issuing a warning that it is prohibited are taken. is taken.

The layout method shown in FIG. 2 is performed using the list creation device 32. The list creation device 32 has a function of inputting a predetermined condition from an operator, generating a plurality of combinations that satisfy the condition, and displaying the combinations on the same screen in the allocation area 41. Now, for example, D1 to D8 for the door and S1 to D8 for the sleeve.
It is assumed that the parts information of R1 to R5 for the transom is stored in the storage device 20 up to S4,
If the operator selects D1 only for the door and inputs the condition to display all other combinations, the 20 cells arranged in 4 rows and 5 columns, as shown in Figure 5a, will be displayed. All combinations are displayed. FIG. 5b shows the display state within this one square. The boxes in the 1st to 4th rows have entrance units using S1 to S4 on the sleeves, and the boxes in the 1st to 5th rows have entrance units with R1 to R5 in the transoms, respectively. All units are displayed using D1 on the door. However, prohibited combinations are not displayed. Note that the screen shown in FIG. 5a can also be used as it is as an original for printing one page of a catalog. In this case, further input is required to specify the width of the ruled lines of the table, the color of the lines, the typesetting of the characters in the boxes, etc.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, in the product information allocation device according to the present invention, product information is stored separately for each part, and this information is combined as a list based on various conditions such as part types and restrictions regarding part combinations. Since the layout is displayed, the operator's labor can be reduced and the layout can be done in a short time.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a product information allocation device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a screen of a display device in the device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram similar to that shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen when parts information input work is performed using the device shown in FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of layout using the list creation device in the device shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 10... Parts information input device, 20... Storage device, 30... Combination designation device, 31... Part selection device, 32... List creation device, 33... Combination definition device, 40... Display device, 41 ...allocation area, 42...command area, 43...selection area.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A parts information input device that defines each part constituting a given product and inputs a plurality of types of parts information for each part; a storage device for storing data in 1;
a combination specifying device for specifying a combination of parts information that extracts one part information for each part from the storage device in order to form information about one product; and a display for displaying the formed information. and a device, wherein the combination designation device generates all combinations related to the selected types as combinations of the parts information in accordance with a type selection input indicating selection of types of each part constituting the product. and a combination definition device for setting combination mode regulation conditions that permit combinations of predetermined types of parts constituting the above product and prohibit other combinations; A product characterized in that the creation device has a function of displaying, on the same screen of the display device, a list of combinations that satisfy the combination mode regulation conditions among the plurality of combinations related to the selected type. Information allocation device. 2. The product information allocation device according to claim 1, wherein the component information input device includes a device for inputting image data of the component. 3. Claim 2, wherein the device for inputting image data of a part includes a scanner.
Product information allocation device described in section. 4. Product information according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the parts information input device has a device for inputting data consisting of numerical values and symbols such as part model and price. Allocation device. 5. The product information allocation device according to claim 4, wherein the device for inputting data on parts includes a tablet.