JPS6146563A - Computer controlled plotter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the drawing time and improve the quality of drawn figures by poviding a controller with a measn, which operates the distances from a reference point and compares them, and a means which exchanges the drawing start position and the drawing end position. CONSTITUTION:A controller 2 performs the conversion processing of a figure information group from a CAD device 1 and outputs it as a drawing information group to a plotter 3. The controller 2 is provided with the means which operates distances from the reference point, the means which compares these distances, and a means which exchanges the drawing start position and the drawing end position, thereby reducing the length of idle running of a plotter head. Further, the length of movement of the plotter head is reduced to shorten the drawing time, and error does not occur to improve the quality of drawn figures by this reduction. That is, the drawing time is shortened, and the quality of drawn figures is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a computer-controlled drawing device. In particular, the present invention relates to a reduction in plotting time and an improvement in image quality using a plotter device.

[Conventional technology]

In recent computer-controlled drawing devices, the CAD device defines, creates, and modifies graphic information, and the control device
The output graphic information of the D device is converted into plotting information, and the plotter device plots the plotter in accordance with the output plotting information of the control device.

In such a computer-controlled plotting device, the time required to plot graphic information from a CAD device on a plotter device, that is, the total plotting time, is determined by the data conversion time and the actual amount required to plot each piece of plotting information. The value is the sum of the drawing time and the idle running time from the end of drawing of one drawing information to the start of drawing of the next drawing information. In other words, there is a relationship: total drawing time = data conversion time + Σactual drawing time + Σidling time.

Therefore, if the mechanical speed of the block device and the amount of drawing data are the same, it is necessary to reduce the data conversion time and idle running time in order to reduce the total drawing time.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, when trying to minimize the data conversion time, the idle running time increases because sufficient data conversion cannot be performed. Furthermore, if complicated data conversion is performed to reduce idle running time, the data conversion time becomes long. In particular, the processor used in the control device is not very fast due to cost considerations, so complex data conversion takes time.

Furthermore, with conventional computer-controlled plotting devices, when the end points of two or more lines coincide, mechanical positioning errors in the plotter device may cause gaps between the end points or multiple lines where the end points overlap. There is a drawback that drawing occurs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and provide a computer-controlled drawing device that takes less time to draw and has good drawing quality.

[Means for solving problems]

A computer-controlled drawing device of the present invention includes a CAD device including means for defining, creating, and modifying graphic information;
In a computer-controlled plotting device comprising a control device including a conversion means for converting output graphic information of the device into plotting information, and a plotter device which plots by inputting the output plotting information of the control device, the control device comprises: A method for calculating the distance from a reference point to a drawing start position and a drawing end position on coordinates, a means for comparing the magnitude of the distance from each reference point calculated by this means, and The present invention is characterized in that it includes means for exchanging the drawing start position and the drawing end position based on the result.

[Effect]

The computer-controlled drawing device of the present invention swaps the drawing start position and drawing end position when the drawing end position of the first figure is closer to the reference point (origin) in the initial state than the drawing start position, and further , if the drawing end position of the i-th figure (i is a natural number of 2 or more) is closer to the drawing end position of the i-1th figure than the drawing start position of the i-th figure, the drawing start position and drawing of the i-th figure are Swap the end position.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer-controlled drawing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

CAD device 1 is connected to control device 2 . The control device 2 is connected to a plotter device 3.

The CAD device 1 defines, creates, and modifies graphic information, and outputs a group of graphic information. The control device 2 converts this graphic information group into a drawing information group. The plotter device 3 performs plotting according to this plotting information group.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the operation of the control device 2. As shown in FIG.

The control device 2 converts the graphic information group from the CAD device 1 and outputs it to the plotter device 3 as a drawing information group. In most cases, the graphic information in - corresponds to the drawing information in -, but one piece of graphic information may correspond to a plurality of pieces of drawing information, and may also include idle running information that does not involve drawing operations. Examples of graphic information include straight lines, arcs, rectangles, flashes, etc., and examples of drawing information include straight lines, arcs, flashes, etc.

For plotting information other than flash plotting, the position of the plotter head of the plotter device 3 changes for each piece of plotting information. In the computer-controlled plotting device of the present invention, the control device 2 executes a process of exchanging the plotting start position and plotting end position of the plotting information group as necessary, thereby reducing the idle running distance of the plotter head. ing.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process for exchanging the drawing start position and the drawing end position.

As an initial state, the reference point (XE, YE) is set as the origin, and i is set to "1".

Next, the drawing start position N (TXS, TY
S) and the drawing end position (TXE, TYE).

This drawing start position (TXS, TYS) and reference point (XE,
YE) distance d.

, the drawing end position (TXE, TYE) and the reference point (XE,
YE) and the distance d2 is determined, and the magnitudes of these values are compared. If the distance d2 is larger than the distance d1, the drawing start position and the drawing end position are not interchanged. In the opposite case, the drawing start position and drawing end position are swapped.

The drawing end position obtained by this is used as the new reference value,
Perform similar processing for the next figure. Repeat this process until the last figure.

Here, shortening of drawing time by the computer-controlled drawing apparatus of this embodiment will be explained.

As a simple example of drawing, a case will be described in which N parallel line segments are drawn at equal intervals r. Here, it is assumed that the length β of the line segment is sufficiently longer than the interval r and the number N is large.

There are three drawing directions included in the graphic information in such a case: (al) all in the same direction, mountain), alternating direction (drawing directions of adjacent line segments are different), and (C) irregular.

In case (a), if the plot is drawn according to the graphic information output by the CAD device 1, it is necessary to move the plotter head to the drawing start position of the next line segment each time one line segment is drawn. . Therefore, a blank running distance is required which is approximately equal to the drawing distance (more precisely, slightly longer), and the moving distance of the block head is 2N-L.

In case (b), there is almost no idle running distance, and the moving distance of the plotter head is NL.

(In the case of C1, assume that the data is the most irregular. In this case, the probability that the drawing direction of one line segment and the next line segment is the same is considered to be 50%. Therefore, a blank running distance of 50% of the distance actually plotted is required, and the moving distance of the plotter head is 1.
5 NL.

On the other hand, in the computer-controlled drawing device of the present invention, the CAD
Regardless of whether the graphic information of the device is (al, (b), or (C)), the same drawing information as in the case (b) is generated.

Therefore, the moving distance of the plotter head is N·L.

When a graphic is created using an actual CAD device, the graphic information is created without being particularly conscious of the drawing direction, so the drawing direction of the graphic information becomes irregular. Therefore, when plotting N parallel line segments as described above, the moving distance of the plotter head is reduced to 1/1.5, or 67%. By reducing the distance traveled by the plotter head, plotting time can also be reduced.

Next, an explanation will be given of improvement in image drawing quality by the computer-controlled drawing device of this embodiment.

Here, an example will be described in which the end point of the first line segment A and the end point of the second line segment B in the graphic information match. In such cases, the position repeatability of the plotter device may be
Since the calculation greatly depends on the distance traveled by the head until it returns, in the conventional calculation af#Jm drawing device, a gap occurs between the end points, or multiple drawings occur where the end points overlap. However, in the computer-controlled drawing apparatus of the present invention, since the end point of the graphic information of the line segment B is converted into the starting point of the drawing information, there is no movement of the block head, and therefore no error occurs.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, with the computer-controlled plotting device of the present invention, it is possible to shorten the plotting time by reducing the idle running distance and time of the plotter head through simple data processing, and to improve the plotting quality. Is possible. The present invention can be easily implemented by simply changing the programming means of the control device, and moreover, great effects can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer-controlled drawing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the operation of the control device. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the process of exchanging the drawing start position and drawing end position. 1...CAD device, 2...Control device, 3...Prosota device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A CAD device including a means for defining, creating and modifying graphic information; A control device including a conversion means for converting graphic information output from this CAD device into drawing information; and inputting drawing information output from this control device. In the computer-controlled plotter device, the control device includes means for calculating distances from a reference point to a plotting start position and a plotting end position on coordinates; A computer-controlled drawing device comprising: means for comparing distances from respective reference points; and means for exchanging a drawing start position and a drawing end position based on the results of the comparison.