Method of determining range of change in design, design change range determining apparatus, and design change range determining system

• US 8,108,059 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2007
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Harashima, Ichiro, Nakashima, Keisuke
• Primary Examiner(s): KASENGE, CHARLES R
• Application Number:
  US11/848,310
• Publication Number:
  US 20080077902A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,614 Days
• Field of Search: 700/95, 700/97, 700/98, 700/105, 700/107, 700/182, 703/1, 703/6, 703/13, 716/8, 716/11, 707/1, 707/100, 707/102, 707/103.R, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 700/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/02 CAD in a network environment, e.g. collaborative CAD or distributed simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]

Abstract

A design change range determining apparatus assigns a link between the one and another elements to generate link information table regarding the assigned link, and when the element is specified through an input unit, retrieves link information table to obtain the parent node associated with the specified element, obtains a child node associated with the parent node, and further obtains a child node which is a parent node of the obtain child node; and display the obtained parent nodes and child nodes on a display.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of searching with respect to an element in a design data including a plurality of elements stored in a storage, wherein the design data including information of relation between the elements, the method comprising:

collecting the design data in the storage;

associating one element with another element as either of a parent node or a child node, and one of the elements with an attribute of one of the elements as either of a parent node or a child node on the basis of the relation between the elements in the design data to have a network structure assigning links between the one and another elements, and between the one of the elements and the attribute of one of the elements to generate link information regarding the assigned link, storing the link information in the storage, setting an attribute of a link to each of the links in the link information; and

when the element of which an attribute is to be changed is specified through an input unit,

retrieving link information in the storage to obtain the parent node corresponding to the specified element,

obtaining at least one of child nodes corresponding to the another element, and associated with the parent node, further obtaining a child node corresponding to the attribute of one of the elements; and

displaying the parent node and the child node corresponding to the another element and the child node corresponding to the attribute of one of the elements on a display, so as to determine a range of influence due to a change of a design parameter of an element being narrowed down using the attribute of the link.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the design data comprises at least two of CAD data, BOM data, analysis flow data, and function data.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the attribute of the link is a link strength indicating a strength in relation between the elements for each link.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising, when the parent node and child nodes are displayed on the display, displaying the parent node and the child nodes with emphasized displaying.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising, when the parent node and child nodes are displayed on the display, displaying either of a link between the parent node and child node or a link between the child node and another child node.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the attribute of the link is a link type indicating a type in relation between the elements for each link.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a database that stores a data for a synonym dictionary, searching function data for functions having similar names with the synonym dictionary.

8. A design change range determining apparatus for determining a range of influence due to a change of a design parameter of an element in design data, stored in a storage, including a plurality of elements, the apparatus is configured to effect operations of:

collecting the design data in the storage;

associating one element with another element as either of a parent node or a child node, and associating one of the elements with an attribute of one of the elements as either of a parent node or a child node on the basis of the relation between the elements in the design data, to define associations of the elements and attributes as a network structure;

assigning links between the one and another elements, and between the one of the elements and the attribute of one of the elements to generate link information, storing the link information in the storage, setting an attribute of a link to each of the links in the link information; and

when the element of which an attribute is to be changed is specified through an input unit, retrieving link information in the storage to obtain the parent node corresponding to the specified element,

obtaining at least one of child nodes corresponding to the another element, and associated with the parent node and further obtaining a child node corresponding to the attribute of one of the elements; and

displaying the parent node and the child node corresponding to the another element and the child node corresponding to the attribute of one of the elements on a display, so as to determine a range of influence due to a change of a design parameter of an element being narrowed down using the attribute of the link.

9. The design change range determining apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the design data comprises at least two of CAD data, BOM data, analysis flow data, and function data.

10. The design change range determining apparatus as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a link strength editing unit for setting a link strength indicating a strength in relation between the elements for each link in accordance with either a value entered through the input unit or a predetermined value.

11. The design change range determining apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein when the parent node and child nodes are displayed on the display, the change range determining unit displays the parent node and the child nodes with emphasized displaying.

12. The design change range determining apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein when the parent node and child nodes are displayed on the display, the change range determining unit displays either of a link between the parent node and child node or a link between the child node and another child node.

13. The design change range determining apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the attribute of the link is a link type indicating a type in relation between the elements for each link.

14. The design change range determining apparatus as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a database that stores a data for a synonym dictionary, searching function data for functions having similar names with the synonym dictionary.

15. A design change range determining system comprising:

a design change range determining server for searching with respect to an element in design data, stored in a storage, including a plurality of elements; and

a client for transmitting data of an element of which design parameter is changed, wherein

the design change range determining server is configured to effect operations of;

collecting the design data in the storage;

associating one element with another element as either a parent node or a child node, and associating one of the elements with an attribute of one of the elements as either of a parent node or a child node on the basis of the relation between the elements in the design data, to define associations of the elements and attributes as a network structure;

assigning links between the one and another elements, and between the one of the elements and the attribute of one of the elements to generate link information, storing the link information in the storage, setting an attribute of a link to each of the links in the link information; and

when the element of which an attribute is to be changed is specified through an input unit, retrieving link information in the storage to obtain the parent node corresponding to the specified element,

obtaining at least one of child nodes corresponding to the another element, and associated with the parent node and further obtaining a child node corresponding to the attribute of one of the elements; and

displaying the parent node and the child node corresponding to the another element and the child node corresponding to the attribute of one of the elements on a display, so as to determine a range of influence due to a change of a design parameter of an element being narrowed down using the attribute of the link.

16. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the design data comprises at least two of CAD data, BOM data, analysis flow data, and function data.

17. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein a link strength indicates a strength in relation between the elements for each link is set in accordance with either a value entered through the input unit or a predetermined value.

18. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein when the parent node and child nodes are displayed on the display, the parent node and the child nodes are displayed with emphasized displaying.

19. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein when the parent node and child nodes are displayed on the display, either of a link between the parent node and child node or a link between the child node and another child node is displayed.

20. The system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the attribute of the link is a link type indicating a type in relation between the elements for each link.

21. The system as claimed in claim 15, further comprising a database that stores a data for a synonym dictionary, searching function data for functions having similar names with the synonym dictionary.

22. A computer-implemented method of determining a range that a change of a design parameter of an element in a design data to manufacture a product affects other data components in the design data, the design data including a plurality of elements stored in a storage and including information of relation between the elements, where any attribute of the subject product or part thereof may be taken as a type of element, the method comprising:

collecting the design data in the storage;

associating respective elements and attributes, of the design data, with each other as either of a parent node or a child node, on the basis of the relation between the elements and attributes in the design data, to define associations of the elements and attributes as a network structure;

assigning links between pairs of the elements and attributes, of the design data, to generate link information, and storing the link information in the storage, and setting an attribute of a link to each of the links in the link information; and

when the element of which an attribute is to be changed is specified through an input unit, retrieving link information in the storage to obtain a parent node corresponding to the specified element, and obtain other child nodes and attributes associated from the specified element and from the parent node corresponding to the specified element; and

displaying the parent node, the specified node and the other child nodes and attributes, and highlighting ones of the specified node and the other child nodes and attributes affected by the attribute to be changed specified through the input unit, so as to display a range of influence in the design data due to a change of a design parameter of an element being narrowed down using the attribute of the link.