JP2000231577A - Part layout device and its method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a part layout device for examining the layout of parts in the initial stage of substrate design by operating processing for filling parts in a designated area on a substrate based on the result of the layout of parts and the condition of the layout of parts, and outputting the processed result as the result of layout. SOLUTION: A substrate specification examination processing part 2 examines whether or not parts can be arranged on a prescribed substrate based on a condition including a substrate size, and transmits the result as a specification examined result to a designated condition arranging part 3. A designated condition arranging part 3 transmits the obtained result of layout to a part filling processing part 4. The part filling processing part 4 receives the result of layout, and operates processing for filling the parts in a designated area while fulfilling the applied layout condition. This processed result is outputted as the result of layout from an automatic arranging part 1. Therefore, the efficiency of the whole part layout design and the high speed execution of the part layout can be attained by dividing the layout work.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a component placement apparatus and a component placement method for supporting a layout design of a printed circuit board design process, and more particularly to a component placement apparatus and a component placement for shortening the design period and design time. It is about the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, board component placement support CAD (computer aided design) has been used as a board component placement support tool.
In addition, various methods have been proposed for supporting a layout design of a printed circuit board design process. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-198425 discloses a circuit board design support method and a circuit board design support system for determining a design rule of a printed circuit board.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 153 discloses an arrangement processing method of a block which is an arrangement unit of an LSI or the like.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a circuit board design support method and system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-198425. As shown in the figure, the board design rule determination system 140 includes a board circuit block arrangement control unit 136, a board design rule calculation processing unit 137, a manufacturing availability determination processing unit 138, and a board design rule information output unit 13.
Consists of nine.

This board design rule determination system 140
Is based on the shape and area of the board determined by the mechanism design system 133 and the information (information on each circuit block) designed by the circuit design system 134 from the component management system 135 to construct a circuit. Get information. As a result, board design rule information 141 for determining a wiring position for connecting each component on the printed board is obtained.

FIG. 15 shows a configuration and a processing flow of a block arrangement processing method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-213153. As shown in the figure, the block arrangement processing method includes a virtual signal line connection process 143, a connection information output process 144, and a block arrangement process 145. In the virtual signal line connection process 143, logical connection information indicating a logical connection relationship between the block to be arranged and another block, and a virtual connection (designated by reference numeral 142 in the figure) between the designed circuit blocks are input. You.

The virtual signal line connection process 143 includes:
Wiring length of critical path, which is a net between blocks spanning a plurality of blocks, connection between the connection line in the designed circuit block when weighting the virtual signal line and the virtual connection line between externally defined blocks Perform processing.

[0007] The connection information output process 144 selects one virtual signal line, and weights the virtual signal line according to a predetermined evaluation function as necessary. Then, the block arrangement process 145 performs the initial arrangement and the improved arrangement, that is, performs the block arrangement processing based on the logical connection information.

FIG. 16 is a functional block diagram relating to an automatic component placement function attached to a conventional board design CAD.
When automatic component placement is performed by this board design CAD, net data 1 output from a circuit design system (not shown)
14 and the Manhattan length of the weighted net data 146 based on only the high-speed circuit design rules 148 attached to the net data without considering the manufacturing conditions of the substrate, layout restrictions, and the like. Is determined so that is minimized (reference numeral 147 in the figure).

[0009]

However, in order to use the above-mentioned conventional board component placement support tool, it is premised that the specification of an apparatus or the like related to the board has already been determined. I have. That is, in the actual design process, in most cases, the board design specifications such as the board size, the wiring rules, and the wiring hierarchy are not optimized at the start of the board design. Since it is necessary to perform the method based on a method or the like, there is a problem that this board component placement support tool cannot be used in the early stage of design.

In addition, due to the recent miniaturization of equipment, high-density component arrangement is required even on a substrate, and it is necessary to study component arrangement accordingly. When using, all CAD parts and connection information need to be completed. For this reason,
Layout design support CA when developing a new board
If there are no D parts, or if the circuit diagram and net data are incomplete during the circuit design, the layout will be examined.
There is a problem that design study is delayed.

Furthermore, the conventional rules for automatic component placement attached to the above-mentioned board design CAD do not take into account information such as conditions for manufacturing the board and component placement surfaces, and the automatic placement is performed collectively. And only the final result is output. For this reason, when any problem occurs, there is an inconvenience that it is not known under which condition the problem has occurred. In addition, when the conventional rules for automatic component placement are followed, the designer checks all the component placement positions, corrects the component placement position in consideration of the conditions for manufacturing the board, the component placement surface, etc. It is necessary to modify the arrangement surface.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method for designing an unfinished circuit diagram or block diagram at an early stage of board design. An object of the present invention is to provide a component arranging apparatus and a component arranging method capable of examining the arrangement of components in consideration of a substrate size, conditions for manufacturing a substrate, and the like.

[0013]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component arranging apparatus for arranging components on a substrate, comprising: means for storing a plurality of component arranging conditions in advance; Determining means for determining whether or not the component can be arranged on the board based on a condition; arranging means for arranging the component based on a result of the determination and the component arranging condition; Based on the placement result and the component placement conditions, a stuffing unit that performs a process for stuffing the component in the designated area on the board, and the processing result by the stuffing unit is used as a final placement result. Provide a component placement device for outputting.

According to the second aspect, the determining means, the arranging means, and the stuffing means determine the determination result,
As a result of the above arrangement, there is provided a component placement apparatus having means for individually outputting each of the packing results to the outside of the component placement apparatus.

According to the third invention, the component placement conditions include a board size, a component proximity condition, a placement order condition, a placement area, a placement prohibited area, a virtual connection line, a mechanism condition, a manufacturing condition, and net data. A high-speed circuit design rule is included, and the arranging means uses these conditions as designated conditions to provide a component arranging apparatus for arranging the components for each designated condition.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component arranging apparatus for arranging the components so that the arranging means can comply with the arranging conditions other than the board size among the component arranging conditions. Further, a fifth invention provides a component placement apparatus further comprising means for giving a priority order of the specified condition.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is further provided a means for storing in advance error information and past countermeasure data relating to the arrangement of the parts, and the error information and the past countermeasures when the arrangement means determines that the parts cannot be arranged. Means for generating information corresponding to a situation in which parts cannot be placed based on data.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is further provided a means for extracting a part position from an unfinished circuit diagram at a design stage, a means for extracting a block position from an unfinished block diagram at a design stage, And a means for generating virtual connection line data for making a connection between these components and the block based on the positions of the extracted components and blocks.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is further provided a first database in which the shape of a part is stored in advance as information, and a second database in which information for estimating the shape of the part based on the feature of the part is stored. If there is a corresponding part in the database and the first database, the size of the part is used as the size of the used part. If there is no corresponding part in the first database, the size in the second database is used. Means for outputting, as a virtual component size, the size of the component estimated based on the information.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is further provided a means for extracting a position of a component from an unfinished circuit diagram at a design stage, a means for extracting a block position from an unfinished block diagram at a design stage, Means for generating virtual connection line data for connecting these components and blocks based on the positions of the extracted components and blocks; a first database in which the shapes of the components are stored in advance as information; And a second database storing information for estimating the shape of the part, and if there is a corresponding part in the first database, the size of the part is used as the size of the used part; If there is no corresponding part in the first database, means for outputting the size of the part estimated based on the information in the second database as a virtual part size; Means for calculating the total area of the component from the virtual connection line data and the virtual component size; means for calculating the required board area from the total area and the board specification data stored in advance; and specifying the board area Means for estimating the substrate shape from the determined substrate size.

According to a tenth aspect, there is further provided a component placement apparatus including means for calculating a board area short of the placement when components cannot be placed within the board area.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the component arranging method for arranging components on a board, it is determined whether or not the components can be arranged on the board based on a plurality of component arranging conditions stored in advance. A determining step of determining whether or not the component is to be placed based on the result of the determination and the component placement condition; and a placement step of placing the component on the board based on the result of the placement and the component placement condition. There is provided a component arranging method including a stuffing step of stuffing a part in a designated area and a step of outputting a processing result of the stuffing step as a final arranging result.

[0023]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiment 1 FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the component placement system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The system shown in FIG. 1 is a system that executes a plurality of processes for component placement in a stepwise manner, which will be described later, and is an automatic system including a board specification examination processing unit 2, a designated condition placement unit 3, and a component packing unit 4. It comprises an arrangement unit 1 and an arrangement condition setting unit 5 for storing various arrangement conditions also described later.

The placement condition setting section 5 stores placement conditions such as component proximity conditions, placement order conditions, placement areas, placement prohibited areas, virtual connection lines, mechanism conditions, manufacturing conditions, net data, high-speed circuit design rules, and the like. These are given to each of the board specification examination processing unit 2, the designated condition placement unit 3, and the component packing unit 4 in the automatic placement unit 1.

The board specification examination processing section 2 examines whether components can be arranged on a predetermined board based on these conditions including the board size, and uses the result as a specification examination result as a designated condition arrangement section. Send to 3. Also, the designated condition arranging unit 3
Parts are placed so that placement conditions other than the board size can be observed. Then, the designated condition placement unit 3 sends the obtained placement result to the component stuffing processing unit 4 at the next stage.

The component stuffing processing unit 4 receiving the above arrangement result performs a process for stuffing components in the designated area while observing the given arrangement conditions. Then, the processing result here is output from the automatic arrangement unit 1 as an arrangement result. In addition, the board specification examination processing unit 2, the designated condition arranging unit 3, and the component stuffing processing unit 4 output a problem that occurred in each processing stage at each stage in order to review the problem.

Next, the processing contents in the component placement system according to the present embodiment will be described in detail. FIG.
5 is a flowchart illustrating a component placement processing procedure in the component placement system according to the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the component placement processing procedure according to the present embodiment is a component placement possibility examination process for checking whether components can be placed on a board, and the component placement is divided for each specified condition. It consists of a process and a process of integrating the once divided arrangement again, that is, integrating the divided and arranged results.

In step S1 of FIG. 2, when the circuit design is completed and the component placement design becomes possible, it is determined whether or not components can be placed on the board based on the board size and the like. When this determination is completed, step S5
In step 1, the component placement availability determination result is output as the placement availability result. In other words, as a result of the examination, if the component placement is not possible, the component area where the component placement is impossible is output as a component placement error.

Thereafter, processing for actually arranging the components on the board is performed. That is, in step S2, component placement is performed for each specified condition. That is, when components are automatically arranged on the board, in step S2, the component placement area, placement prohibited area, component height, signal line connection, board soldering method, gap between components, manufacturing conditions , Net data, etc.
A plurality of conditions are considered at the same time, and arrangement is performed for each specified condition.

As described above, separately arranging components for each designated condition means, in other words, performing component arranging processes in parallel (parallelizing processes). Then, in step S52, an arrangement result for each of these designated conditions is output.

In the following step S3, as described above, in order to arrange the components once arranged on the board so as to satisfy a plurality of conditions, the arrangement consisting of the plurality of conditions is converged into one. That is, in step S3, a process of integrating the results of division and arrangement is performed.

The convergence of this condition is performed, for example, as the first integration, by combining the two arrangement results arranged under the two different conditions in step S2 with one another so as to satisfy these two conditions. Summarize in the placement results. Then, in the second integration, the results obtained in the first integration are summarized. As described above, in step S3, the arrangement results are integrated hierarchically to finally obtain one arrangement position.

In step S53, the arrangement conditions converged in this way are output as arrangement results. When there is a contradiction in the arrangement specification conditions, in order to prevent the processing shown in FIG. 2 from being stopped, in step S49, the priority of the specification conditions is given, and the priority condition in the processing in step S3 is determined. .

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the component placement process for automatically arranging components on a board is divided into a plurality of steps, and the placement operation is divided, whereby the entire component placement design can be performed. Efficiency can be improved, and by arranging for each arrangement condition as a designated condition, the number of conditions to be considered at the same time can be reduced, and high-speed operation of component arrangement processing becomes possible.

In addition, the board specification examination processing, the designated condition arrangement,
By outputting at each processing stage a problem that has occurred at each processing stage, which is called a component stuffing process, it is easy to review the problems at each stage, and as a result, it is possible to reduce the number of redoing of the placement work.

Further, since the number of conditions is reduced by the processing for each arrangement condition, even if the conditions to be considered increase, the component arrangement system as a design support tool can be easily expanded.

Further, by performing separate arrangement processing for each designated condition, the parallelism of the processing is improved.
High-speed processing can be realized. When it is necessary to satisfy a plurality of conditions, by adjusting these conditions in a stepwise manner, the adjustment range is narrowed, and there is an effect that a trade-off of the designated condition can be easily performed.

Embodiment 2 Hereinafter, Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the component placement system according to the present embodiment. The same components as those of the system according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. A description thereof will be omitted.

The system shown in FIG. 3 stores a component placement error information storage unit 6 for storing component placement error information used for processing when a situation occurs in which a component cannot be placed during design, and stores specifications of a board. And a past countermeasure database 8 for storing countermeasures taken on the board in the past.

The component placement error information, the board specification, and the past countermeasure data are input to the board specification examination processing unit 2.
The board specification examination processing unit 2, based on these information,
The processing described below is performed when a situation occurs in which parts cannot be arranged during design.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a component placement processing procedure in the component placement system according to the present embodiment. In the process shown in the figure, the same reference numerals are given to the same processes as those shown in FIG.

That is, step S1 is a component placement possibility examination process for confirming whether components can be placed on the board, step S2 is a process of dividing component placement for each designated condition, and step S3. Is a convergence process of the arrangement conditions, which integrates the results of the division and arrangement.

The component placement system according to the present embodiment
In addition to the above processing, processing is also performed when a situation occurs in which parts cannot be arranged during design. That is, in step S61 of FIG. 4, whether or not component placement is possible is determined. If it is determined that component placement is not possible, the process proceeds to step S4.
Proceed to. In the present embodiment, the component placement error information is obtained as a result of the examination of the component placement.

This step S4 is a process to be performed when a situation occurs in which parts cannot be arranged during design, based on the above-described parts arrangement error information, board specifications, and past countermeasure data, a board index value, a parts arrangement diagram. Then, materials for countermeasures in a situation where parts cannot be arranged are generated.

In the system according to the present embodiment,
In order to be able to visually confirm not only the results of numerical calculations for component placement, but also the content of the placement, the component placement state is reproduced based on the component placement error information described above,
This is visually displayed on a display unit (not shown).

As described above, according to this embodiment, when a situation occurs in which parts cannot be placed during design, parts placement is determined based on component placement error information, board specifications, and past countermeasure data. By generating materials for countermeasures in a situation in which placement is not possible, there is an effect that a designer can easily grasp the degree of inability of placement and can easily take measures for a situation in which placement is not possible.

Further, based on the prepared countermeasure data for the situation where the parts cannot be arranged, the designer can search for past countermeasure examples of similar boards in designing the target board.

Embodiment 3 Hereinafter, Embodiment 3 of the present invention will be described. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the component placement system according to the present embodiment. The same components as those of the system according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. A description thereof will be omitted.

The component placement system according to the present embodiment shown in FIG. 5 has a configuration in which a virtual connection line creation unit 35 for creating a virtual connection line is added to the component placement system shown in FIG. This virtual connection line creation unit 35
It recognizes one component and generates a connection between the blocks as a virtual connection line. The block size is assumed based on the component size included in the block.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the virtual connection line creation unit 35 of FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a component placement processing procedure in the component placement system according to the present embodiment, in which a process of creating a virtual connection line is added to the process according to the first embodiment. The other processing is the same as the component placement processing procedure according to the first embodiment shown in FIG.

The data extraction unit 36 in the virtual connection line creation unit 35 in FIG. 6 extracts predetermined data from the fixed circuit diagram 9, the fixed block diagram 10, the unfinished circuit diagram 11, and the unfinished block diagram 12. Specifically, the data extracting unit 36 extracts the position of the component from the unfinished circuit diagram 11 and the position of the block from the unfinished block diagram 12. The data extraction unit 36
Extracts the net data 14 from the fixed circuit diagram 9 and the inter-block connection data 15 from the fixed block diagram 10. At the same time, the data extraction unit 36 extracts the signal attribute data 13 based on these circuit diagrams.

The recognizing unit 16 recognizes a nearby component from the position of the component extracted from the unfinished circuit diagram 11 and the above-mentioned signal attribute data 13, and recognizes the position of the block extracted from the unfinished block diagram 12. And the above signal attribute data 1
From 3, the adjacent block is recognized. Then, the connection generation unit 17 determines the recognized proximity component, proximity block,
Then, based on the signal attribute data 13, virtual connection line data 18 for making a connection between the adjacent component and the adjacent block is generated.

The synthesizing unit 54 generates the net data 14 or the inter-block connection data 1
5 and the virtual connection line data 18 are combined to generate composite net data 37, which is sent to the automatic placement unit 1.

Step S8 in FIG. 7 executes a process corresponding to the operation of the above-described virtual connection line creation unit 35. The component placement system executes the virtual connection line creation process, and then executes the component placement in step S1. Enter the feasibility study process.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, a configuration is adopted in which component positions and block positions are extracted from an unfinished circuit diagram or an unfinished block diagram, and a virtual connection line is created based on these. Thus, even during the circuit design, it is possible to examine whether components can be arranged on the board based on the virtual connection lines.

Embodiment 4 Hereinafter, Embodiment 4 of the present invention will be described. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the component placement system according to the present embodiment. The same components as those of the system according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. A description thereof will be omitted.

The component placement system according to the present embodiment shown in FIG. 8 has a configuration in which a virtual component creation unit 19 for creating a virtual component is added to the component placement system shown in FIG. The virtual component creation unit 19 finally determines a virtual component size based on data in a database described later.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the virtual component creation unit 19 of FIG. FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a component placement processing procedure in the component placement system according to the present embodiment, in which a virtual component creation process is added to the process according to the first embodiment. Therefore, the other processing is the same as the component arrangement processing procedure according to the first embodiment shown in FIG.

In the virtual component creation unit 19 of FIG. 9, the data extraction unit 36 extracts the net data 14 from the fixed circuit diagram 9 as in the virtual connection line creation unit 35 according to the third embodiment shown in FIG. I do. The search unit 20 stores the net data 1
Based on No. 4, a search is performed to determine whether the required part is in the part shape database 24. That is, the search unit 20
Searches for data registered in the part shape database 24,
If there is a corresponding part in the database, the size is used as the size of the used part.

On the other hand, if the part shape database 24 does not include a necessary part, the part shape estimating unit 21
Searches the component shape estimation database 23 and estimates the component shape based on the estimation data existing in the database 23 based on the feature of the component indicated by the extracted net data 14. Specifically, the shape of the component is estimated from the number of electrodes of the component, the component function, and the like. Then, the estimated component size is set as the virtual component size.

If the component shape cannot be estimated by searching the component shape estimation database 23, the designer specifies the component shape (the processing in the block indicated by reference numeral 22 in FIG. 9), and inputs it. Assume the virtual part size.

In step S19 in FIG. 10, a process corresponding to the above-described operation of the virtual component creation unit 19 is executed. Therefore, a detailed description thereof is omitted here from the viewpoint of avoiding redundant description. Then, after executing the virtual component creation processing, the component placement system proceeds to a component placement availability examination process in step S1.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the net data is extracted from the determined circuit diagram, and based on the extracted net data, the virtual component size is determined by searching the component shape database or the component shape estimation database. With this configuration, it is possible to examine whether components can be arranged on the board based on the virtual component size even during circuit design.

Embodiment 5 Hereinafter, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the component placement system according to the present embodiment. The same components as those in the system according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. A description thereof will be omitted.

The component placement system according to the present embodiment
The configuration is such that a board size estimating unit 26 for estimating a board size is added to the component placement system shown in FIG. The board size estimating unit 26 estimates a board size and a board shape required for the component arrangement from components used in the circuit, as described below.

FIG. 12 is a circuit diagram of the board size estimating section 26 shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the embodiment. FIG.
9 is a flowchart showing a component placement processing procedure in the component placement system according to the present embodiment, in which a process for estimating a board size is added to the process according to the first embodiment; 2 is the same as the component arrangement processing procedure according to the first embodiment.

The board size estimating section 26 shown in FIG.
The same functional units as those of the virtual connection line creation unit 35 shown in FIG. 6 and the virtual component creation unit 19 shown in FIG. 9 are provided, and the component area calculation unit based on the virtual connection line data and virtual component size obtained from them. 27 calculates the area of the component to be used on the board.

The board size estimating section 26 has the same board specification storing section 7 as the component placement system according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3, and further has a board specification database 32. Then, the calculation unit 28 calculates the component placement limit index value based on the board specifications from the board specification storage unit 7 and the board specification database 32.

The board area calculation unit 29 includes the component area calculation unit 2
The required board area is calculated from the component area calculated by 7 and the component placement limit index value calculated by the calculation unit 28. The output from the board area calculation unit 29 (calculated board area) is input to the board shape plan generation unit 31,
The board shape plan generating unit 31 generates a board shape from the board area and the separately provided designated board size 30.

In step S26 in FIG. 13, processing corresponding to the operation of the above-described substrate size estimating unit 26 is executed. Therefore, the detailed description is omitted here. As described above, the component placement system performs step S26.
After the board size estimating process is executed, the process proceeds to a component placement possibility examination process in step S1.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the board size estimating unit is added to determine the component area, and the board size is estimated based on the board specification database. Decisions can be made early,
Along with this, it is possible to reduce the work of redoing the board design.

[0072]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In a component placement apparatus for placing components on a board, means for storing a plurality of component placement conditions in advance, and determination means for determining whether the component can be placed on the board based on the component placement conditions An arrangement means for arranging the component based on the result of the determination and the component arrangement condition; and an arranging unit for arranging the component based on the result of the arrangement and the component arrangement condition in a designated area on the substrate. A stuffing means for performing processing for stuffing parts, and outputting the processing result of the stuffing means as a final arrangement result, thereby increasing the efficiency of the entire part arrangement design by dividing the arrangement work and improving the part arrangement processing. High-speed operation becomes possible.

Further, in the component arranging apparatus according to the present invention, the determining means, the arranging means, and the stuffing means may include:
Since there is a means for individually outputting the determination result, the arrangement result, and the stuffing result to the outside of the component placement apparatus, it is easy to review the problems at each stage.

According to the present invention, the component placement conditions include the board size, component proximity condition, placement order condition, placement region, placement prohibited region, virtual connection line, mechanism condition, manufacturing condition, net data, and high-speed circuit. The arrangement means, including the design rule, arranges the components for each of the designated conditions using these conditions as designated conditions, so that high-speed processing can be realized by parallel processing.

According to the present invention, the arranging means arranges the components so as to comply with the arranging conditions other than the board size in the arranging conditions of the components, thereby speeding up the arranging process of the components. Further, the present invention further includes means for giving a priority order of the designated conditions, so that the number of conditions to be considered at the same time can be reduced, and high-speed operation of the component placement processing can be performed.

The present invention further provides means for storing error information and past countermeasure data relating to the arrangement of the components in advance, and when the arrangement means determines that the component cannot be arranged, the error information and the past countermeasure data are stored in the memory. Originally, by providing a means for generating information corresponding to the situation where parts cannot be placed, it is possible to search for past countermeasure examples on similar boards and easily grasp the degree of component placement failure. Measures can be easily established.

The present invention further provides a means for extracting the position of a component from an unfinished circuit diagram at a design stage, a means for extracting a block position from an unfinished block diagram at a design stage, Means for generating virtual connection line data for making connections between these parts and blocks based on the positions of the parts and blocks that have been set. It is possible to examine whether parts can be placed on the top.

The present invention further provides a first database in which the shape of a part is stored in advance as information, and a second database in which information for estimating the shape of the part based on the feature of the part is stored. If there is a corresponding part in the first database, the size of the part is used as the size of the used part. If there is no corresponding part in the first database, the information in the second database is used. By providing means for outputting the size of the component estimated based on the virtual component size, it is possible to examine whether components can be arranged on the board based on the virtual component size even during circuit design.

The present invention further provides a means for extracting the position of a component from an unfinished circuit diagram at a design stage, a means for extracting a block position from an unfinished block diagram at a design stage, Means for generating virtual connection line data for making connections between these parts and blocks from the positions of the parts and blocks, a first database in which the shapes of the parts are stored in advance as information, and features of the parts. If there is a second database storing information for estimating the shape of the part and the corresponding part in the first database, the size of the part is used as the size of the used part. If there is no corresponding part in the first database, means for outputting the size of the part estimated based on the information in the second database as a virtual part size; Means for calculating the total area of the part from the connection line data and the virtual component size, and the total area,
By providing a means for calculating a required board area from board specification data stored in advance, and a means for estimating a board shape from the board area and a specified board size, a component area based on a virtual component size is obtained. Originally, the board size can be determined early, thereby reducing the work of redesigning the board.

In the present invention, when components cannot be arranged within the above-mentioned board area, a means for calculating a board area which is insufficient for the arrangement is provided, thereby avoiding re-designing.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component arranging method for arranging components on a board, wherein the component can be arranged on the board based on a plurality of component arranging conditions stored in advance. A determining step of determining whether or not the component is to be placed; an arranging step of arranging the component based on the result of the determination and the component arranging condition; And a step of outputting the processing result of the packing step as a final placement result by performing the processing for packing the parts in the designated area of And component placement processing can be speeded up.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a component placement system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a component placement processing procedure in the component placement system according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a component placement system according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a component placement processing procedure in the component placement system according to the second embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a component placement system according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a virtual connection line creation unit according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a component placement processing procedure in the component placement system according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a component placement system according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a virtual component creation unit according to a fourth embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a component placement processing procedure in the component placement system according to the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a component placement system according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a board size estimating unit according to a fifth embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a component placement processing procedure in the component placement system according to the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional circuit board design support method and system.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a configuration and a processing flow of a conventional block arrangement processing method.

FIG. 16 is a functional block diagram relating to an automatic component placement function attached to a conventional board design CAD.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Automatic placement part, 2 ... Board specification examination processing part, 3 ... Designation condition placement part, 4 ... Component stuffing processing part, 5 ... Placement condition setting part, 6 ... Component placement error information storage part, 7 ... Board specification storage part , 8: Past countermeasure database, 17: Connection generation unit,
19: virtual component creation unit, 20: search unit, 23: component shape estimation database, 24: component shape database, 26
... board size estimating unit, 27 ... component area calculating unit, 28 ... calculating unit, 29 ... board area calculating unit, 31 ... board shape plan generating unit, 35 ... virtual connection line creating unit, 36 ... data extracting unit, 5
4: Synthetic unit

Claims (20)

[Claims] 1. A component arranging apparatus for arranging components on a board, comprising: means for storing a plurality of component arranging conditions in advance; and determining whether the components can be arranged on the board based on the component arranging conditions. Determining means for arranging the component; arranging means for arranging the component based on the result of the judgment and the component arranging condition; And a stuffing unit for performing a process for stuffing components in the set area, and outputting a processing result of the stuffing unit as a final arrangement result. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit, the arranging unit, and the stuffing unit have means for individually outputting the determination result, the arrangement result, and the stuffing result to the outside of the component arranging apparatus. The component placement device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The component placement condition includes a board size, a component proximity condition, a placement order condition, a placement area, a placement prohibited area, a virtual connection line, a mechanism condition, a manufacturing condition, net data, and a high-speed circuit design rule. 3. The component placement apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the placement unit sets the component for each of the designated conditions, using the conditions as designated conditions. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said arranging means arranges said components so as to comply with an arranging condition other than said board size among said arranging conditions. 5. The component placement apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising means for giving a priority order of said designated condition. 6. A means for preliminarily storing error information and past countermeasure data relating to the placement of the component, and when the arranging means determines that the component cannot be arranged, the error information and the past countermeasure data are used. 4. The component placement apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: means for generating information corresponding to the situation in which the component cannot be placed. 7. A means for extracting a position of a component from an unfinished circuit diagram at a design stage, a means for extracting a block position from an unfinished block diagram at a design stage, and the extracted component And means for generating virtual connection line data for making a connection between these components and the block from the position of the block.
Component placement device as described. 8. A first database in which the shape of the part is stored in advance as information, a second database in which information for estimating the shape of the part based on the feature of the part is stored, If there is a corresponding part in the first database, the size of the part is used as the size of the used part. If there is no corresponding part in the first database, the size in the second database is used. 4. A component placement apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising means for outputting the estimated component size as a virtual component size. 9. A means for extracting a component position from an unfinished circuit diagram in a design stage, a means for extracting a block position from an unfinished block diagram in a design stage, and the extracted component Means for generating virtual connection line data for connecting these components and blocks from the positions of the components and blocks; a first database in which the shapes of the components are stored in advance as information; and A second database storing information for estimating the shape of the part, and if there is a corresponding part in the first database, the size of the part is used as the size of the used part. Means for outputting, as a virtual component size, the size of the component estimated based on the information in the second database if there is no corresponding component in the database; Means for calculating the total area of the component from the line data and the virtual component size; means for calculating the required board area from the total area and the board specification data stored in advance; and the board area designated as 4. The component placement apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: means for estimating a board shape from a board size. 10. The component placement apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising means for calculating a board area that is insufficient for the placement when a component cannot be placed within the board area. 11. A component arranging method for arranging a component on a board, comprising: determining whether the component can be arranged on the board based on a plurality of component arrangement conditions stored in advance. An arrangement step of arranging the component based on the result of the determination and the component arrangement condition; and, within a designated area on the board based on the arrangement result and the component arrangement condition. A component arranging method, comprising: a stuffing step of stuffing a part; and a step of outputting a processing result of the stuffing step as a final arrangement result. 12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the determining step, the arranging step, and the stuffing step include a step of individually outputting the determination result, the arrangement result, and the stuffing result in each step. 11. The component placement method according to item 11. 13. The component placement conditions include a board size,
Component proximity condition, placement order condition, placement area, placement prohibited area,
Virtual connection lines, mechanism conditions, manufacturing conditions, net data, and high-speed circuit design rules are included, and in the arranging step, the components are arranged for each of the specified conditions using these conditions as specified conditions. The method for arranging parts according to claim 11. 14. The component arranging method according to claim 13, wherein in the arranging step, the components are arranged such that the arranging conditions other than the board size among the component arranging conditions can be observed. 15. The component placement method according to claim 13, further comprising a step of giving a priority order of said designated condition. 16. When it is determined in the placement step that components cannot be placed, based on error information relating to the placement of the components and previously stored countermeasure data, information corresponding to the situation where components cannot be placed is stored. 14. The component arranging method according to claim 13, further comprising a generating step. 17. A step of extracting a position of a part from an unfinished circuit diagram in a design stage, a step of extracting a position of a block from an unfinished block diagram in a design stage, and the extracted part And generating virtual connection line data for making a connection between these parts and the block from the position of the block and the position of the block.
3. The component placement method according to 3. 18. If there is a corresponding part in the first database in which the shape of the part is stored as information in advance, the size of the part is used as the size of the used part, and the corresponding part is included in the first database. If there is no part, the size of the part estimated based on information in the second database storing information for estimating the shape of the part based on the feature of the part is output as a virtual part size. The component placement method according to claim 13, further comprising a step. 19. A step of extracting a position of a part from an unfinished circuit diagram at a design stage, a step of extracting a position of a block from an unfinished block diagram at a design stage, and the extracted part Generating virtual connection line data for connecting these components to the block from the position of the block and the position of the block; and, if there is a corresponding component in the first database in which the shape of the component is stored as information in advance, The size of the part is used as the size of the used part, and if there is no corresponding part in the first database, a second part storing information for estimating the shape of the part based on the feature of the part is stored. Outputting the size of the component estimated based on the information in the database as a virtual component size, and calculating the total area of the component from the virtual connection line data and the virtual component size Calculating a required board area from the total area and the board specification data stored in advance, and estimating a board shape from the board area and a specified board size. 14. The component placement method according to claim 13, wherein: 20. The component placement method according to claim 19, further comprising a step of calculating a board area that is insufficient for the placement when components cannot be placed within the board area.