U.S. patent application number 17/455357 was filed with the patent office on 2022-05-19 for information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program.
This patent application is currently assigned to YOKOGAWA ELECTRIC CORPORATION. The applicant listed for this patent is YOKOGAWA ELECTRIC CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Masato ANNEN, Takahiro KAMBE, Yuri KIMURA, Tatenobu SEKI.
Application Number | 20220155942 17/455357 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | |
Filed Date | 2022-05-19 |
United States Patent
Application |
20220155942 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
SEKI; Tatenobu ; et
al. |
May 19, 2022 |
INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD,
AND PROGRAM
Abstract
The present disclosure provides an information processing
apparatus, an information processing method, and a program that
enable easy extraction of all element groups conforming to a
specific element group from a drawing with a small number of
person-hours. An information processing apparatus (10) includes a
processor (11) configured to receive from a user a selection of a
search element group, which is an element group formed by one or
more elements used in a drawing, search from the drawing an element
group that conforms to the search element group for which the
selection was received, and display the searched element group on a
display (15) in correspondence with the position thereof on the
drawing.
Inventors: |
SEKI; Tatenobu; (Tokyo,
JP) ; KAMBE; Takahiro; (Tokyo, JP) ; KIMURA;
Yuri; (Tokyo, JP) ; ANNEN; Masato; (Tokyo,
JP) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
YOKOGAWA ELECTRIC CORPORATION |
Tokyo |
|
JP |
|
|
Assignee: |
YOKOGAWA ELECTRIC
CORPORATION
Tokyo
JP
|
Appl. No.: |
17/455357 |
Filed: |
November 17, 2021 |
International
Class: |
G06F 3/0484 20060101
G06F003/0484; G06K 9/62 20060101 G06K009/62; G06F 3/0488 20060101
G06F003/0488; G06F 16/532 20060101 G06F016/532 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Nov 18, 2020 |
JP |
2020-192045 |
Nov 18, 2020 |
JP |
2020-192046 |
Nov 18, 2020 |
JP |
2020-192049 |
Nov 18, 2020 |
JP |
2020-192082 |
Nov 18, 2020 |
JP |
2020-192084 |
Nov 18, 2020 |
JP |
2020-192085 |
Nov 18, 2020 |
JP |
2020-192087 |
Nov 18, 2020 |
JP |
2020-192089 |
Claims
1. An information processing apparatus comprising a processor
configured to: receive from a user a selection of a search element
group, which is an element group formed by one or more elements
used in a drawing; search from the drawing an element group that
conforms to the search element group for which the selection is
received; and display the searched element group on a display in
correspondence with a position on the drawing.
2. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the
processor receives the selection of the search element group by the
user on the drawing displayed on the display; and searches from the
drawing an element group that conforms to the search element group
selected by the user on the drawing.
3. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the
processor displays the drawing on the display so that the searched
element group is displayed in a different manner from other
elements.
4. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the
processor displays an image, on the display, indicating a
distribution in the drawing of each searched element group.
5. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein a type
and arrangement of the elements are specified in the drawing, and
as the element group that conforms to the search element group, the
processor searches, from the drawing, an element group such that
the type of each element included in the element group and the
arrangement of elements match the search element group.
6. The information processing apparatus of claim 5, wherein each
element used in the drawing has attached thereto at least one piece
of attribute information indicating a property of the element
and/or a condition during operation, and as the element group that
conforms to the search element group, the processor searches, from
the drawing, an element group such that the type of each element
included in the element group, the attribute information attached
to each element, and the arrangement of elements match the search
element group.
7. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the
processor searches, from the drawing, an element that conforms to a
priority element to be prioritized among the elements included in
the search element group; and searches an element that conforms to
an element adjacent to the priority element included in the search
element group from among elements adjacent to the element that
conforms to the priority element and was searched from the
drawing.
8. The information processing apparatus of claim 7, wherein the
processor determines which element, among at least two elements in
a connection relationship with each other in the drawing, is
farther upstream based on the connection relationship; and
searches, from the drawing, an element group that conforms to the
search element group and has the element that is farther upstream
as the priority element.
9. An information processing method to be performed by a processor
of an information processing apparatus, the information processing
method comprising: receiving from a user a selection of a search
element group, which is an element group formed by one or more
elements used in a drawing; searching from the drawing an element
group that conforms to the search element group for which the
selection is received; and displaying the searched element group on
a display in correspondence with a position on the drawing.
10. A program configured to cause a computer to function as the
information processing apparatus of claim 1.
11. An information processing apparatus comprising a processor
configured to: acquire a plurality of element groups that are
identical and formed by one or more elements used in a drawing;
receive from a user a selection of a common process to be performed
on the plurality of element groups; and perform the common process
for which the selection is received on each element group in the
plurality of element groups.
12. The information processing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the
processor stores, in a storage, specifying information that
specifies the plurality of element groups that is acquired; and in
response to receipt of a selection of a process from the user for
any element group included in the plurality of element groups
specified by the specifying information, performs the process as
the common process on each element group included in the plurality
of element groups.
13. The information processing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the
processor performs, as the common process, a process to replace
some or all of the elements included in the plurality of element
groups with at least one element selected by the user.
14. The information processing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the
processor performs, as the common process, a process to change a
type and/or arrangement of the elements included in the plurality
of element groups according to a selection by the user.
15. The information processing apparatus of claim 11, wherein each
element used in the drawing has attached thereto at least one piece
of attribute information indicating a property of the element, and
the processor performs, as the common process, a process to change
any of the attribute information for at least one of the elements
included in the plurality of element groups according to a
selection by the user.
16. The information processing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the
processor performs a process to display the plurality of element
groups subject to the common process on a display in a different
manner from elements not included in the plurality of element
groups.
17. The information processing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the
processor receives a selection from the user of a search element
group, which is an element group formed by one or more elements
used in the drawing, and searches from the drawing element groups
that conform to the search element group for which the selection is
received to acquire the plurality of element groups.
18. An information processing method to be performed by a processor
of an information processing apparatus, the information processing
method comprising: acquiring a plurality of element groups that are
identical and formed by one or more elements used in a drawing;
receiving from a user a selection of a common process to be
performed on the plurality of element groups; and performing the
common process for which the selection is received on each element
group in the plurality of element groups.
19. A program configured to cause a computer to function as the
information processing apparatus of claim 11.
20. An information processing apparatus comprising a processor
configured to: receive from a user a selection of a search element
group, which is an element group formed by one or more elements
used in a drawing; search from the drawing, as element groups that
conform to the search element group for which the selection is
received, not only element groups that are completely identical to
the search element group but also element groups that are partially
different from the search element group; and store information, in
a storage, indicating a difference from the search element group
with respect to the element groups that are partially different
from the search element group among the searched element
groups.
21. The information processing apparatus of claim 20, wherein the
processor displays the searched element groups on a display in a
manner enabling identification of the difference with respect to
the element groups that are partially different from the search
element group.
22. The information processing apparatus of claim 21, wherein the
processor displays, on the display, a character string and/or an
image indicating a type of the difference with respect to the
element groups that are partially different from the search element
group among the searched element groups.
23. The information processing apparatus of claim 20, wherein the
processor receives from the user a setting of a search condition
for searching the element groups as the element groups that conform
to the search element group despite being partially different from
the search element group.
24. The information processing apparatus of claim 20, wherein the
processor calculates, for each element group in the searched
element groups, a matching degree that is a numerical value
indicating a degree of conformity to the search element group; and
classifies the searched element groups into sets of at least one
element group based on the matching degree.
25. The information processing apparatus of claim 20, wherein the
processor receives from the user a selection of the element group,
from among the element groups that are partially different from the
search element group in the searched element groups, to be
subjected to a process to be matched to the search element group;
and performs, in response to receiving the selection of the element
group from the user, a process to correct the element group for
which the selection is received so that the element group matches
the search element group.
26. The information processing apparatus of claim 25, wherein the
processor receives a selection of a plurality of the element groups
from the user as the element groups to be subjected to the
process.
27. An information processing method to be performed by a processor
of an information processing apparatus, the information processing
method comprising: receiving from a user a selection of a search
element group, which is an element group formed by one or more
elements used in a drawing; searching from the drawing, as element
groups that conform to the search element group for which the
selection is received, not only element groups that are completely
identical to the search element group but also element groups that
are partially different from the search element group; and storing
information, in a storage, indicating a difference from the search
element group with respect to the element groups that are partially
different from the search element group among the searched element
groups.
28. A program configured to cause a computer to function as the
information processing apparatus of claim 20.
29. An information processing apparatus comprising a processor
configured to: acquire a first element group and a second element
group formed by elements used in a drawing; extract a third element
group, which is an element group included in common in the first
element group and the second element group, from the first element
group and the second element group; and arrange the first element
group, the second element group, and the third element group in a
hierarchy such that the third element group belongs to a higher
level than the first element group and the second element group and
store the hierarchy in a storage.
30. The information processing apparatus of claim 29, wherein the
processor extracts one element, or a plurality of elements
connected to each other in an identical arrangement, that is
included in common in the first element group and the second
element group, and for which a corresponding element type and
attribute information are identical and a number of elements is
largest, as the third element group.
31. The information processing apparatus of claim 29, wherein the
processor extracts an element group formed by at least one element
included in common in the first element group and the second
element group, for which a corresponding element type and attribute
information are identical, and in which a particular element is
adjacent to an identical outside element that is outside the
element group, as the third element group and includes the
identical outside element in the third element group.
32. The information processing apparatus of claim 29, wherein the
processor receives from a user a setting to set a condition for
extraction as the element group included in common in the first
element group and the second element group; and extracts the third
element group from the first element group and the second element
group based on the set condition.
33. The information processing apparatus of claim 29, wherein the
processor displays a hierarchical relationship among the first
element group, the second element group, and the third element
group on a display.
34. The information processing apparatus of claim 29, wherein the
processor receives from a user a selection of a process to be
performed on the third element group; and performs the process for
which the selection is received on each third element group used in
the drawing.
35. An information processing method to be performed by a processor
of an information processing apparatus, the information processing
method comprising: acquiring a first element group and a second
element group formed by elements used in a drawing; extracting a
third element group, which is an element group included in common
in the first element group and the second element group, from the
first element group and the second element group; and arranging the
first element group, the second element group, and the third
element group in a hierarchy such that the third element group
belongs to a higher level than the first element group and the
second element group and storing the hierarchy in a storage.
36. A program configured to cause a computer to function as the
information processing apparatus of claim 29.
37. An information processing apparatus comprising a processor
configured to: receive from a user a selection of a first element
group, which is an element group formed by one or more elements
used in a drawing; search from the drawing element groups that
conform to the first element group for which the selection is
received; classify the element groups conforming to the first
element group into an element group conforming to a second element
group and an element group conforming to a third element group
based on a predetermined condition or a condition designated by the
user; and arrange the second element group and the third element
group in a hierarchy to belong to a lower level than the first
element group and store the hierarchy in a storage.
38. The information processing apparatus of claim 37, wherein among
the element groups conforming to the first element group, the
processor classifies an element group for which attribute
information for at least one element included in the element group
satisfies a certain condition into an element group conforming to
the second element group, and classifies an element group that does
not satisfy the certain condition into an element group conforming
to the third element group.
39. The information processing apparatus of claim 37, wherein among
the element groups conforming to the first element group, the
processor classifies an element group for which an element adjacent
to the element group satisfies a certain condition into an element
group conforming to the second element group, and classifies an
element group for which an element adjacent to the element group
does not satisfy the certain condition into an element group
conforming to the third element group.
40. The information processing apparatus of claim 37, wherein the
processor displays an image or text information indicating a
hierarchical relationship among the first element group, the second
element group, and the third element group on a display.
41. The information processing apparatus of claim 37, wherein the
processor displays the drawing in a manner enabling identification
of portions corresponding to the first element group, the second
element group, and the third element group on a display.
42. The information processing apparatus of claim 37, wherein the
processor receives from the user a selection of an element group
from among the first element group, the second element group, and
the third element group; receives from the user a selection of a
common process to be performed on element groups that conform to
the element group for which the selection is received; and performs
the common process for which the selection is received on each
element group that conforms to the element group.
43. An information processing method to be performed by a processor
of an information processing apparatus, the information processing
method comprising: receiving from a user a selection of a first
element group, which is an element group formed by one or more
elements used in a drawing; searching from the drawing element
groups that conform to the first element group for which the
selection is received; classifying the element groups conforming to
the first element group into an element group conforming to a
second element group and an element group conforming to a third
element group based on a predetermined condition or a condition
designated by the user; and arranging the second element group and
the third element group in a hierarchy to belong to a lower level
than the first element group and storing the hierarchy in a
storage.
44. A program configured to cause a computer to function as the
information processing apparatus of claim 37.
45. An information processing apparatus comprising a processor
configured to: receive a selection of a position or a region in a
drawing from a first user; receive assignment of a communication
item for a second user from the first user to the position or the
region for which the selection from the first user is received;
store marking information indicating the position or the region for
which the selection from the first user is received and
communication information indicating the communication item in
association in a storage; and display the communication item on a
display in correspondence with the position or the region, on the
drawing, to which the communication item is assigned.
46. The information processing apparatus of claim 45, wherein the
processor displays the drawing on the display by indicating the
position or the region, on the drawing, indicated by the marking
information in a different manner from other positions or
regions.
47. The information processing apparatus of claim 45, wherein the
processor switches and displays the position or the region to which
the communication item is assigned on the display in response to a
specific operation input by the first user or the second user.
48. The information processing apparatus of claim 47, wherein the
processor receives, from the first user, a selection of a degree of
importance indicating a priority of responding for each position or
region for which the selection from the first user is received;
stores, for each position or region for which the selection from
the first user is received, degree of importance information
indicating a degree of importance of the position or the region in
the storage in association with the marking information; and
switches and displays the position or the region to which the
communication item is assigned in descending order of the degree of
importance of the position or the region on the display in response
to the specific operation input by the first user or the second
user.
49. The information processing apparatus of claim 45, wherein the
processor receives the assignment of the communication item by
character input or an operation to select from among options.
50. The information processing apparatus of claim 45, wherein the
processor receives assignment of a second communication item from
the second user for the position or the region for which the
selection from the first user is received; stores second
communication information that is communication information
indicating the second communication item in the storage in
association with the marking information indicating the position or
the region to which assignment of the second communication item is
received, or in association with other communication information
already stored in association with the marking information; and
displays the second communication item on the display in
correspondence with the position or the region to which the second
communication item is assigned.
51. The information processing apparatus of claim 50, wherein the
processor stores, for each piece of the marking information,
response information indicating whether the second user or the
first user has responded to or confirmed the position or the region
to which a first communication item, which is a communication item
from the first user to the second user, or the second communication
item is assigned, the processor storing the response information in
the storage in association with the marking information
corresponding to the response information; and displays on the
display, for each position or region to which the communication
item is assigned, a mark indicating whether the second user or the
first user has responded to or confirmed the communication item
based on the response information.
52. An information processing method to be performed by a processor
of an information processing apparatus, the information processing
method comprising: receiving a selection of a position or a region
in a drawing from a first user; receiving assignment of a
communication item for a second user from the first user to the
position or the region for which the selection from the first user
is received; storing marking information indicating the position or
the region for which the selection from the first user is received
and communication information indicating the communication item in
association in a storage; and displaying the communication item on
a display in correspondence with the position or the region, on the
drawing, to which the communication item is assigned.
53. A program configured to cause a computer to function as the
information processing apparatus of claim 45.
54. An information processing apparatus comprising a processor
configured to: receive a selection from a user of a region, in a
drawing in which elements are indicated by graphics, that contains
a plurality of the graphics; extract from the drawing one or more
first elements, indicated by the graphics, that are completely
contained within the region for which the selection is received;
extract from the drawing one or more second elements, indicated by
the graphics, that intersect a boundary of the region for which the
selection is received; extract a third element from the one or more
second elements based on a positional relationship between the
graphics indicating the one or more second elements and the
boundary; and store a set of elements including the one or more
first elements and the third element in a storage as an element
group selected by the user.
55. The information processing apparatus of claim 54, wherein as
the third element, the processor extracts, from among the one or
more second elements, a second element for which a ratio of an area
of a portion, included within the region, of the graphic indicating
the second element to an area of the graphic as a whole is a
predetermined value or more.
56. The information processing apparatus of claim 54, wherein a
connection relationship between the elements in the drawing is
indicated by connecting lines, and as the third element, the
processor extracts an element among the one or more second elements
that is connected by the same connecting line as any first element
among the one or more first elements.
57. The information processing apparatus of claim 54, wherein the
processor extracts the third element based on a positional
relationship between the boundary of the region and a center of
each graphic indicating the one or more second elements.
58. The information processing apparatus of claim 54, wherein the
processor extracts the third element based on a positional
relationship between a point of intersection of the boundary of the
region with a periphery of each graphic indicating the one or more
second elements and a center of the graphic.
59. The information processing apparatus of claim 54, wherein the
processor receives the selection of the region from the user by
taking a trajectory drawn on the drawing by an operation with a
pointing device or an operation on a touch panel as the boundary of
the region.
60. The information processing apparatus of claim 54, wherein the
processor receives a first operation for a first position of the
drawing by a pointing device or a touch panel; receives a second
operation for a second position of the drawing by the pointing
device or the touch panel; and receives, from the user, a selection
of a rectangular region having the first position and the second
position as ends of a diagonal.
61. An information processing method to be performed by a processor
of an information processing apparatus, the information processing
method comprising: receiving a selection from a user of a region,
in a drawing in which elements are indicated by graphics, that
contains a plurality of the graphics; extracting from the drawing
one or more first elements, indicated by the graphics, that are
completely contained within the region for which the selection is
received; extracting from the drawing one or more second elements
indicated by graphics that intersect a boundary of the region for
which the selection is received; extracting a third element from
the one or more second elements based on a positional relationship
between the graphics indicating the one or more second elements and
the boundary; and storing a set of elements including the one or
more first elements and the third element in a storage as an
element group selected by the user.
62. A program configured to cause a computer to function as the
information processing apparatus of claim 54.
63. An information processing apparatus comprising a processor
configured to: receive a selection from a user of a region, in a
drawing in which elements are indicated by graphics, that contains
one or more graphics indicating one or more first elements; receive
a selection from the user of a second element after receipt of the
selection of the region; and store, based on a time from receipt of
the selection of the region until receipt of the selection of the
second element and/or a positional relationship between the region
and a graphic indicating the second element, a set of elements
including the one or more first elements contained in the region
for which the selection was received or a set of elements including
the one or more first elements and the second element in a storage
as an element group selected by the user.
64. The information processing apparatus of claim 63, wherein the
processor stores the set of elements including the one or more
first elements and the second element in the storage as the element
group selected by the user in a case in which the time from receipt
of the selection of the region until receipt of the selection of
the second element is within a predetermined time.
65. The information processing apparatus of claim 63, wherein the
processor stores the set of elements including the one or more
first elements and the second element in the storage as the element
group selected by the user in a case in which a distance between
the region and the graphic indicating the second element is equal
to or less than a predetermined distance.
66. The information processing apparatus of claim 63, wherein a
connection relationship between the elements in the drawing is
indicated by connecting lines, and the processor stores the set of
elements including the one or more first elements and the second
element in the storage as the element group selected by the user in
a case in which the second element is connected by the same
connecting line as at least one first element among the one or more
first elements.
67. The information processing apparatus of claim 63, wherein the
processor extracts, as the one or more first elements, an element
indicated by a graphic that intersects a boundary of the region for
which the selection is received in addition to the elements
indicated by the graphics contained inside the region.
68. The information processing apparatus of claim 63, wherein the
processor stores the set of elements including the one or more
first elements and the second element in the storage as the element
group selected by the user in a case in which an operation is
performed by the user to drag the graphic indicating the second
element to the region after the selection of the region is
received.
69. An information processing method to be performed by a processor
of an information processing apparatus, the information processing
method comprising: receiving a selection from a user of a region,
in a drawing in which elements are indicated by graphics, that
contains one or more graphics indicating one or more first
elements; receiving a selection from the user of a second element
after receipt of the selection of the region; and storing, based on
a time from receipt of the selection of the region until receipt of
the selection of the second element and/or a positional
relationship between the region and a graphic indicating the second
element, a set of elements including the one or more first elements
contained in the region for which the selection was received or a
set of elements including the one or more first elements and the
second element in a storage as an element group selected by the
user.
70. A program configured to cause a computer to function as the
information processing apparatus of claim 63.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application claims priority to Japanese Patent
Applications No. 2020-192045 filed on Nov. 18, 2020, No.
2020-192046 filed on Nov. 18, 2020, No. 2020-192049 filed on Nov.
18, 2020, No. 2020-192082 filed on Nov. 18, 2020, No. 2020-192084
filed on Nov. 18, 2020, No. 2020-192085 filed on Nov. 18, 2020, No.
2020-192087 filed on Nov. 18, 2020, and No. 2020-192089 filed on
Nov. 18, 2020, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein
by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The present disclosure relates to an information processing
apparatus, an information processing method, and a program.
BACKGROUND
[0003] A Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID) is known as
a drawing to illustrate the configuration of a system in a plant or
the like. A P&ID is a drawing in which the connections of
piping and instrumentation in a plant are indicated by a
combination of predetermined graphics, letters, etc. (including
symbols).
[0004] Patent Literature (PTL) 1 describes technology for contact
operation of a monitoring screen in a plant monitoring and control
system.
CITATION LIST
Patent Literature
[0005] PTL 1: JP 2012-174127 A
SUMMARY
[0006] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to receive from a user
a selection of a search element group, which is an element group
formed by one or more elements used in a drawing, search from the
drawing an element group that conforms to the search element group
for which the selection is received, and display the searched
element group on a display in correspondence with a position on the
drawing.
[0007] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving from a user a selection
of a search element group, which is an element group formed by one
or more elements used in a drawing, searching from the drawing an
element group that conforms to the search element group for which
the selection is received, and displaying the searched element
group on a display in correspondence with a position on the
drawing.
[0008] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus.
[0009] An information control apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to acquire a plurality
of element groups that are identical and formed by one or more
elements used in a drawing, receive from a user a selection of a
common process to be performed on the plurality of element groups,
and perform the common process for which the selection is received
on each element group in the plurality of element groups.
[0010] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes acquiring a plurality of element
groups that are identical and formed by one or more elements used
in a drawing, receiving from a user a selection of a common process
to be performed on the plurality of element groups, and performing
the common process for which the selection is received on each
element group in the plurality of element groups.
[0011] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus.
[0012] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to receive from a user
a selection of a search element group, which is an element group
formed by one or more elements used in a drawing, search from the
drawing, as element groups that conform to the search element group
for which the selection is received, not only element groups that
are completely identical to the search element group but also
element groups that are partially different from the search element
group, and store information, in a storage, indicating a difference
from the search element group with respect to the element groups
that are partially different from the search element group among
the searched element groups.
[0013] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving from a user a selection
of a search element group, which is an element group formed by one
or more elements used in a drawing, searching from the drawing, as
element groups that conform to the search element group for which
the selection is received, not only element groups that are
completely identical to the search element group but also element
groups that are partially different from the search element group,
and storing information, in a storage, indicating a difference from
the search element group with respect to the element groups that
are partially different from the search element group among the
searched element groups.
[0014] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus.
[0015] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to acquire a first
element group and a second element group formed by elements used in
a drawing, extract a third element group, which is an element group
included in common in the first element group and the second
element group, from the first element group and the second element
group, and arrange the first element group, the second element
group, and the third element group in a hierarchy such that the
third element group belongs to a higher level than the first
element group and the second element group and store the hierarchy
in a storage.
[0016] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes acquiring a first element group
and a second element group formed by elements used in a drawing,
extracting a third element group, which is an element group
included in common in the first element group and the second
element group, from the first element group and the second element
group, and arranging the first element group, the second element
group, and the third element group in a hierarchy such that the
third element group belongs to a higher level than the first
element group and the second element group and storing the
hierarchy in a storage.
[0017] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus.
[0018] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to receive from a user
a selection of a first element group, which is an element group
formed by one or more elements used in a drawing, search from the
drawing element groups that conform to the first element group for
which the selection is received, classify the element groups
conforming to the first element group into an element group
conforming to a second element group and an element group
conforming to a third element group based on a predetermined
condition or a condition designated by the user, and arrange the
second element group and the third element group in a hierarchy to
belong to a lower level than the first element group and store the
hierarchy in a storage.
[0019] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving from a user a selection
of a first element group, which is an element group formed by one
or more elements used in a drawing, searching from the drawing
element groups that conform to the first element group for which
the selection is received, classifying the element groups
conforming to the first element group into an element group
conforming to a second element group and an element group
conforming to a third element group based on a predetermined
condition or a condition designated by the user, and arranging the
second element group and the third element group in a hierarchy to
belong to a lower level than the first element group and storing
the hierarchy in a storage.
[0020] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus.
[0021] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to receive a selection
of a position or a region in a drawing from a first user, receive
assignment of a communication item for a second user from the first
user to the position or the region for which the selection from the
first user is received, store marking information indicating the
position or the region for which the selection from the first user
is received and communication information indicating the
communication item in association in a storage, and display the
communication item on a display in correspondence with the position
or the region, on the drawing, to which the communication item is
assigned.
[0022] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving a selection of a
position or a region in a drawing from a first user, receiving
assignment of a communication item for a second user from the first
user to the position or the region for which the selection from the
first user is received, storing marking information indicating the
position or the region for which the selection from the first user
is received and communication information indicating the
communication item in association in a storage, and displaying the
communication item on a display in correspondence with the position
or the region, on the drawing, to which the communication item is
assigned.
[0023] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus.
[0024] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to receive a selection
from a user of a region, in a drawing in which elements are
indicated by graphics, that contains a plurality of the graphics,
extract from the drawing one or more first elements, indicated by
the graphics, that are completely contained within the region for
which the selection is received, extract from the drawing one or
more second elements, indicated by the graphics, that intersect a
boundary of the region for which the selection is received, extract
a third element from the one or more second elements based on a
positional relationship between the graphics indicating the one or
more second elements and the boundary; and store a set of elements
including the one or more first elements and the third element in a
storage as an element group selected by the user.
[0025] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving a selection from a user
of a region, in a drawing in which elements are indicated by
graphics, that contains a plurality of the graphics, extracting
from the drawing one or more first elements, indicated by the
graphics, that are completely contained within the region for which
the selection is received, extracting from the drawing one or more
second elements indicated by graphics that intersect a boundary of
the region for which the selection is received, extracting a third
element from the one or more second elements based on a positional
relationship between the graphics indicating the one or more second
elements and the boundary, and storing a set of elements including
the one or more first elements and the third element in a storage
as an element group selected by the user.
[0026] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus.
[0027] An information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment includes a processor configured to receive a selection
from a user of a region, in a drawing in which elements are
indicated by graphics, that contains one or more graphics
indicating one or more first elements, receive a selection from the
user of a second element after receipt of the selection of the
region, and store, based on a time from receipt of the selection of
the region until receipt of the selection of the second element
and/or a positional relationship between the region and a graphic
indicating the second element, a set of elements including the one
or more first elements contained in the region for which the
selection was received or a set of elements including the one or
more first elements and the second element in a storage as an
element group selected by the user.
[0028] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving a selection from a user
of a region, in a drawing in which elements are indicated by
graphics, that contains one or more graphics indicating one or more
first elements; receiving a selection from the user of a second
element after receipt of the selection of the region; and storing,
based on a time from receipt of the selection of the region until
receipt of the selection of the second element and/or a positional
relationship between the region and a graphic indicating the second
element, a set of elements including the one or more first elements
contained in the region for which the selection was received or a
set of elements including the one or more first elements and the
second element in a storage as an element group selected by the
user.
[0029] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0030] In the accompanying drawings:
[0031] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of an
information processing system that includes an information
processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present
disclosure;
[0032] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on a
display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0033] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on a
display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0034] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on a
display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0035] FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of the
information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the
present disclosure;
[0036] FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on a
display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0037] FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on a
display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0038] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on a
display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0039] FIG. 9A is a flowchart illustrating example operations of
the information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure;
[0040] FIG. 9B is a flowchart illustrating example operations of
the information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure;
[0041] FIG. 9C is a flowchart illustrating example operations of
the information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure;
[0042] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on
a display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0043] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on
a display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0044] FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on
a display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0045] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on
a display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0046] FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on
a display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0047] FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on
a display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0048] FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image
indicating classification based on differences in element
groups;
[0049] FIG. 17A is a diagram illustrating an example of
classification items based on differences in element groups;
[0050] FIG. 17B is a diagram illustrating an example of
classification items based on differences in element groups;
[0051] FIG. 17C is a diagram illustrating an example of
classification items based on differences in element groups;
[0052] FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of scoring
based on differences in element groups;
[0053] FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of
the information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure;
[0054] FIG. 20 is a diagram schematically illustrating element
groups hierarchized based on an element group included in
common;
[0055] FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of
the information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure;
[0056] FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating an example of element
groups classified based on an element group included in common;
[0057] FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating an example of element
groups classified based on an element group included in common;
[0058] FIG. 24 is a diagram schematically illustrating a process to
classify element groups based on an adjacent, connected
element;
[0059] FIG. 25 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of
the information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure;
[0060] FIG. 26 is a diagram schematically illustrating a process to
classify element groups based on their deficiencies;
[0061] FIG. 27 is a diagram schematically illustrating a process to
classify element groups based on various criteria;
[0062] FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of an
information processing system that includes an information
processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present
disclosure;
[0063] FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on
a display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0064] FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on
a display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0065] FIG. 31A is a diagram schematically illustrating a user
interface for correcting the settings of an element;
[0066] FIG. 31B is a diagram schematically illustrating a user
interface for correcting the settings of an element;
[0067] FIG. 32 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on
a display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0068] FIG. 33 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on
a display connected to the information processing apparatus;
[0069] FIG. 34 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of
the information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure;
[0070] FIG. 35 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of
the information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure;
[0071] FIG. 36 is a diagram schematically illustrating an operation
to select an element group;
[0072] FIG. 37 is a diagram schematically illustrating the
relationship between graphics indicating an element group and the
selected region;
[0073] FIG. 38A is a diagram schematically illustrating an
operation to select an element group;
[0074] FIG. 38B is a diagram schematically illustrating an
operation to select an element group;
[0075] FIG. 39 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of
the information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure;
[0076] FIG. 40A is a diagram schematically illustrating an
operation to select an element group;
[0077] FIG. 40B is a diagram schematically illustrating an
operation to select an element group;
[0078] FIG. 40C is a diagram schematically illustrating an
operation to select an element group;
[0079] FIG. 41A is a diagram schematically illustrating an
operation to select an element group;
[0080] FIG. 41B is a diagram schematically illustrating an
operation to select an element group; and
[0081] FIG. 42 is a diagram schematically illustrating an operation
to select an element group.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0082] In a known configuration, when performing actions such as
editing or correcting each element group that conforms to a
specific element group including at least one element in a drawing
such as a P&ID, the user needs to visually select and extract
the element groups to be edited or corrected from the drawing.
[0083] However, visual extraction of the element groups by the user
requires many person-hours and easily leads to human error such as
failing to extract an element group that should be extracted, or
mistakenly extracting an element group that should not be
extracted. In particular, when extracting element groups visually
from drawings of a large-scale system such as a plant, an enormous
amount of person-hours or labor is required, and the possibility of
errors increases.
[0084] Therefore, a first object of the present disclosure is to
provide an information processing apparatus, an information
processing method, and a program that enable easy extraction of all
element groups conforming to a specific element group from a
drawing with a small number of person-hours.
[0085] It also may be the case that in drawings such as P&IDs,
there is a plurality of identical element groups including at least
one element, and the same processing such as display, correction,
or replacement is to be performed on each of these element groups.
With a known configuration, however, such groups of elements must
be individually selected by hand and processed separately, which
requires many person-hours and is prone to human error. Examples of
human error include not processing or incompletely processing an
element group that is to be processed, and mistakenly processing
elements that are not to be processed.
[0086] Therefore, a second object of the present disclosure is to
provide an information processing apparatus, an information
processing method, and a program that enable the same process to be
performed in a batch with a simple operation on a plurality of
identical element groups that include at least one element.
[0087] There may also be defective or deficient elements in the
drawings such as P&IDs, and the defects or deficiencies of such
elements need to be corrected. In a known configuration, the
defective or deficient elements need to be selected and extracted
by the user visually.
[0088] However, manually extracting such defective or deficient
elements requires many person-hours and can easily lead to human
errors such as failing to extract elements to be extracted or
mistakenly extracting elements that should not be extracted. In
particular, when extracting defective or deficient elements
visually from drawings of a large-scale system such as a plant, an
enormous amount of person-hours or labor is required, and the
possibility of errors increases.
[0089] Therefore, a third object of the present disclosure is to
provide an information processing apparatus, an information
processing method, and a program that enable defective or deficient
elements to be easily extracted from a drawing with a small number
of person-hours.
[0090] In a known configuration, when performing actions such as
editing or correcting each element group that conforms to an
element group including at least one element in a drawing such as a
P&ID, the user needs to select and extract the element group to
be edited or corrected from the drawing. When such processing is
performed on multiple types of element groups, the user has to
extract each element group that conforms to the element group from
the drawing for each of the multiple types of element groups, and
then perform operations for editing or correction.
[0091] However, when there is an array of elements common to
multiple types of element groups, the same editing or correction
operations may in some cases be performed on such an array of
common elements. Therefore, extracting a conforming element group
for each of multiple types of element groups separately, and
editing or correcting each extracted element group separately, is
inefficient.
[0092] Therefore, a fourth object of the present disclosure is to
provide an information processing apparatus, an information
processing method, and a program that enable operations such as
editing or correcting element groups that conform to a plurality of
types of element groups to be performed more efficiently.
[0093] In a known configuration, when editing or correcting each
element group while focusing on specific element groups including
at least one element in a drawing such as a P&ID, the user
needs to select and extract the element groups to work on from the
drawing visually.
[0094] However, visual extraction of the element group by the user
requires many person-hours and easily leads to human error such as
failing to extract an element group that should be extracted, or
mistakenly extracting an element group that should not be
extracted. In particular, when the work content changes not only
when the type of elements included in an element group matches, but
also according to conditions such as the attribute information on
an element, or the element adjacent to the element group,
extracting the element groups to be processed and selecting
operations requires an enormous amount of person-hours and
increases the possibility of errors.
[0095] Therefore, a fifth object of the present disclosure is to
provide an information processing apparatus, an information
processing method, and a program that enable a user, while focusing
on specific element groups, to efficiently work on element groups
that also conform to a condition desired by the user.
[0096] When a drawing such as a P&ID is created by multiple
people, the creators may communicate with each other by designating
a position or an area in the drawing. However, communication about
drawings has mainly taken place by writing marks or characters by
hand on printed drawings. This requires people to visually search
for marks or characters, making the work complicated. In some
cases, the handwritten marks or characters are written sloppily and
are difficult to distinguish visually. Furthermore, the use of
printed drawings necessitates storage of paper media. In
particular, in the case of sharing the creation of drawings for a
large-scale system such as a plant, it is very difficult to
communicate by writing letters and the like by hand on such paper
media, due to the enormous number of drawings.
[0097] Therefore, a sixth object of the present disclosure is to
provide an information processing apparatus, an information
processing method, and a program that enable multiple people to
create a drawing efficiently.
[0098] In a known configuration, when a user selects an element
group including at least one element from a drawing such as a
P&ID, the user needs to work precisely and carefully to ensure
that the elements to be selected are selected without omission, and
that elements that should not be selected are not selected by
mistake.
[0099] Therefore, a seventh object of the present disclosure is to
provide an information processing apparatus, an information
processing method, and a program that enable a user to quickly
select a desired element group with a simple operation.
[0100] Furthermore, an eighth object of the present disclosure is
to provide an information processing apparatus, an information
processing method, and a program that enable addition, with a
simple operation, of an element to be added to a group of elements
that has been selected.
[0101] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to receive from a user
a selection of a search element group, which is an element group
formed by one or more elements used in a drawing, search from the
drawing an element group that conforms to the search element group
for which the selection is received, and display the searched
element group on a display in correspondence with a position on the
drawing. In this way, the information processing apparatus
automatically searches an element group that conforms to an element
group selected by the user and displays the result on the display.
Accordingly, the user does not need to extract element groups
visually and can easily extract all the element groups conforming
to a specific element group from the drawing with a small number of
person-hours.
[0102] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives the selection of the search
element group by the user on the drawing displayed on the display,
and searches from the drawing an element group that conforms to the
search element group selected by the user on the drawing. In this
way, the information processing apparatus receives the selection of
the search element group in the drawing displayed on the display,
so that the user can easily select the search element group.
[0103] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor displays the drawing on the display so
that the searched element group is displayed in a different manner
from other elements. In this way, since the searched element group
is displayed on the display in a different manner from other
elements, the user can easily recognize the searched element group
in the drawing displayed on the display.
[0104] In the information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor displays an image, on the display,
indicating a distribution in the drawing of each searched element
group. Accordingly, the user can easily grasp where the searched
element groups are located in the drawing by referring to the image
illustrating the distribution of the searched element groups.
[0105] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, a type and arrangement of the elements are specified in
the drawing, and as the element group that conforms to the search
element group, the processor searches, from the drawing, an element
group such that the type of each element included in the element
group and the arrangement of elements match the search element
group. Accordingly, an element group having the same type and
arrangement as the elements included in the search element group
can be searched automatically.
[0106] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, each element used in the drawing has attached thereto
at least one piece of attribute information indicating a property
of the element and/or a condition during operation, and as the
element group that conforms to the search element group, the
processor searches, from the drawing, an element group such that
the type of each element included in the element group, the
attribute information attached to each element, and the arrangement
of elements match the search element group. Accordingly, an element
group having not only the same type and arrangement but also the
same attribute information as the elements included in the search
element group can be searched automatically.
[0107] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor searches, from the drawing, an element
that conforms to a priority element to be prioritized among the
elements included in the search element group, and searches an
element that conforms to an element adjacent to the priority
element included in the search element group from among elements
adjacent to the element that conforms to the priority element and
was searched from the drawing. In this way, the information
processing apparatus narrows down the search target by searching in
order starting from the priority element that is to be prioritized
among the elements included in the search element group. When no
priority element is found, the processing is suspended, thus
enabling efficient searching.
[0108] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor determines which element, among at least
two elements in a connection relationship with each other in the
drawing, is farther upstream based on the connection relationship,
and searches, from the drawing, an element group that conforms to
the search element group and has the element that is farther
upstream as the priority element. In this way, the information
processing apparatus narrows down the search target by searching in
order starting from the element that is farther upstream among the
elements included in the search element group, thus enabling
efficient searching.
[0109] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving from a user a selection
of a search element group, which is an element group formed by one
or more elements used in a drawing, searching from the drawing an
element group that conforms to the search element group for which
the selection is received, and displaying the searched element
group on a display in correspondence with a position on the
drawing. In this way, the information processing method
automatically searches an element group that conforms to an element
group selected by the user and displays the result on the display.
Accordingly, the user does not need to extract element groups
visually and can easily extract all the element groups conforming
to a specific element group from the drawing with a small number of
person-hours.
[0110] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus. The information processing apparatus automatically
searches an element group that conforms to an element group
selected by the user and displays the result on the display.
Accordingly, the user does not need to extract element groups
visually and can easily extract all the element groups conforming
to a specific element group from the drawing with a small number of
person-hours.
[0111] An information control apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to acquire a plurality
of element groups that are identical and formed by one or more
elements used in a drawing, receive from a user a selection of a
common process to be performed on the plurality of element groups,
and perform the common process for which the selection is received
on each element group in the plurality of element groups. In this
way, since the user-selected process is performed on each element
group in the plurality of identical element groups in the drawing,
the same process can be performed on each element group in a batch
with a simple operation.
[0112] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor stores, in a storage, specifying
information that specifies the plurality of element groups that is
acquired, and in response to receipt of a selection of a process
from the user for any element group included in the plurality of
element groups specified by the specifying information, performs
the process as the common process on each element group included in
the plurality of element groups In this way, in response to the
receipt of the selection of a process for any of the element groups
included in the plurality of element groups, the process is
performed on each of the element groups included in the plurality
of element groups. The common process can thereby be performed on
all of the element groups included in the plurality of element
groups, without omission.
[0113] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor performs, as the common process, a
process to replace some or all of the elements included in the
plurality of element groups with at least one element selected by
the user. Accordingly, an element included in each element group in
the plurality of element groups can be replaced at once.
[0114] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor performs, as the common process, a
process to change a type and/or arrangement of the elements
included in the plurality of element groups according to a
selection by the user. Accordingly, the type and/or arrangement of
an element included in each element group in the plurality of
element groups can be changed at once.
[0115] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, each element used in the drawing has attached thereto
at least one piece of attribute information indicating a property
of the element, and the processor performs, as the common process,
a process to change any of the attribute information for at least
one of the elements included in the plurality of element groups
according to a selection by the user. Accordingly, an attribute of
an element included in each element group in the plurality of
element groups can be changed at once.
[0116] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor performs a process to display the
plurality of element groups subject to the common process on a
display in a different manner from elements not included in the
plurality of element groups. Accordingly, the user can easily
confirm the element groups that are subjected in a batch to the
common process.
[0117] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives a selection from the user of a
search element group, which is an element group formed by one or
more elements used in the drawing, and searches from the drawing
element groups that conform to the search element group for which
the selection is received to acquire the plurality of element
groups. Accordingly, the plurality of element groups that are
subjected in a batch to the common process can be acquired
automatically.
[0118] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes acquiring a plurality of element
groups that are identical and formed by one or more elements used
in a drawing, receiving from a user a selection of a common process
to be performed on the plurality of element groups, and performing
the common process for which the selection is received on each
element group in the plurality of element groups. In this way,
since the user-selected process is performed on each element group
in the plurality of identical element groups in the drawing, the
same process can be performed on each element group in a batch with
a simple operation.
[0119] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus. In this way, since the user-selected process is
performed on each element group in the plurality of identical
element groups in the drawing, the same process can be performed on
each element group in a batch with a simple operation.
[0120] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to receive from a user
a selection of a search element group, which is an element group
formed by one or more elements used in a drawing, search from the
drawing, as element groups that conform to the search element group
for which the selection is received, not only element groups that
are completely identical to the search element group but also
element groups that are partially different from the search element
group, and store information, in a storage, indicating a difference
from the search element group with respect to the element groups
that are partially different from the search element group among
the searched element groups. In this way, as element groups that
conform to the search element group selected by the user, not only
element groups that are completely identical to the search element
group but also element groups that are partially different from the
search element group are automatically searched from the drawing,
and the information indicating the differences from the search
element group is stored in the storage. Therefore, the user can
easily extract the defective or deficient elements by referring to
the information, stored in the storage, indicating the
differences.
[0121] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor displays the searched element groups on
the display in a manner enabling identification of the difference
with respect to the element groups that are partially different
from the search element group. Accordingly, the user can easily
grasp the defective or deficient elements in the drawing at a
glance by viewing the element groups that are partially different
from the search element group and are displayed in a manner
enabling identification of the differences.
[0122] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor displays, on the display, a character
string and/or an image indicating a type of the difference with
respect to the element groups that are partially different from the
search element group among the searched element groups.
Accordingly, the user can easily recognize whether a searched
element group differs from the search element group in any respect
by referring to the character string and/or the image indicating
the type of the difference.
[0123] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives from the user a setting of a
retrieval condition for searching the element groups as the element
groups that conform to the search element group despite being
partially different from the search element group.
[0124] Accordingly, the user can set the desired retrieval
conditions according to the application or purpose.
[0125] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor calculates, for each element group in the
searched element groups, a matching degree that is a numerical
value indicating a degree of conformity to the search element
group, and classifies the searched element groups into sets of at
least one element group based on the matching degree. In this way,
by the searched element groups being classified based on the
numerical value indicating the degree of conformity to the search
element group, the user can appropriately and easily handle each
searched element group according to the degree of conformity to the
search element group.
[0126] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives from the user a selection of the
element group, from among the element groups that are partially
different from the search element group in the searched element
groups, to be subjected to a process to be matched to the search
element group and performs, in response to receiving the selection
of the element group from the user, a process to correct the
element group for which the selection is received so that the
element group matches the search element group. Accordingly, with a
simple operation, the user can perform the process to correct an
element group that partially differs from the search element group
among the searched element groups so as to match the search element
group.
[0127] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives a selection of a plurality of
the element groups from the user as the element groups to be
subjected to the process. Accordingly, the user can perform the
process to correct, in a batch, a plurality of element groups that
partially differ from the search element group among the searched
element groups so as to match the search element group.
[0128] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving from a user a selection
of a search element group, which is an element group formed by one
or more elements used in a drawing, searching from the drawing, as
element groups that conform to the search element group for which
the selection is received, not only element groups that are
completely identical to the search element group but also element
groups that are partially different from the search element group,
and storing information, in a storage, indicating a difference from
the search element group with respect to the element groups that
are partially different from the search element group among the
searched element groups. In this way, as element groups that
conform to the search element group selected by the user, not only
element groups that are completely identical to the search element
group but also element groups that are partially different from the
search element group are automatically searched from the drawing,
and the information indicating the differences from the search
element group is stored in the storage. Therefore, the user can
easily extract the defective or deficient elements by referring to
the information, stored in the storage, indicating the
differences.
[0129] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus. In this way, as element groups that conform to the
search element group selected by the user, not only element groups
that are completely identical to the search element group but also
element groups that are partially different from the search element
group are automatically searched from the drawing, and the
information indicating the differences from the search element
group is stored in the storage. Therefore, the user can easily
extract the defective or deficient elements by referring to the
information, stored in the storage, indicating the differences.
[0130] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to acquire a first
element group and a second element group formed by elements used in
a drawing, extract a third element group, which is an element group
included in common in the first element group and the second
element group, from the first element group and the second element
group, and arrange the first element group, the second element
group, and the third element group in a hierarchy such that the
third element group belongs to a higher level than the first
element group and the second element group and store the hierarchy
in a storage. In this way, a third element group, which is an
element group included in common in the first and second element
groups, is automatically extracted and is arranged and stored in a
hierarchy such that the third element group belongs to a higher
level than the first element group and the second element group.
Accordingly, by performing operations based on the third element
group belonging to a higher level of the hierarchy, the user can
perform operations more efficiently than when performing operations
on each of the first and second element groups separately.
[0131] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor extracts one element, or a plurality of
elements connected to each other in an identical arrangement, that
is included in common in the first element group and the second
element group, and for which a corresponding element type and
attribute information are identical and a number of elements is
largest, as the third element group. In this way, the plurality of
elements with the largest number of elements connected to each
other that are included in common in the first and second element
groups are extracted as third elements, enabling appropriate
arrangement of the element groups in a hierarchy and contributing
to improving the efficiency of work.
[0132] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor extracts an element group formed by at
least one element included in common in the first element group and
the second element group, for which a corresponding element type
and attribute information are identical, and in which a particular
element is adjacent to an identical outside element that is outside
the element group, as the third element group, and includes the
identical outside element in the third element group. In this way,
an identical element that is included in common in the first and
second element groups and is adjacent to an identical outside
element that is outside the element group is extracted as the third
element, enabling appropriate arrangement of the element groups in
a hierarchy based even on the elements outside the element
group.
[0133] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives from a user a setting to set a
condition for extraction as the element group included in common in
the first element group and the second element group, and extracts
the third element group from the first element group and the second
element group based on the set condition. In this way, the user can
freely set the conditions for extraction as the element group
included in common in the first and second element groups, which
enables appropriate arrangement of the element groups in a
hierarchy according to the application or purpose.
[0134] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor displays a hierarchical relationship
among the first element group, the second element group, and the
third element group on a display. Accordingly, the user can easily
grasp the hierarchical relationship between the element groups.
[0135] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives from a user a selection of a
process to be performed on the third element group, and performs
the process for which the selection is received on each third
element group used in the drawing. Accordingly, the user can
perform a process in a batch on the third element group belonging
to a higher level of the hierarchy and can thus perform operations
more efficiently than when performing operations on each of the
first and second element groups separately.
[0136] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes acquiring a first element group
and a second element group formed by elements used in a drawing,
extracting a third element group, which is an element group
included in common in the first element group and the second
element group, from the first element group and the second element
group, and arranging the first element group, the second element
group, and the third element group in a hierarchy such that the
third element group belongs to a higher level than the first
element group and the second element group and storing the
hierarchy in a storage. In this way, a third element group, which
is an element group included in common in the first and second
element groups, is automatically extracted and is arranged and
stored in a hierarchy such that the third element group belongs to
a higher level than the first element group and the second element
group. Accordingly, by performing operations based on the third
element group belonging to a higher level of the hierarchy, the
user can perform operations more efficiently than when performing
operations on each of the first and second element groups
separately.
[0137] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus. In this way, a third element group, which is an element
group included in common in the first and second element groups, is
automatically extracted and is arranged and stored in a hierarchy
such that the third element group belongs to a higher level than
the first element group and the second element group. Accordingly,
by performing operations based on the third element group belonging
to a higher level of the hierarchy, the user can perform operations
more efficiently than when performing operations on each of the
first and second element groups separately.
[0138] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to receive from a user
a selection of a first element group, which is an element group
formed by one or more elements used in a drawing, search from the
drawing element groups that conform to the first element group for
which the selection is received, classify the element groups
conforming to the first element group into an element group
conforming to a second element group and an element group
conforming to a third element group based on a predetermined
condition or a condition designated by the user, and arrange the
second element group and the third element group in a hierarchy to
belong to a lower level than the first element group and store the
hierarchy in a storage. In this way, the first element group is
focused on to extract element groups that conform to the first
element group from the drawing, and the extracted element groups
are then subdivided into the second and third element groups based
on a predetermined condition or a condition designated by the user.
Therefore, while focusing on specific element groups, the user can
efficiently perform operations on element groups that also conform
to a condition desired by the user.
[0139] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, among the element groups conforming to the first
element group, the processor classifies an element group for which
attribute information for at least one element included in the
element group satisfies a certain condition into an element group
conforming to the second element group, and classifies an element
group that does not satisfy the certain condition into an element
group conforming to the third element group. In this way, by the
element groups conforming to the first element group being further
subdivided based on the attribute information on the elements
included in the element groups, the user can, while focusing on
specific element groups, efficiently perform operations on element
groups that also conform to a condition desired by the user.
[0140] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, among the element groups conforming to the first
element group, the processor classifies an element group for which
an element adjacent to the element group satisfies a certain
condition into an element group conforming to the second element
group, and classifies an element group for which an element
adjacent to the element group does not satisfy the certain
condition into an element group conforming to the third element
group. In this way, by the element groups conforming to the first
element group being further subdivided based on an element adjacent
to the element group, the user can, while focusing on specific
element groups, efficiently perform operations on element groups
that also conform to a condition desired by the user.
[0141] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor displays an image or text information
indicating a hierarchical relationship among the first element
group, the second element group, and the third element group on a
display. Accordingly, the user can easily grasp the hierarchical
relationship between the element groups.
[0142] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor displays the drawing in a manner enabling
identification of portions corresponding to the first element
group, the second element group, and the third element group on a
display. Accordingly, the user can easily grasp which portions in
the drawing correspond to the first, second, and third element
groups.
[0143] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives from the user a selection of an
element group from among the first element group, the second
element group, and the third element group, receives from the user
a selection of a common process to be performed on element groups
that conform to the element group for which the selection is
received, and performs the common process for which the selection
is received on each element group that conforms to the element
group. In this way, since the common process is performed on each
element group conforming to the element group selected by the user
in the drawing, the same process can be performed on each element
group in a batch with a simple operation.
[0144] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving from a user a selection
of a first element group, which is an element group formed by one
or more elements used in a drawing, searching from the drawing
element groups that conform to the first element group for which
the selection is received, classifying the element groups
conforming to the first element group into an element group
conforming to a second element group and an element group
conforming to a third element group based on a predetermined
condition or a condition designated by the user, and arranging the
second element group and the third element group in a hierarchy to
belong to a lower level than the first element group and storing
the hierarchy in a storage. In this way, the first element group is
focused on to extract element groups that conform to the first
element group from the drawing, and the extracted element groups
are then subdivided into the second and third element groups based
on a predetermined condition or a condition designated by the user.
Therefore, while focusing on specific element groups, the user can
efficiently perform operations on element groups that also conform
to a condition desired by the user.
[0145] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus. In this way, the first element group is focused on to
extract element groups that conform to the first element group from
the drawing, and the extracted element groups are then subdivided
into the second and third element groups based on a predetermined
condition or a condition designated by the user. Therefore, while
focusing on specific element groups, the user can efficiently
perform operations on element groups that also conform to a
condition desired by the user.
[0146] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to receive a selection
of a position or a region in a drawing from a first user, receive
assignment of a communication item for a second user from the first
user to the position or the region for which the selection from the
first user is received, store marking information indicating the
position or the region for which the selection from the first user
is received and communication information indicating the
communication item in association in a storage, and display the
communication item on a display in correspondence with the position
or the region, on the drawing, to which the communication item is
assigned. In this way, the communication item for the second user
from the first user is displayed at a corresponding position or
region on the drawing, thereby enabling the second user to easily
grasp the position or region to be confirmed in the drawing and the
communication item corresponding to the position or region.
Accordingly, multiple people can efficiently create a drawing.
[0147] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor displays the drawing on the display by
indicating the position or the region, on the drawing, indicated by
the marking information in a different manner from other positions
or regions. In this way, the position or region of the drawing to
which the communication item was assigned is displayed in a
different manner from other positions or regions, thereby enabling
the second user to easily grasp the position or region of the
drawing to which the communication item was assigned. Accordingly,
multiple people can efficiently create a drawing.
[0148] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor switches and displays the position or the
region to which the communication item is assigned on the display
in response to a specific operation input by the first user or the
second user. In this way, the position or region to which the
communication item was assigned is switched and displayed in
response to the operation input by the user, thereby enabling
confirmation of the location to which the communication item was
assigned without omission.
[0149] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives, from the first user, a
selection of a degree of importance indicating a priority of
responding for each position or region for which the selection from
the first user is received, stores, for each position or region for
which the selection from the first user is received, degree of
importance information indicating a degree of importance of the
position or the region in the storage in association with the
marking information, and switches and displays the position or the
region to which the communication item is assigned in descending
order of the degree of importance of the position or the region on
the display in response to the specific operation input by the
first user or the second user. In this way, the position or region
is switched in descending order of the degree of importance in
response to the operation input by the user, thereby enabling
confirmation of the locations to which the communication items were
assigned in descending order of need for consideration.
[0150] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives the assignment of the
communication item by character input or an operation to select
from among options. Accordingly, the user can assign a
communication item to a position or region in the drawing by
character input or an operation to select from among options.
[0151] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives assignment of a second
communication item from the second user for the position or the
region for which the selection from the first user is received,
stores second communication information that is communication
information indicating the second communication item in the storage
in association with the marking information indicating the position
or the region to which assignment of the second communication item
is received, or in association with other communication information
already stored in association with the marking information, and
displays the second communication item on the display in
correspondence with the position or the region to which the second
communication item is assigned. In this way, not only the
communication item from the first user, but also the communication
item from the second user are displayed in correspondence with the
position or region in the drawing, thereby making it easy to grasp
the discussion at the location of interest in the drawing.
[0152] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor stores, for each piece of the marking
information, response information indicating whether the second
user or the first user has responded to or confirmed the position
or the region to which the first communication item, which is a
communication item from the first user to the second user, or the
second communication item is assigned, the processor storing the
response information in the storage in association with the marking
information corresponding to the response information, and displays
on the display, for each position or region to which the
communication item is assigned, a mark indicating whether the
second user or the first user has responded to or confirmed the
communication item based on the response information. In this way,
the mark indicates whether another user has responded to or
confirmed the position or region to which the communication item
was assigned by a certain user, making it easy to distinguish
between locations that have been responded to and locations that
have not been responded to.
[0153] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving a selection of a
position or a region in a drawing from a first user, receiving
assignment of a communication item for a second user from the first
user to the position or the region for which the selection from the
first user is received, storing marking information indicating the
position or the region for which the selection from the first user
is received and communication information indicating the
communication item in association in a storage, and displaying the
communication item on a display in correspondence with the position
or the region, on the drawing, to which the communication item is
assigned. In this way, the communication item for the second user
from the first user is displayed at a corresponding position or
region on the drawing, thereby enabling the second user to easily
grasp the position or region to be confirmed in the drawing and the
communication item corresponding to the position or region.
Accordingly, multiple people can efficiently create a drawing.
[0154] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus. In this way, the communication item for the second user
from the first user is displayed at a corresponding position or
region on the drawing, thereby enabling the second user to easily
grasp the position or region to be confirmed in the drawing and the
communication item corresponding to the position or region.
Accordingly, multiple people can efficiently create a drawing.
[0155] An information processing apparatus according to some
embodiments includes a processor configured to receive a selection
from a user of a region, in a drawing in which elements are
indicated by graphics, that contains a plurality of the graphics,
extract from the drawing one or more first elements, indicated by
the graphics, that are completely contained within the region for
which the selection is received, extract from the drawing one or
more second elements, indicated by the graphics, that intersect a
boundary of the region for which the selection is received, extract
a third element from the one or more second elements based on a
positional relationship between the graphics indicating the one or
more second elements and the boundary; and store a set of elements
including the one or more first elements and the third element in a
storage as an element group selected by the user. In this way, the
elements indicated by the graphics included within the region
selected by the user are not simply selected as an element group,
but the elements to be included in the element group are extracted
from the elements indicated by the graphics intersecting with the
boundary of the region based on the positional relationship between
the boundary of the region and the graphics. Therefore, the user
can quickly select the desired element group by a simple operation,
without needing to perform a precise and careful operation.
[0156] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, as the third element, the processor extracts, from
among the one or more second elements, a second element for which a
ratio of an area of a portion, included within the region, of the
graphic indicating the second element to an area of the graphic as
a whole is a predetermined value or more. In this way, the elements
whose graphics partially protrude from the boundary of the region
are also included in the element group, enabling the user to select
the desired element group quickly by a simple operation, without
needing to perform a precise and careful operation.
[0157] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, a connection relationship between the elements in the
drawing is indicated by connecting lines, and as the third element,
the processor extracts an element among the one or more second
elements that is connected by the same connecting line as any first
element among the one or more first elements. In this way, among
the elements of the graphics through which the boundary of the
region passes, the elements in a connection relationship with a
first element whose graphic is included within the region are
included in the element group, enabling the user to select the
desired element group quickly by a simple operation, without
needing to perform a precise and careful operation.
[0158] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor extracts the third element based on a
positional relationship between the boundary of the region and a
center of each graphic indicating the one or more second elements.
In this way, among the elements of the graphics through which the
boundary of the region passes, the elements to be included in the
element group are extracted based on the positional relationship
between the center of each graphic and the boundary of the region,
enabling the user to select the desired element group quickly by a
simple operation, without needing to perform a precise and careful
operation.
[0159] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor extracts the third element based on a
positional relationship between a point of intersection of the
boundary of the region with a periphery of each graphic indicating
the one or more second elements and a center of the graphic. In
this way, among the elements of the graphics through which the
boundary of the region passes, the elements to be included in the
element group are extracted based on the positional relationship
between the point on intersection between the periphery of the
graphic with the boundary of the region and the center of the
graphic. Therefore, the user can quickly select the desired element
group by a simple operation, without needing to perform a precise
and careful operation.
[0160] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives the selection of the region from
the user by taking a trajectory drawn on the drawing by an
operation with a pointing device or an operation on a touch panel
as the boundary of the region. Accordingly, the user can easily
select a desired element group by an operation with a pointing
device or an operation on a touch panel.
[0161] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor receives a first operation for a first
position of the drawing by a pointing device or a touch panel,
receives a second operation for a second position of the drawing by
the pointing device or the touch panel, and receives, from the
user, a selection of a rectangular region having the first position
and the second position as ends of a diagonal. Accordingly, the
user can easily select a desired element group by an operation with
a pointing device or an operation on a touch panel.
[0162] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving a selection from a user
of a region, in a drawing in which elements are indicated by
graphics, that contains a plurality of the graphics, extracting
from the drawing one or more first elements, indicated by the
graphics, that are completely contained within the region for which
the selection is received, extracting from the drawing one or more
second elements indicated by graphics that intersect a boundary of
the region for which the selection is received, extracting a third
element from the one or more second elements based on a positional
relationship between the graphics indicating the one or more second
elements and the boundary, and storing a set of elements including
the one or more first elements and the third element in a storage
as an element group selected by the user. In this way, the elements
indicated by the graphics included within the region selected by
the user are not simply selected as an element group, but the
elements to be included in the element group are extracted from the
elements indicated by the graphics intersecting with the boundary
of the region based on the positional relationship between the
boundary of the region and the graphics. Therefore, the user can
quickly select the desired element group by a simple operation,
without needing to perform a precise and careful operation.
[0163] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus. In this way, the elements indicated by the graphics
included within the region selected by the user are not simply
selected as an element group, but the elements to be included in
the element group are extracted from the elements indicated by the
graphics intersecting with the boundary of the region based on the
positional relationship between the boundary of the region and the
graphics. Therefore, the user can quickly select the desired
element group by a simple operation, without needing to perform a
precise and careful operation.
[0164] An information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment includes a processor configured to receive a selection
from a user of a region, in a drawing in which elements are
indicated by graphics, that contains one or more graphics
indicating one or more first elements, receive a selection from the
user of a second element after receipt of the selection of the
region, and store, based on a time from receipt of the selection of
the region until receipt of the selection of the second element
and/or a positional relationship between the region and a graphic
indicating the second element, a set of elements including the one
or more first elements contained in the region for which the
selection was received or a set of elements including the one or
more first elements and the second element in a storage as an
element group selected by the user. In this way, based on the time
from selection of the region until selection of the graphic and/or
the positional relationship between the selected region and the
graphic, it is determined whether only the elements indicated by
the graphics contained within the region are to be used as the
element group, or whether the element indicated by the graphic
selected after selection of the region is to be included in the
element group. Accordingly, it can be automatically determined
whether an operation performed after selection of the region is
related to the most recent selection operation or is a new
selection operation, and an element to be added to an already
selected element group can be added by a simple operation.
[0165] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor stores the set of elements including the
one or more first elements and the second element in the storage as
the element group selected by the user in a case in which the time
from receipt of the selection of the region until receipt of the
selection of the second element is within a predetermined time.
Therefore, after the user has selected an element group, the user
can add an element to the element group by selecting the element
within a predetermined time. Accordingly, an element to be added to
an already selected element group can be added by a simple
operation.
[0166] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor stores the set of elements including the
one or more first elements and the second element in the storage as
the element group selected by the user in a case in which a
distance between the region and the graphic indicating the second
element is equal to or less than a predetermined distance.
Therefore, after the user has selected an element group, the user
can select an element located near the element group to add the
element to the element group. Accordingly, an element to be added
to an already selected element group can be added by a simple
operation.
[0167] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, a connection relationship between the elements in the
drawing is indicated by connecting lines, and the processor stores
the set of elements including the one or more first elements and
the second element in the storage as the element group selected by
the user in a case in which the second element is connected by the
same connecting line as at least one first element among the one or
more first elements. Therefore, after the user has selected an
element group, the user can select an element that is located on
the same connecting line as, and has a strong relationship with,
any of the elements in the element group to add the element to the
element group. Accordingly, an element to be added to an already
selected element group can be added by a simple operation.
[0168] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor extracts, as the one or more first
elements, an element indicated by a graphic that intersects a
boundary of the region for which the selection is received in
addition to the elements indicated by the graphics contained inside
the region. Accordingly, not only the elements whose graphics are
entirely included within the selected region, but also elements
whose graphics intersect the boundary of the region can be
extracted as first elements, enabling the user to select a desired
element group with a simple operation.
[0169] In an information processing apparatus according to an
embodiment, the processor stores the set of elements including the
one or more first elements and the second element in the storage as
the element group selected by the user in a case in which an
operation is performed by the user to drag the graphic indicating
the second element to the region after the selection of the region
is received. Accordingly, the user can select a desired element
group with an intuitive, understandable operation.
[0170] An information processing method according to some
embodiments is to be performed by a processor of an information
processing apparatus and includes receiving a selection from a user
of a region, in a drawing in which elements are indicated by
graphics, that contains one or more graphics indicating one or more
first elements; receiving a selection from the user of a second
element after receipt of the selection of the region; and storing,
based on a time from receipt of the selection of the region until
receipt of the selection of the second element and/or a positional
relationship between the region and a graphic indicating the second
element, a set of elements including the one or more first elements
contained in the region for which the selection was received or a
set of elements including the one or more first elements and the
second element in a storage as an element group selected by the
user. In this way, based on the time from selection of the region
until selection of the graphic and/or the positional relationship
between the selected region and the graphic, it is determined
whether only the elements indicated by the graphics contained
within the region are to be used as the element group, or whether
the element indicated by the graphic selected after selection of
the region is to be included in the element group. Accordingly, it
can be automatically determined whether an operation performed
after selection of the region is related to the most recent
selection operation or is a new selection operation, and an element
to be added to an already selected element group can be added by a
simple operation.
[0171] A program according to an embodiment is configured to cause
a computer to function as the aforementioned information processing
apparatus. In this way, based on the time from selection of the
region until selection of the graphic and/or the positional
relationship between the selected region and the graphic, it is
determined whether only the elements indicated by the graphics
contained within the region are to be used as the element group, or
whether the element indicated by the graphic selected after
selection of the region is to be included in the element group.
Accordingly, it can be automatically determined whether an
operation performed after selection of the region is related to the
most recent selection operation or is a new selection operation,
and an element to be added to an already selected element group can
be added by a simple operation.
[0172] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, all
element groups conforming to a particular element group can easily
be extracted from a drawing with a small number of person-hours.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the same
process can also be performed in a batch with a simple operation on
a plurality of identical element groups that include at least one
element. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure,
defective or deficient elements can also easily be extracted from a
drawing with a small number of person-hours. According to an
embodiment of the present disclosure, operations such as editing or
correcting element groups that conform to a plurality of types of
element groups can also be performed more efficiently. According to
an embodiment of the present disclosure, the user can, while
focusing on specific element groups, efficiently perform operations
on element groups that also conform to a condition desired by the
user. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure,
multiple people can efficiently create a drawing. According to an
embodiment of the present disclosure, a desired element group can
be selected quickly with a simple operation. According to an
embodiment of the present disclosure, an element to be added to an
already selected element group can be added by a simple
operation.
COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE
[0173] PTL 1 discloses an operation system for performing a touch
operation on a monitoring screen displayed on an operator
monitoring operation terminal in a plant monitoring and control
system for controlling the operation of plant devices. In this
configuration, a user can display details of a drawing illustrating
the configuration of the plant system and switch the display mode
by performing a touch operation on a symbol indicating the plant
device.
[0174] In a system such as a plant, a plurality of plant devices
may be combined in a certain arrangement and used in multiple
locations. Therefore, in the stage of creating or updating a
drawing such as a P&ID illustrating the configuration of a
plant or the like, the user may in some cases edit or correct each
element group that conforms to a specific element group formed by
one or more elements. In such cases, the user needs to visually
select and extract the element group to be edited or corrected from
the drawing.
[0175] However, visual extraction of the element group by the user
requires many person-hours and easily leads to human error such as
failing to extract an element group that should be extracted, or
mistakenly extracting an element group that should not be
extracted. In particular, when extracting element groups visually
from drawings of a large-scale system such as a plant, an enormous
amount of person-hours or labor is required, and the possibility of
errors increases.
[0176] [Embodiments of Present Disclosure]
[0177] Embodiments of the present disclosure are now described with
reference to the drawings. Identical or equivalent portions in the
drawings are labeled with the same reference signs. In the
explanation of the embodiments, a description of identical or
equivalent portions is omitted or simplified as appropriate.
First Embodiment
(Configuration of Information Processing System)
[0178] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of an
information processing system 1 that includes an information
processing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present
disclosure. The information processing system 1 includes the
information processing apparatus 10, an input interface 14, a
display 15, a terminal 120, a terminal 130, an external storage
apparatus 140, and a network 150. The information processing
apparatus 10, the terminal 120, the terminal 130, and the external
storage apparatus 140 are communicably connected to each other by
the network 150. There is no requirement for the quantity of
terminals 120 and 130, and desktop terminals, portable terminals
(such as laptop personal computers (PC), tablets, or smartphones),
and the like may be used as appropriate.
[0179] The information processing apparatus 10 automatically
retrieves (searches) from the drawing element groups that conform
to the element group selected by the user 201, thereby enabling
easy extraction of all element groups that conform to a specific
element group from the drawing with a small number of person-hours.
The information processing apparatus 10 is one server apparatus or
a plurality of communicably connected server apparatuses. The
information processing apparatus 10 itself includes a display and
may display the results of element group retrieval and the like to
the user, or another terminal may receive the process performed on
the information processing apparatus 10 and display the results.
The information processing apparatus 10 may be any general-purpose
electronic device, such as a work station (WS) or a PC, or any
other dedicated electronic device. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the
information processing apparatus 10 includes a controller 11, a
storage 12, and a communication interface 13, and is
communicatively connected to the input interface 14 and the display
15. In this specification, both the retrieval and search of the
drawing elements, the element groups and so on means the detection
of them.
[0180] The controller 11 includes one or more processors. The
"processor" in an embodiment is a general-purpose processor or a
dedicated processor specialized for particular processing, but
these examples are not limiting. The controller 11 is communicably
connected with each component of the information processing
apparatus 10 and controls operations of the information processing
apparatus 10 overall. The controller 11 includes the one or more
processors which execute a processing, for example, based on a
program according to the embodiment, in the information processing
apparatus 10 according to the embodiment.
[0181] The storage 12 may include any appropriate storage module,
such as an HDD, SSD, EEPROM, ROM, or RAM. The storage 12 may, for
example, function as a main memory, an auxiliary memory, or a cache
memory. The storage 12 stores any information used for operations
of the information processing apparatus 10. For example, the
storage 12 may store a system program, an application program,
various types of information received by the communication
interface 13, and the like. The storage 12 is not limited to being
internal to the information processing apparatus 10 and may be an
external database or an external storage module connected through a
digital input/output port or the like, such as USB. "HDD" is an
abbreviation of Hard Disk Drive. "SSD" is an abbreviation of Solid
State Drive. "EEPROM" is an abbreviation of Electrically Erasable
Programmable Read-Only Memory. "ROM" is an abbreviation of
Read-Only Memory. "RAM" is an abbreviation of Random Access Memory.
"USB" is an abbreviation of Universal Serial Bus.
[0182] In the present embodiment, the storage 12 includes a group
storage 121, a rule storage 122, and a drawing storage 123. The
group storage 121 stores a group list 131 element groups, which are
each a set (group) of elements formed by at least one element
included in the drawing. The information processing apparatus 10
handles a drawing representing a configuration of a system such as
a plant. The elements in the drawing indicate various devices
configuring the system.
[0183] The rule storage 122 stores rules, such as semantic models
132, used for retrieving element groups from the drawing and for
interpreting the element groups. In the present embodiment, the
information processing apparatus 10 may use pattern matching, image
recognition, or the like to recognize the drawing and constituent
elements of element groups in the drawing in terms of external form
and shape, and may use semantic models, graph theory, ontology, and
the like to grasp and interpret the contents of the element groups.
The rule storage 122 stores the information necessary for such
retrieval and interpretation. A semantic model is a model that
represents drawings, used in engineering of a process control
system, by way of first information that indicates elements
included in the drawings and second information that indicates
relationships among the elements. The rule storage 122 may also
store description rules of the drawings to be subjected to
searching and the like. The description rules of the drawings are
notation rules that differ for each drawing and may, for example,
be a series of rules such as "in this drawing, a tank is indicated
by this symbol" or "a solid red line indicates ---". These examples
are not limiting, and it suffices for the rule storage 122 to store
at least one piece of information regarding the rules necessary for
processing the drawings.
[0184] The drawing storage 123 stores data for the drawings 133.
The drawings represent a large-scale system, such as a plant, using
numerous elements. In each drawing, the type and attribute
information on each element, the arrangement of the elements, and
the like are specified. Attribute information is information that
indicates the properties of the element, conditions at the time of
operation, and the like. At least one piece of attribute
information is attached to each element in the drawing. For
example, as a property of the element "tank", attribute information
indicating the material of the tank (such as stainless steel) or
the like may be attached to the element. Alternatively, as a
condition at the time of operation, for example, a value or the
like serving as a condition that a specific operation be performed
when the amount of the content exceeds a certain value (such as 500
liters) may be attached as the attribute information. Information
indicating which element is located upstream or downstream between
two elements in a connection relationship with each other in the
drawing may be predetermined, and such information may be stored in
the drawing 133 itself. The information indicating which element is
located upstream or downstream between elements in a connection
relationship may be information instructing that a determination be
made from the positional relationship on the drawing, such as that
elements at the upper left and upper part of the drawing correspond
to upstream elements, or may be information such as From/To
information in a digital P&ID. Some or all of the information
stored in the group storage 121, the rule storage 122, and the
drawing storage 123 may be stored in the external storage apparatus
140. The drawings are maintained as vector data or the like in a
digital P&ID. Alternatively, the drawings may be maintained as
bitmap data obtained by scanning drawings on paper (such as a
handwritten drawing or a drawing created with CAD or the like and
printed out), or the result of converting bitmap data to a
different format (such as raster data or vector data).
[0185] The communication interface 13 includes any appropriate
communication module capable of connecting to and communicating
with the input interface 14, the display 15, or another apparatus
such as the terminal 130, by any appropriate communication
technology. The communication interface 13 may further include a
communication control module for controlling communication with
other apparatuses and a storage module for storing communication
data, such as identification information, necessary for
communicating with other apparatuses.
[0186] The input interface 14 includes one or more input interfaces
that receive an input operation from a user 201 and acquire input
information based on the operation by the user 201. In the present
embodiment, the case of the input interface 14 being configured by
a touchscreen integrally provided with a display of the display 15
is described as an example. However, the input interface 14 may
instead be configured by physical keys, capacitive keys, a
keyboard, a pointing device, or the like. A region in the drawing
may be selected by moving a cursor or the like to a desired
position by operation of a pointing device, a trackball, a touch
pad, or the like.
[0187] The display 15 is a display that displays an image of a
drawing or other information to the user 201. The display 15 is,
for example, configured by a liquid crystal display (LCD), an
organic electro-luminescence (EL) display, or the like. At least
one of the input interface 14 and the display 15 described above
may be formed integrally with the information processing apparatus
10 or be provided separately. For example, the information
processing apparatus 10 may specialize exclusively in processing,
and the user may confirm the display on the display of the terminal
120, terminal 130, or the like that receives the processing
results.
[0188] The functions of the information processing apparatus 10 can
be implemented by the processor included in the controller 11
executing a program (computer program) according to the present
embodiment. That is, the functions of the information processing
apparatus 10 can be implemented by software. The program causes a
computer to execute the processing of the steps included in the
operations of the information processing apparatus 10 to implement
the functions corresponding to the processing of the steps. That
is, the program is a program for causing a computer to function as
the information processing apparatus 10 according to the present
embodiment.
[0189] The program can be recorded on a computer-readable recording
medium. The computer-readable recording medium is, for example, a
magnetic recording apparatus, an optical disc, a magneto-optical
recording medium, or a semiconductor memory. The program is, for
example, distributed by the sale, transfer, or lending of a
portable recording medium such as a DVD or CD-ROM on which the
program is recorded. "DVD" is an abbreviation of Digital Versatile
Disc. "CD-ROM" is an abbreviation of Compact Disc Read Only Memory.
The program may be distributed by being stored on a storage of a
server and transferred from the server to another computer over a
network. The program may be provided as a program product.
[0190] For example, the computer can temporarily store, in the main
memory, the program recorded on the portable recording medium or
transferred from the server. The computer uses a processor to read
the program stored in the main memory and executes processing with
the processor in accordance with the read program. The computer may
read the program directly from the portable recording medium and
execute processing in accordance with the program. Each time the
program is transferred from the server to the computer, the
computer may sequentially execute processing in accordance with the
received program. Such processing may be executed by an ASP type of
service that implements functions only via execution instructions
and result acquisition, without transferring the program from the
server to the computer. "ASP" is an abbreviation of Application
Service Provider. Examples of the program include an equivalent to
the program represented as information provided for processing by
an electronic computer. For example, data that is not a direct
command for a computer but that has the property of specifying
processing by the computer corresponds to the "equivalent to the
program".
[0191] A portion or all of the functions of the information
processing apparatus 10 may be implemented by a dedicated circuit
included in the controller 11. In other words, a portion or all of
the functions of the information processing apparatus 10 may be
implemented by hardware. Furthermore, the information processing
apparatus 10 may be implemented by a single information processing
apparatus or implemented by cooperation between a plurality of
information processing apparatuses, terminals 120, 130, or the
like.
[0192] The terminal 120 is an information processing apparatus used
by a user 202. The terminal 130 is an information processing
apparatus used by a user 203. In the present embodiment, an example
in which the user 201 operates the information processing apparatus
10 via the input interface 14 and the display 15 is described, but
the information processing apparatus 10 may be used via the network
150 from an apparatus such as the terminal 120 or the terminal
130.
[0193] The external storage apparatus 140 is a storage apparatus
that complements the storage of the storage 12 in the information
processing apparatus 10. As described above, some or all of the
information stored in the group storage 121, the rule storage 122,
and the drawing storage 123 may be stored in the external storage
apparatus 140. The external storage apparatus 140 may be
implemented by any storage apparatus such as an HDD or SSD.
[0194] (Example Operations)
[0195] FIGS. 2 to 4 are diagrams illustrating examples of screens
on the display 15 connected to the information processing apparatus
10. As illustrated in FIG. 2, a display area 151 of a drawing
illustrating a configuration of the plant and a display area 152
illustrating information on an element group selected in the
drawing are displayed on the screen of the display 15.
[0196] FIG. 2 illustrates an example in which a user 201 selects a
region 21 in the drawing by a touch operation 81 on the touch
panel, and an element group (group) formed by a valve, an element
A, and an element B is selected. The selection of the element group
may, for example, be performed by a cursor movement operation by a
pointing device or the like, instead of a touch operation on the
touch panel by a finger, a touch pen, or the like.
[0197] The selected element group, the arrangement thereof,
attribute information, and the like may be stored in the group
storage 121 of the storage 12 as registered group information. In
the example in FIG. 2, the selected element group is the second
registered group and is assigned an identifier of group No. 002.
The information processing apparatus 10 may store a large number of
element groups to enable subsequent reuse.
[0198] FIG. 2 illustrates an example in which a display area 31 of
elements related to the selected group and a display area 32 of
information, such as attribute information, set for the group are
displayed in the display area 152 on the right side of the screen.
The display area 152 may be used as a UI (User Interface) for the
user 201 to refer to the information about the group or to perform
operations such as editing, information analysis, or screen
transition.
[0199] The information displayed in the display area 152 may be
displayed by a pop-up window or the like in the vicinity of the
region 21 selected by the user 201 in the drawing.
[0200] FIG. 3 illustrates a process in which an element group that
conforms to an element group included in the region 21 is retrieved
from the drawing. In response to the user 201 selecting the region
21 to select an element group, the controller 11 of the information
processing apparatus 10 treats the element group as a search
element group, retrieves element groups that conform to the search
element group from the drawing, and displays the retrieved element
groups together with the drawing displayed on the display 15.
[0201] In the example in FIG. 3, the element group selected by the
user is formed by three elements: the valve, the element A, and the
element B, from upstream to downstream. The controller 11 first
retrieves, from the drawing, a valve that is identical to the valve
farthest upstream in the search element group (a valve for which
attribute information, such as model number and setting, and
necessary conditions match). Next, the controller 11 checks whether
there is an element A that is connected adjacent to the downstream
side of the retrieved valve. Next, the controller 11 checks whether
there is an element B at the downstream end. If all the elements
and their arrangement match the search element group, the
controller 11 determines that they are the same group. In the
example in FIG. 3, the element groups 21 to 24 in FIG. 3 are
extracted as candidates through the process of searching for the
element A. However, since the element group 23 includes an element
C different from the search element group as the element farthest
downstream, the controller 11 determines that the element group 23
does not belong to the search target.
[0202] In this way, the controller 11 identifies the element
farthest upstream, for example, in the element group included in
the search element group as a priority element to be prioritized
and retrieves an element conforming to the priority element in the
drawing. Next, the controller 11 determines in order, starting from
the priority element, whether other adjacent elements conform to
the search element group. Accordingly, even if a priority element
is detected, in a case in which an adjacent element does not
conform, the process of comparing with the search element group is
suspended with respect to the priority element at the moment when
the adjacent element does not conform, thereby making the process
more efficient. The controller 11 determines which element is
farther upstream, among at least two elements in a connection
relationship with each other in at least one drawing, based on the
connection relationship of the elements in light of information on
the drawing. Specifically, information indicating which element is
located upstream or downstream between two elements in a connection
relationship with each other, for example, may be predetermined,
and the controller 11 may determine which element is located
upstream by referring to this information. Alternatively, for
example, if there is a description rule that elements that are more
upstream are listed to the left or above in the drawing, the
controller 11 may determine which element is upstream based on the
description rule, by referring to the positional relationship of
the plurality of elements that are in a connection relationship
with each other. In that case, if a description rule is applied in
the drawing so that an element that is upstream is listed to the
left or above as a general rule, but for a specific fluid (such as
a gas), an element that is upstream is listed below, the controller
11 may determine the element that is farther upstream based on such
a description rule. Alternatively, as described above, if the
drawing itself contains information (such as From/To in a digital
P&ID) indicating which element is upstream or downstream among
elements, the controller 11 may use this information to determine
which element is upstream. In addition, the priority element is not
limited to the element farthest upstream in the search element
group. An element with a high degree of importance in a drawing or
an element group may be determined according to a priority order in
rule data stored in the rule storage 122 or the like in the system,
or may be set by user designation.
[0203] The controller 11 retrieves from the drawing, as an element
group conforming to the search element group, an element group for
which the type of each element forming the element group, the
attribute information held by each element, and the arrangement
(order of connection) between elements are determined to match the
search element group, but the criteria for determining conformity
to the search element group are not limited to these examples. For
example, as an element group that conforms to the search element
group, the controller 11 may retrieve an element group for which
the type of each element forming the element group and the
arrangement between elements match the search element group, even
if at least a portion of the attribute information does not match.
The controller 11 may receive a setting from the user 201
indicating what range of element groups are to be determined to
conform to the search element group. Settings like these that are
frequently used may be stored in the rule storage 122 or the like
and used as needed. New settings or changes to existing settings by
the user may also be stored in the rule storage 122 or the like and
reused.
[0204] FIG. 4 illustrates an example in which element groups that
conform to an element group included in region 21 of the display
area 151 are retrieved from the drawing and displayed. The
controller 11 may display the drawing on the display 15 so that the
retrieved element groups are displayed in a different manner from
the other elements. In FIG. 4, the element groups 21, 25, and 26
that are determined to conform to the search element group 21 are
displayed in a manner different from other elements. For example,
the controller 11 may display the elements that conform to the
search element group in a different color from other elements or
with a specific mark attached thereto. Alternatively, the
controller 11 may display the retrieved element groups by changing
the line type or by attaching information identifying the group,
such as a group number or a group name. The controller 11 may
combine any of the above-described display manners. In this way,
since the retrieved element groups are displayed on the display 15
in a different manner from other elements, the user 201 can easily
recognize the retrieved element groups at a glance in the drawing
displayed on the display 15.
[0205] In the example in FIG. 4, a display area 33 on the right
side of the screen displays the number of element groups retrieved
as element groups conforming to the search element group. The
display area 33 displays that the number of element groups
conforming to the search element group is 3 in the drawing
displayed in the display area 152 and is 45 in the entire drawing
(such as the entire drawing of the plant), including other pages
not displayed in the display area 152.
[0206] In the display area 34 of FIG. 4, the distribution of
element groups conforming to the search element group in the entire
plant is displayed. The frame 341 indicates the section illustrated
in the display area 151. Rectangles 342, 343, 344 indicate regions
where the element groups to be retrieved are found in the entire
plant. Among the constituent elements of the rectangle 343, there
are 10 element groups conforming to the search element group, three
of which are displayed in the display area 151. Among the
constituent elements of the rectangle 343, there are 15 element
groups conforming to the search element group, and among the
constituent elements of the rectangle 344, there are 20 element
groups conforming to the search element group. In the example in
FIG. 4, the distribution of the element groups conforming to the
search element group is indicated by rectangles, but the display
method is not limited to this example. For example, the controller
11 may indicate the existence of one element group with a point,
and indicate the existence and concentration of element groups by
the density of points, or may display a geometric figure, such as a
circle, of a different size according to the number of element
groups. The controller 11 may also only display images according to
the distribution of element groups conforming to the search element
groups, or may display such images together with the quantity of
element groups. In this way, the controller 11 may display on the
display 15 an image indicating the distribution in the drawing of
each of the retrieved element groups. The user 201 can easily grasp
where the retrieved element groups are located in the drawing by
referring to the image illustrating the distribution of the
retrieved element groups. Such a display is useful when a user
wishes to perform operations specifically on a certain group in the
design and maintenance of a drawing. Such operations may include
correcting elements or confirming the distribution of the search
element group. The controller 11 may also retrieve element groups
that conform to the search element group after setting a specific
area selected by the user 201, rather than the entire plant, as the
search target range.
[0207] When an element group specified by the user 201 is
registered (stored in the storage 12 as a search element group),
and element groups conforming to the element group are extracted
from the drawing, the controller 11 may store positional
information for the extracted element groups in the storage 12. The
positional information for the element group may, for example, be
the page of a divided drawing (or a drawing number), the layer when
multiple drawings are superimposed, coordinates in the drawing that
specify the location of the element group, and/or how far down the
element group is from piping or wiring above the element group,
reference piping, or the like. By storing such information, the
information processing apparatus 10 can use the information on a
group that has been detected once, without needing to retrieve the
group again.
[0208] When a search element group is selected, the controller 11
may retrieve element groups conforming to the search element group
in the drawing and store the positional information and the like of
the retrieved element groups in the storage 12 automatically, even
without an explicit instruction from the user 201 for retrieval or
registration of the retrieval results. This enables the user 201 to
use the retrieval results as needed. For example, the user 201 can
easily extract the groups using a tablet terminal or other device
when out of the office or the like, and then use the automatically
stored information on the retrieval results when later performing
operations, such as editing drawings, in earnest.
[0209] In the present embodiment, after the conformity of the
upstream valve and the downstream element A adjacent thereto is
determined, the controller 11 simply considers that the element
group does not conform and stops processing for the next downstream
element when that element (for example, the element C) does not
conform to the element B. Different processing may, however, be
performed as necessary. For example, if the upstream valve and the
element A conform and only the last element is different, then the
element group for which conformity is being verified shares
commonality with the search element group. In some cases,
performing processing based on this commonality could make
operations more efficient. Therefore, upon detecting that the valve
and the element A conform, the controller 11 may store an element
group for which a plurality of elements conform to the search
element group in the storage 12, even if the next element (element
B) does not conform. The controller 11 may at this time store
element groups in the storage 12 after classification into element
groups with the element C as the downstream element, the element D
as the downstream element, and so forth. By performing such a
process, in a search for one group (search element group), an
upper-level group that is part of the search element group and
contains a smaller number of common element groups can be extracted
and later reused as necessary. For example, the controller 11 may
designate the initially selected element group formed by the valve,
the element A, and the element B as a variation (subordinate group)
of the higher-level "group including the valve and the element A
upstream" and store the variation in the storage 12. Examples of
hierarchizing element groups will be described in detail in the
fourth and fifth embodiments.
[0210] (Operating Procedures)
[0211] Next, with reference to FIG. 5, operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 will be described. The
operations of the information processing apparatus 10 described
with reference to FIG. 5 correspond to an information processing
method according to the present embodiment, and the operation of
each step is performed based on control by the controller 11. FIG.
5 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of the information
processing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present
disclosure.
[0212] In step S1, the controller 11 receives a selection of an
element group in the drawing via an operation by the user 201 on
the input interface 14. The element group selected here can be a
set of elements that perform a certain function. Specifically, the
controller 11 receives the selection of the element group by a
touch panel operation or the like. The selection of the element
group may instead be received via a cursor movement by the
operation of a pointing device, or the like. An evolutionary method
for selecting element groups will also be described in the seventh
and eighth embodiments. Step S1 can be omitted, since an element
group that has already been selected (stored in the storage 12) may
be used as the search element group, without a new selection by the
user.
[0213] In step S2, the controller 11 stores the selected element
group in the storage 12. The controller 11 thereby registers the
selected element group. Specifically, the controller 11 stores the
types of the elements forming the group and the connection
relationship or arrangement of the elements in the storage 12. If
necessary, the controller 11 also stores the attribute information
attached to each element in the storage 12. Furthermore, the
controller 11 may set the retrieval conditions for retrieving
element groups from the drawing according to an instruction from
the user. That is, the controller 11 may receive a setting of a
retrieval condition from the user, such as to (a) retrieve, as
element groups that conform to the search element group, element
groups formed by elements such that the type of the elements and
the arrangement between elements are identical to the search
element group, despite at least a portion of the attribute
information on each element being different, or (b) retrieve only
element groups such that the type of each element forming the
element group, the attribute information attached to each element,
and the arrangement between the elements match. Alternatively, the
controller 11 may receive a setting indicating that elements whose
attribute information is within a certain range are to be regarded
as having the same attribute information. These retrieval
conditions may also be selected from setting conditions stored in
the rule storage 122 or the like, and setting conditions may be
customized by the user or newly set by the user independently. In
either case, the setting conditions may be stored in the rule
storage 122 for subsequent reuse.
[0214] In step S3, the controller 11 retrieves, from the drawing,
elements that conform to a priority element to be prioritized among
the elements included in the search element group. Specifically,
the controller 11 retrieves from the drawing element groups that
conform to the search element group with an element that is farther
upstream as a priority element. The retrieval of the search element
group is performed using the rules stored in the rule storage 122
described above. As a result of the search, the controller 11
proceeds to step S4 if the priority element exists in the drawing
(YES in step S3), and ends the process of the flowchart if the
priority element does not exist (NO in step S3).
[0215] In step S4, the controller 11 retrieves elements that
conform to an element adjacent to the priority element included in
the search element group from among the elements adjacent to the
elements that conform to the priority element and were retrieved
from the drawing. After sequentially repeating such a process, the
controller 11 determines whether, in the retrieved element groups,
there is an element group in which each element other than the
priority element conforms to the search element group. When such an
element group exists (YES in step S4), the process proceeds to step
S5, and when such an element group does not exist (NO in step S4),
the process is terminated.
[0216] In step S5, the controller 11 determines that the retrieved
element groups (the locations on the drawing that satisfy all
element types and arrangements) conform to the element group for
which the selection was received in step S1.
[0217] In step S6, the controller 11 stores information about the
retrieved element groups, such as positional information, in the
storage 12. The controller 11 may end the processing of the
flowchart in step S6 after storing, in the storage 12, information
on where the retrieved element groups exist in the drawing. That
is, the processing corresponding to S7 and S8 is not essential and
may be omitted. Once the element groups are retrieved and the
corresponding positional information and the like is stored, such
information can subsequently be recalled and used when display or
other processing on the drawing is necessary. The controller 11 may
subsequently allow the user to refer to the information to check
where the element groups are located as needed, or may recall the
information and display the positional information when processing
is needed.
[0218] In step S7, the controller 11 displays the graphics
indicating the elements included in the retrieved element groups in
a manner different from other elements on the display 15. For
example, the retrieved element groups may be highlighted. A
configuration may be adopted so that the processing of step S7 is
performed only when the user instructs to display the retrieved
element groups in a manner different from other elements.
[0219] In step S8, the controller 11 may display on the display 15
an image indicating the distribution in the drawing of each of the
retrieved element groups. A configuration may be adopted so that
the processing of step S8 is performed only when the user instructs
to display the distribution of the retrieved element groups.
[0220] The drawing from which the element groups are to be
retrieved may include a plurality of drawings, instead of a single
drawing. Furthermore, the drawing to be searched may include a
plurality of drawings representing the same plant, instead of a
single drawing. Alternatively, the drawings to be searched may be
drawings of a plurality of plants, rather than drawings of the same
plant. One drawing may be maintained as a single file, or as a
plurality of files. A drawing among a plurality of drawings may be
maintained as a single file, or the plurality of drawings may be
maintained together as a single file. In addition, any number of
drawings may be searched, regardless of the number of data holding
folders, data sheets, and the like.
[0221] As described above, the information processing apparatus 10
according to the present embodiment receives from a user a
selection of a search element group, which is an element group
formed by one or more elements used in a drawing. Specifically, for
example, the information processing apparatus 10 receives a
selection of at least one element by a user in any drawing among at
least one drawing displayed on the display 15, and designates the
element group formed by the at least one element as a search
element group. The information processing apparatus 10 then
retrieves from at least one drawing element groups that conform to
the search element group for which the selection was received, and
displays the retrieved element groups on the display 15 so that the
positions thereof in the drawing can be identified. In this way,
element groups conforming to the element group selected by the user
are automatically retrieved and displayed on the display 15 in
correspondence with the positions thereof on the drawing. The user
therefore does not need to extract element groups visually and can
easily extract all the element groups conforming to a specific
element group from the drawing with a small number of person-hours.
Furthermore, since the selection is received of the search element
group in the drawing displayed on the display, the user can easily
select the search element group. Therefore, according to the
present embodiment, the operation to select an element group in a
complex and enormous drawing can be streamlined, work time and
labor cost can be decreased, and work errors can be reduced.
[0222] In the present embodiment, the user selects a search element
group in step S1 from the drawing displayed on the display 15
using, for example, the evolutionary method of the seventh and
eighth embodiments, but the method of selecting the search element
group is not limited to selection from the drawing. For example,
apart from the drawing displayed on the display 15, the controller
11 may illustrate the configuration and shape of a plurality of
candidate search element groups in a diagram or the like at a
position outside the drawing, or may display a plurality of
registered element groups (stored in the storage 12) selectably as
menu information, such as text, to enable the user to select a
desired search element group. Alternatively, the controller 11 may,
for example, provide a UI for the user to designate a desired
search element group.
[0223] The information processing apparatus 10 retrieves from the
drawing element groups for which the type of each element forming
the element group and the arrangement between elements match the
search element group, or element groups for which the attribute
information attached to each element additionally matches.
Accordingly, the information processing apparatus 10 can
automatically retrieve element groups formed by elements of the
same type and the same arrangement between elements as the search
element group, or element groups for which even the attribute
information attached to each element additionally matches. The way
in which the attribute information matches, such as complete
matching or partial matching (matching of principal attributes or
designated attributes), may be freely set by changing the settings
or by user designation. Partial matching is selected when attribute
information can be regarded as identical if the principal attribute
information matches. For example, information that is naturally
different between elements in a drawing, such as Tag No., is
excluded from the determination of conformity. Such rule
information for determination is also stored in the rule storage or
the like and may be used as necessary.
[0224] The information processing apparatus 10 retrieves from the
drawing elements that conform to a priority element to be
prioritized among the elements included in the search element
group, and then retrieves an element that conforms to an element
adjacent to the priority element included in the search element
group from among elements adjacent to the retrieved element that
conforms to the priority element. Specifically, the information
processing apparatus 10 retrieves elements in order starting from
the element that is farther upstream among the elements included in
the search element group, for example. In this way, the information
processing apparatus 10 narrows down the search target by searching
in order starting from the priority element among the elements
included in the search element group, thus enabling efficient
searching. In other words, when retrieving an element group formed
by three elements from the drawing, the controller 11 passes over
locations where the first element (priority element) is not
present, and if it determined that the first element is present but
the adjacent second element is not present, the controller 11
suspends the retrieval as non-conforming at that point. Therefore,
according to the present embodiment, searches can be performed
efficiently, without wasteful processing.
Second Embodiment
[0225] In the present embodiment, a configuration is described for
performing a common process selected by the user 201 on each
element group in a plurality of identical element groups, thereby
enabling performance of the same process on each element group in a
batch with a simple operation. The same reference signs are
attached to configurations in common with the first embodiment, and
a detailed description is omitted.
[0226] (Example Operations)
[0227] In the second embodiment, the controller 11 first acquires
and registers a plurality of element groups that are identical and
formed by one or more elements used in at least one drawing. The
controller 11 may acquire the plurality of identical element groups
by retrieving, from the drawing, element groups identical to an
element group selected by the user, as in the first embodiment, or
by reading, from the storage 12, a plurality of identical element
groups stored in advance in the storage 12.
[0228] An example of performing a process for correction or the
like on a registered plurality of element groups will be described
below. FIGS. 6 to 8 are diagrams illustrating examples of screens
on the display 15 connected to the information processing apparatus
10. In FIGS. 6 to 8, an element group identical to an element group
formed by the valve, the element A, and the element B included in
the region 21 has been selected (acquired) in advance. As
illustrated in the display area 152, the number of element groups
identical to the element group formed by the valve, the element A,
and the element B included in the region 21 is 3 in the drawing
currently displayed in display area 151 and is 45 in the entire
drawing (such as the drawings of the entire plant) including this
drawing. The controller 11 may highlight the locations in the
drawing of these element groups by changing colors or the like.
[0229] In FIG. 6, (an element group within) the region 21 has been
selected by a user 201 as a processing target. The user 201 moves a
cursor displayed on the screen by designating the portion indicated
by 81 by contact with a finger, touch pen, or the like on the touch
panel, or by operating a pointing device such as a trackball, to
select a process, via the UI 36, to be performed on the element
group (group). In the example in FIG. 6, "change" is selected.
Next, the user 201 sets the content of the change. In the example
in FIG. 6, as illustrated by the display areas 37 and 38, the user
201 sets a process for changing the element B from being indicated
by a circular symbol to a rectangular symbol. Next, the user 201
selects, via the display area 39, the range over which the change
is to be applied. In the example in FIG. 6, "apply only to
currently selected area", which targets only the currently selected
region 21 (one location), and "apply to entire drawing" which
targets the range of the entire drawing (45 locations) are
displayed as options. The options are not limited to these. For
example, the change may be applied only to the locations (3
locations) found in the drawing currently displayed in the display
area 151, or an option such as "apply to part of drawing" may be
prepared to apply the change only to the drawing over a range
designated by the user. The following describes the case in which
"apply to entire drawing" is selected.
[0230] By correcting one element group in a plurality of identical
element groups in the drawing (by designating the element group to
be processed, the content of the processing, and if necessary, the
range over which processing is to be applied), the controller 11
can also apply the correction to identical element groups at other
locations in the drawing. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the circular
symbol indicating the element B is changed to a rectangular symbol
in all of the element groups 41 to 43 formed by the valve, the
element A, and the element B. The controller 11 may highlight the
locations that were changed (the locations to which the change was
applied) in a different manner than other locations to make the
changed locations identifiable. At the time a user designates an
element group 21 to be processed in a drawing as illustrated in
FIG. 6, the positions of identical element groups found in the
drawing may be indicated, as in FIG. 7. In this case, if the
element groups have previously been retrieved (stored in the
storage 12) and have been retrieved from the drawing and stored in
the storage 12 together with identifying information (such as
positional information), the element groups need not be retrieved
again. When the user designates the element group 21 that has
previously been retrieved in such a case, the information
processing apparatus 10 responds by using retrieved information for
immediate display of the locations of the element groups 42 and 43
previously retrieved in the drawing in a different manner from
other locations, as illustrated in FIG. 7. On the other hand, in
the case in which the element group 21 designated by the user for
processing is an (unretrieved) element group not stored in the
storage 12, the information processing apparatus 10 performs a
process to retrieve the element group from the drawing and store
the element group in the storage 12 together with identifying
information (such as positional information) in the drawing. After
the retrieval, the information processing apparatus 10 can display
the locations of the retrieved element groups 42 and 43 in the
drawing in a different manner from other locations (indicating the
portions of the drawing to be processed), as illustrated in FIG.
7.
[0231] The controller 11 may receive a setting of a condition such
as "connected to an upstream tank" by a condition setting window or
the like, and perform a batch change on only element groups that
match such a condition. At this time, the controller 11 may display
information such as "15 locations in the entire drawing/one
location satisfying condition" to notify the user of the total
number of element groups and the number of element groups that
match the condition. For editing of a registered element group, the
controller 11 may receive a change from a group list or a UI for
group editing such as the display area 44 in FIG. 7, or may receive
the change by receiving the selection of the location to be changed
from the drawing. Here, the process of changing the element B from
being indicated by a circular symbol to a rectangular symbol has
been described, but the processing content is not limited to this
example. For example, attribute information or character
information may be set, changed, or corrected, or element groups
may be replaced. As long as the process is applicable to element
groups, the process to be performed on a plurality of element
groups in a batch is not limited to these examples.
[0232] The controller 11 may, for example, display the UI 45
illustrated in FIG. 8 so that the user 201 can select, at the time
of selecting the location to correct, whether the process to be
performed is an individual change or a batch change to be applied
to the entire drawing. Furthermore, after selection of the group
batch change, the controller 11 may display a UI for selecting
whether the applicable range is the "entire drawing", a "portion
(with conditions)", or the like and a UI for inputting conditions,
and may receive a selection from the user. Here, the condition is a
condition for narrowing down the element groups to be subjected to
the change process from among registered element groups, such as
"element groups with a tank upstream (in the same element group)"
or "element groups with a setting value of ---". In the example in
FIG. 8, the options are "change here only" (only the selected 21),
"change with conditions", and "change entire drawing". When "change
with conditions" is selected, a condition such as "element groups
with a tank upstream" is set by a non-illustrated condition setting
screen. When the user selects a condition, the controller 11 may
display information on the quantity, such as "15 locations in
entire drawing" and "one location corresponding to set condition",
as well as other information such as information on the positional
distribution of the locations.
[0233] In response to a user 201 designating a location in the
drawing for performing a process (such as a change) while not being
aware that the location to be processed has already been registered
(detected) as an element group, the controller 11 may display that
the location is an already-registered element group. The controller
11 may display the message "already registered (retrieved)" or the
number assigned at the time of registration, or may display the
corresponding location in the drawing in a different manner than
other locations. The controller 11 may display information such as
the number of element groups in the drawing. In the case of the
element group being unregistered, the controller 11 may display a
message such as "unregistered" as information to make the user
aware, or may promptly retrieve element groups from the drawing and
display information on the corresponding element groups (positions
in the drawing and number). In addition, the user 201 may be
permitted to select, at the time of change, whether to change only
an individual location designated by the user 201, to change
predetermined locations in the drawing, or to perform a batch
change on the entire drawing.
[0234] (Operating Procedures)
[0235] Next, with reference to FIGS. 9A to 9C, operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 will be described. The
operations of the information processing apparatus 10 described
with reference to FIGS. 9A to 9C correspond to an information
processing method according to the present embodiment, and the
operation of each step is performed based on control by the
controller 11. FIGS. 9A to 9C are flowcharts illustrating example
operations of the information processing apparatus 10 according to
an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0236] In step S11, the controller 11 receives a designation from
the user of an element group (search element group) to be processed
in the drawing. In the case of the search element group being an
unretrieved element group that is designated for the first time and
is not yet stored in the storage 12, the element group needs to be
newly retrieved from the drawing. The case of the search element
group already having been designated, retrieved, and stored in the
storage 12 is described in step S4 of FIG. 9B.
[0237] In step S12, the controller 11 retrieves element groups in
the drawing that conform to the search element group designated by
the user. The element groups may, for example, be retrieved by the
method described in the first embodiment.
[0238] In step S13, the controller 11 retrieves from the drawing
element groups that conform to the search element group designated
by the user and stores information identifying the element groups
(for example, positional information identifying their respective
positions in the drawing) in the storage 12. If no further
processing is to be performed immediately, the controller 11 may
terminate the process of the flowchart at this point. The element
groups stored in the storage 12 can be recalled and used when
further processing is necessary. The processing up to this point is
for retrieval from the drawing of unretrieved element groups. In
the case of performing a process on retrieved element groups, the
process is performed according to the flow of FIG. 9B. If time has
passed since the process of FIG. 9A, the process may be performed
starting from S14 (element group selection) of FIG. 9B. On the
other hand, if the element groups selected and retrieved in FIG. 9A
are to be processed as is, it suffices to perform the process from
S15 of FIG. 9B onward, since the element groups have already been
selected.
[0239] In step S14, the controller 11 receives a designation from
the user of an element group to be processed in the drawing. If the
element group has previously been retrieved (retrieval results
stored in the storage 12), the controller 11 notifies the user by
displaying on the display 15 that the element group is a registered
(retrieved and stored) element group in response to the designation
of the element group. The controller 11 may display the
corresponding element group in a different manner from other
element groups in the drawing. Alternatively, the controller 11 may
display the text information "retrieved (registered) element
group", or a mark, for the corresponding element group on the
drawing, or in a menu, operation screen, or the like outside the
drawing. If the element group designated here as the processing
target has not yet been retrieved, the retrieval process of FIG. 9A
is performed. It suffices to perform the process from step S12
onward at this time, since the element group has already been
designated.
[0240] In step S15, if element groups have been retrieved, the
controller 11 receives a designation of the content of a process
for the selected element groups from the user. The process for the
element groups is to change, correct, replace with a different
element group, convert to a different data format, or the like.
Examples of the process include a process to replace all or some of
the elements in the element group with at least one element
selected by the user, a process to change the types and/or
arrangement of the elements, and a process to change the attribute
information for at least one of the elements.
[0241] In step S16, the controller 11 receives a designation from
the user of a range over which the process is to be applied. The
controller 11 may, for example, receive a selection of any of the
following (1) to (3) as the applicable range. [0242] (1) If the
user designates the entire drawing, all the element groups in the
drawing that conform to the element group selected in step S11 or
S14 are processing targets. For example, if a certain element group
is found at 100 locations in the drawing, all of the element groups
at the 100 locations become processing targets. The "change entire
drawing" in FIG. 8 is an example of (1). [0243] (2) If the user
wishes to perform the process on an element group in multiple
locations in a batch, but the target to be processed is only a
portion of the element groups among the element groups in the
drawing that conform to the element group selected in step S11 or
S14, the user sets conditions to designate the applicable range of
the process. For example, the user may select only the drawing
currently displayed on the screen or a range of applicable drawings
from the screen, or the user may designate only the element groups
that meet a specific condition (for example, element groups with a
tank upstream), so that the process is applied only to the
designated range. In this case, if the number of element groups to
be processed is X, then 1<X<100. The "change with conditions"
in FIG. 8 is an example of (2). [0244] (3) The process can also be
performed on only one location, i.e. only on the element group
selected on the drawing by a touch on the touch panel or by
designation with the cursor. In this case, the number of element
groups to be processed is 1. The "change here only" in FIG. 8 is an
example of (3). In any of cases (1) to (3), as illustrated in the
drawings, assistance for user designation of the range selection
may be provided by a user interface (UI). While an element group is
selected, options for the range over which the process is to be
applied may be displayed to prompt the user to make a selection.
The user may be prompted to designate a range by inputting a
setting. Examples of the UI are illustrated in 39 of FIGS. 6 and 81
of FIG. 8.
[0245] In step S17, the controller 11 performs the process
designated in step S16 in a batch on each element group in the
applicable range designated in step S16. For example, if (1) is
selected in step S16, the controller 11 performs the process on all
the element groups in the drawing that conform to the element group
selected in step S11 or S14. If (2) or (3) is selected in step S16,
the controller 11 performs processing only for the corresponding
element groups. The controller 11 then terminates the process of
the flowchart.
[0246] In the above description of the operations of the controller
11, the flowcharts are divided into FIGS. 9A and 9B, but these
flowcharts may be used as a single flow (operation) with a
determination process added. That is, when receiving the selection
of an element group in step S14, the controller 11 may determine
whether the element group has been retrieved, proceed to S15 if the
element group has been retrieved, and perform the process from S12
onward if not. When the process is continued in S13, the
designation of the processing content is received in S15, whereas
when the process is not continued immediately, the process may be
terminated at S13. An example of a processing flow including such a
determination process is illustrated in FIG. 9C. In FIG. 9C, the
process of step S91 is the same as that of step S11 in FIG. 9A and
step S14 in FIG. 9B. In step S92, the controller 11 determines
whether the selected element group has been previously retrieved.
If the element group has been retrieved (YES in step S92), the
controller 11 proceeds to step S96, whereas if not (NO in step
S92), the controller 11 proceeds to step S93. The process of step
S93 and step S94 is the same as that of step S12 and step S13 of
FIG. 9A. In step S95, the controller 11 determines whether the
process is to be performed immediately. The controller 11 may, for
example, determine that the process is to be performed immediately
if an instruction is received from the user within a certain time
after the process of step S94 is performed. In the case of
performing the process immediately (YES in step S95), the
controller 11 proceeds to step S96, whereas the controller 11
terminates the process otherwise (NO in step S95). The process of
step S96 to step S98 is the same as that of step S15 to step S17 of
FIG. 9B. After completing the process of step S98, the controller
11 ends the process of the flowchart.
[0247] As described above, the information processing apparatus 10
performs the user-selected process on each element group in the
plurality of identical element groups in the drawing, and can
thereby perform the same process on each element group in a batch
with a simple operation. In addition, the information processing
apparatus 10 performs the process on each element group included in
the plurality of element groups in response to receipt of the
selection of the processing for any of the element groups included
in the plurality of element groups. Therefore, the information
processing apparatus 10 can perform the common process on all the
element groups included in the plurality of element groups without
omission.
[0248] The information processing apparatus 10 receives the
selection of any process, such as batch replacement of an element
group (the element group itself or a portion of the elements in the
element group), batch change of the types and/or arrangement of the
elements, batch change of attribute information on the elements, or
the like as the common process, thereby enabling the user to have
the desired process performed efficiently. The information
processing apparatus 10 may display the plurality of element groups
that are subject to the common process on the display 15 in a
manner different from the elements that are not included in the
plurality of element groups. In other words, the controller 11
highlights the display so that the positions of the element groups
can be easily identified in the drawing. For example, the
controller 11 may highlight the display by changing the color or
line type, by adding a symbol, or by a combination of these.
Therefore, the user can easily confirm the element groups that are
the target of the common process to be performed in a batch.
Furthermore, the information processing apparatus 10 may acquire a
plurality of element groups by retrieving from the drawing the
element groups that conform to a search element group for which a
selection is received from the user. The information processing
apparatus 10 is thereby capable of automatically acquiring the
plurality of element groups to be subjected to the common process
in a batch.
[0249] The above processes (group replacement and setting change
processes) may be executed by the user sequentially designating
"change/replace this group (element group) with this content" or
the like. The information processing apparatus 10 may instead
detect that a registered group has been changed by an authorized
person and automatically reflect the change. Alternatively, the
information processing apparatus 10 may periodically perform
processing at each predetermined period of time based on changes
made by each authorized person.
Third Embodiment
[0250] The present embodiment describes a configuration in which
not only completely identical element groups but also partially
different element groups are automatically retrieved as element
groups conforming to a search element group selected by a user, are
classified based on the difference from the search element group,
and are stored in the storage 12. According to the configuration of
the present embodiment, the user can easily extract defective or
deficient elements. The same reference signs are attached to
configurations in common with the first embodiment, and a detailed
description is omitted.
[0251] The information processing apparatus 10 of the present
embodiment also retrieves element groups that are partially
different from the search element group as element groups
conforming to the search element group. That is, in the
configuration of the first embodiment, although attribute
conditions and the like that should match can be set by user
settings, in principle, the targets for retrieval are only element
groups that are completely identical to the selected element group.
However, if some attribute settings are omitted or include mistakes
due to user error or the like, some conditions may not match even
for element groups that are in fact identical, and element groups
that should be retrieved might not be retrieved. The information
processing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment detects such
element groups without omission. In the case of omissions from the
retrieval, the number of element groups that actually exist in the
drawing and the number of detected element groups (which should
have been retrieved) do not match, resulting in retrieval omissions
and leaving element groups containing errors and deficiencies in
the drawing. Extracting the omissions individually by hand, or
finding and correcting errors, is a very laborious operation, so
the present embodiment is for eliminating the labor of correction
while performing detection without omissions. Accordingly, the
aforementioned "partially different element groups" are element
groups with minor differences from the search element group, and do
not include element groups that have major differences and should
be evaluated as being a different element group. A minor difference
from the search element group is assumed to be a difference in the
attribute information or element notation. Specific examples of
element groups that partially differ are provided below.
[0252] FIGS. 10 to 15 are diagrams illustrating examples of screens
on the display 15 connected to the information processing apparatus
10. FIG. 10 illustrates an example in which a user 201 selects a
region 21 in the drawing by a touch operation or the like, and an
element group (group) formed by an element C, an element A, and an
element B is selected. As in the first embodiment, the selection of
the element group may be performed by a cursor movement operation
by a pointing device or the like, instead of a touch operation on
the touch panel.
[0253] In response to the user 201 selecting the region 21 to
select an element group, the controller 11 of the information
processing apparatus 10 treats the element group as a search
element group, and retrieves element groups that conform to the
search element group from the drawing. The controller 11 retrieves
from the drawing not only element groups that are identical to the
search element group but also element groups that are likely to be
identical but are partially different from the search element
group. At this time, the controller 11 may also store information
indicating the nature of the difference (differences). If only
element groups that are completely the same as the search element
group are retrieval targets, element groups that are actually the
same (a retrieval target) may be determined to be different element
groups due to a mistake, an omitted setting, a defect in a portion
of the drawing, or the like. Element groups that should be
retrieved may thus be omitted. The information processing apparatus
10 according to the present embodiment addresses such a problem by
including not only completely identical element groups but also
partially different element groups as element groups conforming to
the search element group. The controller 11 displays the retrieved
element groups on the display 15 in correspondence with the
positions on the drawing.
[0254] FIG. 11 illustrates a screen with the retrieval results. The
element group 46 is an element group that conforms to the search
element group. The element group 46, which completely matches the
search element group, has a "Correct" mark 47 attached nearby to
indicate a complete match. The element group 53, which partially
does not match the search element group, has an "Error?" mark 48
attached nearby to indicate a non-complete match with the search
element group. As described below with reference to FIG. 12, the
model number of the element B in the element group 53 differs from
that of the element B in the search element group. The "Error?"
mark 48 is therefore attached near the element group 53. The number
of retrieved element groups corresponding to "Correct", and the
number of elements corresponding to "Error?" along with a numerical
value indicating the matching degree, are displayed in the display
area 49. The "Error?" mark 48 may be displayed with a different
color, line type, and the like than the "Correct" mark 47. In the
example in FIG. 11, the marks are used to distinguish between the
element group 46 and the element group 53, which are highlighted
with the same line type (dashed line), but the method of displaying
these element groups may be changed to distinguish between them.
The above example is not limiting, and a variety of expressions or
symbols distinguishing between two types of element groups, i.e. a
non-problematic element group that matches the search element group
completely, and an element group that is thought to be the same as
the search element group though partially differing, may be
used.
[0255] In response to the selection of the "Error?" mark 48 by the
user, the information processing apparatus 10 displays the content
of the difference between the element group and the search element
group on the display 15. In
[0256] FIG. 12, the graphic of the element B in the element group
53 is displayed in a different color, line type, or the like from
the other elements to indicate that the element B does not
completely match the search element group. More detailed
information is displayed in the display area 152. In the example in
FIG. 12, the model number of the element B of the element group 53
is different from that of the element B in the search element
group. The search element group is displayed in the display area
51. The model number "ABC110" of the element B in the search
element group is indicated in the display area 52. The model number
"ADC110" of the element B in the element group 53 is indicated in
the display area 54, and by the second character "D" of the model
number being highlighted, that character is displayed as being
different from the search element group. A "Make correction" button
55 is displayed at the bottom of the display area 152 to enable the
user to select a correction instruction. The user confirms this
information and makes a correction based on the fact that the model
number "ADC110" does not exist or is a mistake for ABC110. The
information processing apparatus 10 correct the model number
"ADC110" of the element B in the element group 53 to the model
number "ABC110" of the element B included in the search element
group in response to the selection (execution) of the button 55 by
the user 201.
[0257] FIG. 13 illustrates an example of the display when the
element group 56 and the element group 57 do not completely match
the search element group. The model number of the element B in the
element group 56 is different from that of the element B in the
search element group. Therefore, a "Model No." mark 58 is displayed
near the element group 56 to indicate that the model number is
different from that of the search element group. The difference
from the element B of the search element group is that no value has
been set for the element B of the element group 57. Therefore, a
"Value Blank" mark 59 is displayed near the element group 57 to
indicate that no value has been set. Such a display indicates that
the controller 11 has not determined that the element group
appearing to be the same element group (but with a partial
difference) is a different group due to the difference from the
search element group, but rather has extracted the element group as
an identical element group (candidate), and enables the user to
recognize "what the difference is" without the need for a special
operation or the like.
[0258] FIG. 14 illustrates an example in which the content that
does not match between the element groups 56 and 57 and the search
element group is displayed in correspondence with each element
group. Since the element group 46 completely matches the search
element group, there is no display indicating an abnormality (a
difference from the search element group), and the correct model
number and setting value are displayed in an accompanying image 61.
A "Model No." mark 58 indicating that the model number is different
from that of the search element group and an image 62 indicating
the content of the attribute information set for the element group
are displayed for the element group 56. A "Value Blank" mark 59
indicating that the value set for the search element group is blank
in the element group and an image 63 indicating the content of the
attribute information set for the element group are displayed for
the element group 57.
[0259] The images 62 and 63 respectively display the model number
of an element that does not completely match the search element
group, the content set in the setting value, and a "Correct" button
for correcting these values. The image 62 displays the model number
"ADC110" of the element B in the element group 53, and the letter
D, which is the difference from the search element group, is
highlighted. The image 63 displays that no value has been set for
the element B of the element group 57. Therefore, the user 201 can
confirm whether the element groups 56 and 57 do not completely
match the search element group in any respect by referring to the
images 61, 62, and 63 and comparing the settings of each element
group with each other. In addition, after confirmation, the user
201 can select (execute) the "Correct" button to correct these
values to be the same as the search element group (a completely
matching element group) or to be any value. The information
processing apparatus 10 may, in response to the user 201 selecting
(executing) the "Correct" button, correct only that element or
correct, in a batch, all elements that do not completely match the
search element group.
[0260] Only two attribute items are displayed in the images for the
sake of illustration, but when a large number of items exist, such
as when a dozen or several dozen items exist, the controller 11 may
provide a correction button for each item so that correction can be
made for each item. Alternatively, as illustrated in FIG. 14, the
controller 11 may allow all items to be corrected at once with a
single correction button. The controller 11 may display a plurality
of buttons to "correct only specific item", " correct all in a
batch", and the like, so that the user can select and execute one
of the buttons.
[0261] The controller 11 may extract, from a large number of
attribute items, only those items that differ from the search
element group in a certain element group, and display the items in
the images 62 and 63. Such processing enables the user to promptly
recognize the items that are different even when a large number of
items exist, and prevents the display of the drawing itself from
being blocked by the display of too much information regarding the
element group. In other words, the visibility of information can be
improved.
[0262] The information processing apparatus 10 may classify the
retrieved element groups by difference as a set of identical
element groups (including those that are likely to be identical)
based on the difference from the search element group, store the
set in the storage 12, and display the retrieved element groups on
the display 15 so that the classification based on the difference
can be identified. The information processing apparatus 10 of the
present embodiment displays a screen in which the retrieved element
groups are classified based on the difference from the search
element groups in response to receipt, from the user, of an
instruction to "analyze" the retrieved element groups. FIG. 15
illustrates a case in which, in response to the selection of the
region 21, an image 65 for selecting a process to be performed on
the selected element group is displayed, and the "Analyze" button
is selected by the user. In response to the selection (execution)
of the "Analyze" button, the information processing apparatus 10
displays a screen in which the retrieved element groups are
classified. The "Analyze" button is also displayed in the display
area 152, and the information processing apparatus 10 also displays
a screen in which the retrieved element groups are classified when
the "Analyze" button in the display area 152 is selected.
[0263] FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image 153
indicating classification based on differences in element groups.
In the example in FIG. 16, the search element group is displayed as
"Extraction Target Group X". One hundred element groups determined
to conform to the search element group (including not only element
groups that match completely, but also element groups that
generally match but have some differing elements due to the
aforementioned mistake, omitted setting, setting error, or the
like) are retrieved from the drawing. The element B included in the
search element group has the attribute values (attribute
information) of "Model: ABC110" and "Setting value: 22.5".
[0264] In the example in FIG. 16, there are 70 element groups that
completely match the search element group. Of the 100 element
groups retrieved, the remaining 30 are classified into three types
according to their differences from the search element group. In
FIG. 16, there are 2 element groups for which the difference is a
geometrical defect, 8 element groups for which the difference is a
model number notation error, and 20 element groups for which the
difference is that the setting value of the element is blank. The
geometrical defect is a problem in the notation of the element
(symbol), whereas the model number notation error and the setting
value being blank are problems in the attribute information.
[0265] The geometrical defect is a distortion of the graphic
indicating the element A. For example, the difference is classified
as a geometrical defect when it is not possible to determine
whether the outline of the symbol indicating the element A is a
rectangle or a circle. Distortion of the figure can occur when, for
example, the drawing was acquired by scanning. For example, a
circular symbol might not be recognized as a circle as a result of
no longer being a perfect circle, or being discontinuous, due to a
problem with the original paper drawing, the intrusion of a foreign
object, or line distortion in the scanning process. A model number
notation error refers to the "model number" not matching the search
element group due to miscommunication of information, an input
error by the operator, or the like. A blank value refers to a value
not having been set for the element. The user 201 can easily grasp
the defective or deficient elements in the drawing at a glance by
viewing the element groups that at least partially do not match the
search element group and are displayed after classification based
on the differences (i.e. element groups that should be identical to
the search element group but are deficient).
[0266] The information processing apparatus 10 may quantify and
manage the matching degree (similarity), which is a numerical value
indicating the degree of conformity with the search element group,
of the element groups that are likely to be the same as the search
element group but are partially different. The calculation of such
a matching degree will be described with reference to FIGS. 17A to
17C and FIG. 18. FIGS. 17A to 17C are diagrams illustrating an
example of classification items based on differences in element
groups. In FIG. 17A, the element group 66 is an element group that
completely matches the search element group. The element group 66
includes an element A, an element B, and an element C arranged in
this order. Among the elements of the element group 66, the element
A has attribute information 1 (attribute information a1) and
attribute information 2 (attribute information a2). The table 67
illustrates that the element group 66 completely matches the search
element group.
[0267] The element group 68 in FIG. 17B includes the same types of
elements A, B, and C as the search element group, but the
arrangement of the elements differs from the search element group
in that the elements are included in the order of the element A,
the element C, and the element B. The remaining content of the
element group 68 matches the search element group. The table 69
illustrates the differences between the element group 68 and the
search element group. The arrangement row for elements B and C does
not match and is marked "X".
[0268] The element group 70 of FIG. 17C is formed by elements A, D,
and E connected in this order. Although the element group 70
matches the search element group by including the element A, the
type and arrangement of the elements differ in that the element
group 70 does not include the elements B and C. The graphic and
attribute information 2 of the element A in the element group 70
also differ from the search element group. The table 71 illustrates
the differences between the element group 70 and the search element
group. In FIG. 17C, items that do not match are indicated by
"X".
[0269] The information processing apparatus 10 may calculate the
matching degree by weighting each item related to a difference from
the search element group, such as in Tables 67, 69, and 71. The
matching degree may be calculated by rules for calculating the
matching degree that are stored in the rule storage 122. When the
elements forming the element group or the arrangement of the
constituent elements differ from the search element group, the
matching degree is lowered to 70%, 50%, 30%, etc. as the number of
differences increases. When the matching degree is below a
predetermined value (for example, 90%), the element group is in
fact different from the search element group, and such an element
group is not retrieved as an element that might be identical to the
search element group.
[0270] The information processing apparatus 10 may score the
differences according to the size of the degree of importance for
determining the similarity or difference, such as -10 points for a
different element and -0.5 points for attribute differences, and
calculate the matching degree by adding the total negative score to
100 points. In this case, the number of points (points subtracted)
is set high for items representing differences that have a large
impact on the determination of the matching degree and is set low
for items that have a small impact. The matching degree may also be
displayed by other notations, such as a percentage. Instead of a
point reduction method in which a complete match is 100 points, a
numerical value may be calculated as the "degree of divergence",
with the numerical value being 0 for a complete match and higher as
the degree of divergence is higher.
[0271] FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of scoring
based on differences in element groups. In FIG. 18, the "reference"
indicates the content of the search element group. "1a" indicates
an element group whose constituent elements, the arrangement
thereof, and all setting values match the search element group. A
matching degree of 100 points is calculated for "1a". Such an
element group is evaluated as "completely identical" to the search
element group. In the element group of "1b", the constituent
elements, the arrangement thereof, and the attributes of element 1
(element C) and element 2 (element A) match the search element
group, but the setting value of element 3 (element B) is different.
The difference in the setting value of element 3 is evaluated as -2
points, and the matching degree of the element group "1b" is
calculated as 98 points. Once the matching degree with the search
element group is below a predetermined value (such as 90%), an
element group should be evaluated as a different element. For an
element group with a matching degree above a certain score (such as
90 points), however, it is suspected that an element group
identical to the search element group was incorrectly described for
some reason. Therefore, the element group is evaluated as "Error?",
indicating that the element group is thought to be identical but
contains errors. The element group "1b" is also evaluated as
"Error?". The constituent elements, arrangement thereof, and
attributes other than the device No. of element 3 match the search
element group for the element group "1c", but the device No. of
element 3 differs. The element group "1c" is calculated as having a
matching degree of 95 points and is evaluated as "Error?". In the
element group "2", the type of element 1 itself is different from
the search element group, and in the element group "3", the
arrangement of elements is different from the search element group.
Therefore, these element groups are calculated as having a matching
degree below 90 points and are evaluated as "Different". The
information processing apparatus 10 may classify the retrieved
element groups based on such a score.
[0272] (Operating Procedures)
[0273] Next, with reference to FIG. 19, operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 will be described. The
operations of the information processing apparatus 10 described
with reference to FIG. 19 correspond to an information processing
method according to the present embodiment, and the operation of
each step is performed based on control by the controller 11. FIG.
19 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure.
[0274] In step S21, the controller 11 receives from the user a
selection of a search element group, which is an element group
formed by one or more elements used in at least one drawing. The
element groups may be acquired by retrieving the element group
selected by the user, or by reading an element group stored in the
storage 12, as described in the first embodiment.
[0275] In step S22, the controller 11 stores the selected element
group in the storage 12. The controller 11 thereby registers the
selected element group. This process is the same as step S2 in FIG.
5. When an element group stored in the storage 12 is read and used,
this step is unnecessary.
[0276] In step S23, the controller 11 retrieves, from at least one
drawing, element groups that conform to the search element group
(including element groups that are thought to match but are
partially different). The retrieval is performed using a rule
stored in the rule storage 122.
[0277] In step S24, when the retrieved element group has a
difference from the search element group, the controller 11 stores
information on the difference from the search element group, i.e.
information on which element is different, the differing content,
and/or a numerical value (matching degree), together in association
with positional information or the like in the storage 12. Items
related to the differences are, for example, differences in
notation, graphical deficiencies, missing data, typographical
errors, incorrect numbers, or information not set.
[0278] In step S25, the controller 11 displays the retrieved
element groups on the display 15 so that the classification of the
element groups based on the differences can be identified. At this
time, the controller 11 may display a character string and/or an
image indicating the type of the difference on the display 15 for
each classification of the retrieved element groups. The controller
11 then terminates the process.
[0279] As described above, the information processing apparatus 10
automatically retrieves not only element groups that match the
search element group selected by the user 201, but also element
groups that (most likely) match but are partially different from
the search element group as the element groups that conform to the
search element group. The information processing apparatus 10 then
stores the element groups in the storage 12 based on the
differences from the search element group (as they are or after
classification as necessary). Accordingly, when the stored
information is displayed, the user 201 can refer to the information
on the differences or the result of classification based on the
differences. Therefore, the user 201 can extract identical element
groups without omission, including the content of defects or
deficiencies. The information processing apparatus 10 also displays
the retrieved element groups on the display 15 so that the
differences, the classification based on the differences, the
results of analysis, and the like can be identified. Therefore, by
viewing element groups that are classified based on differences and
displayed, and which (most likely) match the search element group
but are partially different, the user 201 can easily grasp at a
glance what the differences are, the degree of the matching
(divergence), and the like, while detecting without omission
defective or deficient element groups (elements in an element
group) in the drawing. At this time, a character string and/or an
image indicating the type of difference is displayed for each
classification of the retrieved element groups. The user 201 can
easily recognize how the retrieved element groups differ from the
search element group and where the problem is by referring to the
character string and/or image. Furthermore, the controller 11
associates the differences between the retrieved element groups and
the search element with numerical values and classifies the
retrieved element groups into sets of at least one element group
based on the numerical values. The user 201 can therefore easily
distinguish the differences from the search element group, i.e.,
whether there is a defect in the drawing, a mistake (incorrect
input) in the information, a value that is blank, or the like, and
can also easily confirm the conditions, a process for optimization
by correction, and the like.
[0280] In the storage in S24 and/or the display in S25, the
controller 11 may classify the retrieved element groups based on
the differences. That is, the controller 11 may classify and
display the retrieved element groups at the time of the display in
S25 (automatically or according to conditions requested by the
user) based on the differences stored in S24. Alternatively, the
controller 11 may classify the element groups based on the
differences in S24 and display the classified content at the time
of display in S25. In the example in FIG. 10, the classification is
largely divided between "complete match (Correct)" and "thought to
be identical but has non-matching element (Error?)" based on
whether there is a difference. In the example in FIG. 12, the
differences themselves are displayed to be identifiable by symbols
and other identifiers, color changes, or the like. In the example
in FIG. 16, classification information based on the differences is
displayed, such as whether there is a complete match or a
difference, which items are different, the number of each item, and
the result of quantifying the matching degree. Any one or more of
these may be used alone or in combination. Furthermore, the
retrieved element groups may be classified in advance and stored in
the storage 12 by the controller 11, stored information may be
classified at the time of display, or classification and analysis
processes may be performed for both storage and display. The
retrieved element groups may be classified focusing on either the
differing items or the matching degree, or focusing on both.
[0281] For the retrieval in step S23, the controller 11 may receive
a setting, from the user 201, of a retrieval condition for
retrieving element groups that (most likely) match the search
element group but partially differ, and then retrieve the element
groups based on the setting. The user 201 can thereby set the
desired search conditions according to the application and
purpose.
[0282] The controller 11 may receive a selection from the user of a
common process to be performed on each element group belonging to a
set of processing targets, which is any set included in the sets of
at least one element group, and perform the common process on each
element group belonging to the set of processing targets.
Specifically, the information processing apparatus 10 can perform a
batch process by performing the same process as in the second
embodiment. This enables the user 201 to perform the same process
in a batch, with a simple operation, on each element group
belonging to the set of processing targets, which is any set of
element groups classified based on differences from the search
element group. For example, the user 201 can perform batch error
correction only on elements that are considered to be mistakes or
errors. The information processing apparatus 10 may also receive a
selection of a set of processing targets from among sets of at
least one element group from the user. The user 201 can thereby
select a set of targets for performing the same process in a
batch.
Fourth Embodiment
[0283] In the present embodiment, a configuration is described in
which a common element group is extracted from a plurality of
element groups, and the element groups are arranged in a hierarchy
so that the extracted element group belongs to a higher level than
the plurality of element groups. According to the present
embodiment, by performing operations based on the element group
belonging to a higher level of the hierarchy, the user can perform
operations more efficiently than when performing operations on each
of the element groups in the lower level of the hierarchy
separately. The same reference signs are attached to configurations
in common with the first embodiment, and a detailed description is
omitted.
[0284] FIG. 20 is a diagram schematically illustrating element
groups hierarchized based on an element group included in common.
In FIG. 20, an element group 72, an element group 73, and an
element group 74 are element groups formed by three elements and
have in common an element group 75 in which two elements, an
element A and an element B, are connected. When the information
processing apparatus 10 performs some sort of process, such as a
batch process, on such element groups 72, 73, and 74 in the
drawing, the process for the element group 75 is often common. The
process for the element groups may, for example, include design
changes, substitution of components, changes to data that is set in
the components, conversion to a different data format, and the
like. In the case of performing a process related to the elements A
and B, which are constituent elements, it is more efficient to
perform a common process focusing on an element group 75 (one type)
that is common to these element groups than to perform processes
separately focusing on each of the element groups 72, 73, and 74
(three types). Therefore, the information processing apparatus 10
of the present embodiment has the user extract, or itself extracts,
an element group (common element group) that is common to a
plurality of element groups stored in the storage 12, and performs
a hierarchization process so that the extracted common element
group belongs to a higher level than the plurality of element
groups.
[0285] Next, with reference to FIG. 21, operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 will be described. The
operations of the information processing apparatus 10 described
with reference to FIG. 21 correspond to an information processing
method according to the present embodiment, and the operation of
each step is performed based on control by the controller 11. FIG.
21 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure.
[0286] In step S31, the controller 11 acquires a first element
group and a second element group formed by at least two elements
used in at least one drawing. The element groups may be acquired by
retrieving element groups selected by the user, or by reading
element groups stored in the storage 12, as described in the first
embodiment.
[0287] In step S32, the controller 11 may receive from a user a
setting to set a condition for extraction as the element group
included in common in the first and second element groups. This
step is not required. Although a user who notices that the selected
element groups have a common part may instruct that the element
groups be reclassified, it is highly efficient if the plurality of
element groups selected by the user, or the plurality of element
groups already retrieved from the drawing and stored in the storage
12, are automatically reclassified after factoring out a common
part, without the user being aware or performing a special
operation. Execution condition data or the like, stored in the rule
storage 122 or other location, for extracting the common part may
be used. When default information is used, the user need not
perform any operation or instruction. The user may change this
setting as necessary. The extraction conditions may, for example,
be as follows.
[0288] Among elements included in common in the first and second
element groups, connected to each other in an identical
arrangement, and for which a corresponding type of each element and
attribute information are identical, the elements largest in number
are extracted.
[0289] At least one element, included in common in the first and
second element groups and for which a corresponding type of each
element is identical, is extracted, but at least a portion of the
attribute information need not be identical.
[0290] The element group that is extracted is formed by (i) at
least one element included in common in the first and second
element groups, connected to each other in an identical
arrangement, for which a corresponding type of each element and
attribute information are identical, and in which a particular
element is adjacent to an identical outside element that is outside
the element group, and (ii) the identical outside element.
[0291] These are only examples, and the controller 11 may extract
an element group formed by a smaller number of elements among the
original plurality of element groups so that the number of
connections is maximized, or may extract at least one element in
common. At this time, the controller 11 may evaluate the elements
as being common only in the case of a complete match, including the
attribute information, or may evaluate the elements are being
common even when a portion of the attribute information is
different. Alternatively, the controller 11 may evaluate the
commonality of the elements without regard to the attribute
information. When evaluating the commonality of elements, such
conditions may be used in combination as appropriate, may be set in
advance and stored in the rule storage 122 or the like, or may be
set or changed by the user as necessary.
[0292] In the case of extracting an element group included in
common in three or more element groups, a condition of extracting
an element group included in common in all element groups may be
adopted, or a condition of extracting an element group included in
common in some element groups may be adopted.
[0293] By performing the hierarchization based on the conditions
(exemplified above) set in advance, the information processing
apparatus 10 can appropriately arrange the element groups in a
hierarchy without performing a special operation, thereby
contributing to the efficiency of the work. The user can also
freely set the conditions at the time of extraction as the element
group included in common in the first and second element groups,
which enables appropriate arrangement of the element groups in a
hierarchy according to the application or purpose. The information
processing apparatus 10 may set any of the above-exemplified
conditions in advance as a default condition.
[0294] In step S33, the controller 11 automatically extracts a
third element group, which is an element group included in common
in the first and second element groups, from the first and second
element groups. Taking FIG. 20 as an example, a user may select
element group 72 (from upstream to downstream, element C, element
A, element B), element group 73 (valve, element A, element B), and
element group 75 (element D, element A, element B) at different
times without being aware of the relationship or the like between
the elements, or a plurality of users may select the element groups
individually from the drawing (each element group being retrieved
from the drawing and stored in the storage together with
identifying information, such as positional information on the
drawing). Here, the information processing apparatus 10 detects
(determines) that elements A and B are common to these elements
from upstream to downstream, generates an upper-level element group
formed by elements A and B, and hierarchizes the original element
group 72, element group 73, and element group 75 in a hierarchy as
lower-level element groups. This is an example of an automatic
(setting of conditions or the like not necessary)
re-hierarchization process based on common conditions, but if
hierarchization conditions are stored in the storage 12 or the
like, element groups matching the conditions may be re-hierarchized
automatically without the user needing to make a selection or the
like. Alternatively, if extraction conditions are selected by the
user, then the third element group that is an element group
included in common in the first and second element groups may be
extracted from the first and second element groups based on the
conditions selected and set in step S32.
[0295] In step S34, the controller 11 arranges the first, second,
and third element groups in a hierarchy so that the third element
group belongs to a higher level than the first and second element
groups.
[0296] In step S35, the controller 11 stores the first, second, and
third element groups in the storage 12 together with information
indicating the hierarchical relationship.
[0297] In step S36, the controller 11 displays an image indicating
the hierarchical relationship among the first, second, and third
element groups on the display 15. The image illustrating the
hierarchical relationship among the elements may, for example,
display the hierarchical relationship by means of a tree structure
as illustrated in FIG. 20. The image illustrating the hierarchical
relationship among the elements may also display the number of
element groups belonging to each level of the hierarchy. By the
controller 11 displaying such an image on the display 15, the user
can easily grasp the hierarchical relationship of the element
groups. The controller 11 may display the hierarchical relationship
among the elements on the display 15 by way of text information
instead of an image. Alternatively, the controller 11 may display
the hierarchical relationship by indicating a common element group
and displaying a higher-level element group among the selected
element groups in the drawing, as illustrated in FIG. 22 or FIG.
23. The controller 11 then terminates the process.
[0298] In the present embodiment, a third element group, which is
an element group included in common in the first element group and
the second element group, is thus automatically extracted and is
arranged and stored in a hierarchy such that the third element
group belongs to a higher level than the first element group and
the second element group. Accordingly, the user can perform
operations based on the third element group belonging to a higher
level of the hierarchy to perform operations more efficiently than
when performing operations on each of the first and second element
groups separately.
[0299] FIGS. 22 and 23 are diagrams illustrating an example of
element groups classified based on an element group included in
common. In FIG. 22, the element group 77 and the element group 78
included in the frame 80 have an element group formed by three
elements, i.e. an element A, an element B, and an element E, as a
common element group. On the other hand, the element group 77, the
element group 78, and the element group 79 included in the frame
167 have an element group formed by two elements, i.e. the element
A and the element B, as a common element group. Therefore, from the
element groups 77, 78, and 79, the element group formed by the
elements A, B, and E, or the element group formed by the elements A
and B, could be extracted as the element group to belong to the
upper level of the hierarchy. The user can set which element group
is extracted as the element group to belong to the upper level of
the hierarchy according to the application or purpose. If a process
is necessary for the element group formed by the elements A, B, and
E, the process should be performed on the entire content of the
frame 80, not on the individual element groups 77 and 78, for
better efficiency. If a common process is necessary for the element
group formed by the elements A and B, it is more efficient to
process all the element groups within the frame 167, not the three
element groups 77, 78, and 79 individually. Suppose that when a
user attempts to process a drawing, hierarchical information such
as FIG. 22 is displayed as an image or text on a menu for the
selected element group. In such a case, the user can select the
element group indicated by the frame 80 when wishing to perform a
process on the element groups with the elements A, B, and E, and
can select the element group indicated by the frame 167 when
wishing to perform a process on the element groups with the
elements A and B.
[0300] If the user selects the element group 77 (formed by the
elements C, A, B, and E) on a drawing on which nothing is
displayed, the controller 11 may inform the user that there is a
higher-level element group (indicated by the frame 80) formed by
the elements A, B, and E, as illustrated in FIG. 22. After
selecting the element group 77, the user may designate the element
group indicated by the frame 80 as a processing target via such
display control. That is, a process on the UI may be performed,
such as selecting the element group indicated by the frame 80 by
designation of the frame 80 enclosing the elements A, B, and E, or
displaying a selection menu or the like prompting whether to select
the higher-level element group indicated by the frame 80. Even
without such display assistance, in the case in which the user
designates the element group 77 and instructs that a process be
performed on the elements A, B, and E, a message may be displayed
to confirm "apply process to upper-level element group 80 including
elements A, B, and E?", and the user may select to perform or not
to perform the process. Alternatively, the controller 11 may
automatically perform the necessary process without such
confirmation.
[0301] In FIG. 23, element groups 82 and 83 have an element group
formed by an element A and an element B as a common element group.
On the other hand, the element B of the element group 82 and the
element B of the element group 83 are both adjacent to an element E
that exists outside the element group. Therefore, the information
processing apparatus 10 may extract the element group formed by the
elements A, B, and E as common element groups 84 and 85 and
reconstruct the hierarchical structure of the element groups. Even
if the user does not intend this, the information processing
apparatus 10 (controller 11) may detect that the element E is also
common when, for example, the element groups selected by the user
from the drawing are 82 and 83, and may include this element in a
larger element group and store the element group in the storage 12
as a higher hierarchical level, or may inform the user that a
higher hierarchical level can be formed.
Fifth Embodiment
[0302] In the present embodiment, a configuration is described in
which an element group that conforms to a first element group is
extracted from a drawing by focusing on the first element group,
and the extracted element group is further subdivided (a lower
hierarchical level is generated) into second and third element
groups based on a predetermined condition. According to the
configuration of the present embodiment, while focusing on specific
element groups, the user can efficiently perform operations on
element groups that also conform to a condition desired by the
user. The same reference signs are attached to configurations in
common with the first embodiment, and a detailed description is
omitted.
[0303] FIG. 24 is a diagram schematically illustrating a process to
classify element groups based on an adjacent, connected element. An
element group 86 is formed by elements C, A, and B arranged in this
order. Among such element groups, the user 201 may wish to perform
a common process only on element groups that satisfy a certain
condition. For example, the user 201 may wish for the target of the
common process to be only the element group 86 to which a tank 90
is connected adjacent to and upstream from the element C.
Therefore, based on a certain condition set in advance, the
information processing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment
subdivides the given element group into a plurality of element
groups according to the condition and arranges the element groups
in a hierarchy so that they belong to a lower hierarchical level
than the original element group. In other words, the information
processing apparatus 10 forms a hierarchy so that the original
element group belongs to a higher hierarchical level than the
subdivided element groups.
[0304] In the example in FIG. 24, the information processing
apparatus 10 subdivides the element group 86 into an element group
87 to which a tank 90 is connected adjacent to and upstream from
the element C, and an element group 88 to which no tank is
connected adjacent to and upstream from the element C (including
the case where an element other than a tank is connected). The
information processing apparatus 10 then arranges the newly
generated (based on the condition of whether an upstream tank
exists) element groups 87 and 88 in a hierarchy to belong to a
lower hierarchical level than the original element group 86.
Accordingly, in a case in which the element group 88 is to be
treated only as a single fixed set, and a process is to be
performed only on element groups with a tank upstream, the user can
focus on the element group 87 and proceed with operations
efficiently and with no hassle only on the desired element groups,
instead of individually retrieving and processing. For example, the
user 201 can cause the information processing apparatus 10 to
retrieve element groups that conform to the element group 87 (only
element groups with a tank connected upstream) and perform a batch
process on those element groups. This information is stored in the
storage 12 and can therefore be reused when a process is to be
performed on the same element groups. The process of classifying,
subdividing, and hierarchizing the element groups based on whether
a tank is connected upstream is a non-limiting example for the
purpose of illustration, and classification into lower hierarchical
levels may be performed under various conditions. In some cases,
such a condition (--- is connected upstream) may be frequently used
in processing. Such conditions may be stored in the storage 12,
element groups that match conditions may be retrieved from the
drawing, and a hierarchy may be formed automatically and presented
to the user, or formed automatically and stored in the storage
12.
[0305] Next, with reference to FIG. 25, operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 will be described. The
operations of the information processing apparatus 10 described
with reference to FIG. 25 correspond to an information processing
method according to the present embodiment, and the operation of
each step is performed based on control by the controller 11. FIG.
25 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure.
[0306] In step S51, the controller 11 receives from the user a
selection of a first element group formed by one or more elements
used in at least one drawing. The controller 11 may receive the
selection from the user for the element group registered in the
group storage 121.
[0307] In step S52, the controller 11 receives from the user a
designation of processing content for the selected first element
group. Here, the controller 11 also receives from the user a
designation of a condition for whether all of the element groups
conforming to the selected first element group are to be processed,
or only those satisfying a certain condition. Such conditions may,
for example, include the following.
[0308] An element included in the first element group has a
specific relationship with an element outside the first element
group (for example, there is a tank upstream).
[0309] The attribute information of at least one element included
in the first element group satisfies a certain condition.
[0310] The element adjacent to the first element group satisfies a
certain condition, such as being a specific element or having a
specific set value.
[0311] As described below, the controller 11 subdivides the element
groups conforming to the first element group from step S54 onwards
based on certain conditions such as attribute information of the
elements included in the element group and adjacent elements.
Therefore, according to the information processing apparatus 10,
while focusing on specific element groups, the user can efficiently
perform operations on element groups that also conform to a
condition desired by the user.
[0312] In step S53, the controller 11 determines whether the user
designates only element groups satisfying a certain condition (such
as element groups having a tank upstream) as a processing target.
In the case in which only element groups satisfying a certain
condition are to be the processing target (YES in step S53), the
controller 11 proceeds to step S54. Otherwise (NO in step S53), the
controller 11 proceeds to step S57, executes a batch process with
all of the element groups conforming to the element group selected
in the drawing as processing targets, and terminates the process of
the flowchart.
[0313] In step S54, the controller 11 retrieves element groups that
conform to a certain condition selected in step S52 (for example,
that there is a tank upstream) from among the first element
groups.
[0314] In step S55, the controller 11 classifies the first element
groups into a second element group that satisfies a certain
condition designated by the user in step S52 (for example, element
groups that have a tank upstream) and a third element group that
does not satisfy a certain condition (for example, element groups
with no tank upstream). Furthermore, the controller 11 arranges the
first, second, and third element groups in a hierarchy so that the
first element group belongs to a higher level than the second and
third element groups.
[0315] In step S56, the controller 11 stores the hierarchized
first, second, and third element group in the storage 12.
[0316] In step S57, in the case in which the user designates only
the element groups satisfying a certain condition as the processing
targets (YES in S53), the controller 11 performs a batch process
for each element group conforming to the second element group that
satisfies a certain condition among the first element group.
Accordingly, the user 201 can cause the desired process to be
performed only on the element groups that satisfy a certain
condition among the element groups that conform to the first
element group. In step S52, in the case in which the user does not
designate only the element groups satisfying a certain condition as
the processing targets (NO in S53), the controller 11 executes a
batch process with all of the element groups conforming to the
element group selected in the drawing as the processing targets, as
described above. After completing the process of step S57, the
controller 11 ends the process of the flowchart.
[0317] As described above, the information processing apparatus 10
of the present embodiment focuses on the first element group to
extract from the drawing element groups that conform to the first
element group and subdivides the element groups into the second and
third element groups based on user-designated conditions. The
controller 11 may subdivide into the second and third element
groups based on predetermined conditions. Therefore, while focusing
on specific element groups, the user can also efficiently perform
operations only on element groups that conform to a condition
desired by the user. For example, the user can cause the
information processing apparatus 10 to perform a batch process on
only element groups that meet a specific condition among the first
element groups.
[0318] The controller 11 may display an image indicating the
hierarchical relationship among the first, second, and third
element groups on the display 15. As an example of such an image,
FIG. 26 schematically illustrates a process of classifying the
element groups based on their deficiencies. In FIG. 26, element
groups at least partially conforming to the first element group are
subdivided into a group without deficiencies and a group with
deficiencies. In FIG. 26, the degree of conformity with the first
element group is indicated in percentages, with "100%" indicating
that the element group corresponding to the group without
deficiencies completely conforms to the first element group. The
"<100%" indicates that the element groups corresponding to the
groups with deficiencies do not completely conform to the first
element group. The element groups with deficiencies are subdivided
into element groups with a model number error and element groups
with blank data, and the element groups with a model number error
are subdivided into element groups including the element A and
element groups not including the element A. The element groups
including the element A are subdivided into element groups
including and not including the element B, and the element groups
including the element B are subdivided into element groups
including the elements A, B,
[0319] B, element groups including the elements A, B, C, and
element groups including the elements A, B, D. The controller 11
may also display the number of element groups that conform to each
element group in the hierarchy. By the information processing
apparatus 10 displaying such an image on the display 15, the user
can easily grasp the hierarchical relationship of the element
groups.
[0320] FIG. 27 is a diagram schematically illustrating a process to
classify element groups based on various criteria. In FIG. 27, the
element group 93 and the element group 94 included in the frame 96
are both formed by an element A, an element B, and an element C.
The element group 94 and the element group 95 included in the frame
97 both mistakenly have "ADC110" set as the value of the model of
the element B, whereas the correct value is "ABC110". In terms of
whether these are the same element group (formed by elements A, B,
and C in a matching arrangement), the element groups 94 and 95 have
nothing in common, but in terms of how the model number of element
B is incorrectly listed, the element groups 94 and 95 can be
factored out (hierarchized) as a group under a common condition. As
can be seen from FIG. 27, the element groups conforming to the
element group 94 can be grouped into element groups corresponding
to the frame 96, or into element groups corresponding to the frame
97. One element group (element group 94 in the illustrated example)
may belong to multiple element groups (groups), and various
classifications (hierarchical arrangements) are envisioned
depending on the process to be implemented by the user. Therefore,
the controller 11 may display an image such as the one in FIG. 27
on the display 15 as an image indicating the hierarchical
relationship among elements.
[0321] The controller 11 may display at least one drawing on the
display 15 in a manner enabling identification of portions
corresponding to the first, second, and third element groups.
Specifically, the controller 11 may use different colors and lines
from other elements for the graphics indicating the element groups,
or may indicate the portions corresponding to the element groups by
specific symbols or characters. The controller 11 may also display
an image indicating how each element group is distributed in the
entire drawing. The user can thereby easily grasp which portions in
the drawing correspond to the first, second, and third element
groups.
Sixth Embodiment
[0322] In the present embodiment, a configuration is described in
which a communication item from a first user to a second user is
displayed in correspondence with a position or a region in a
drawing. According to the present embodiment, a second user can
easily grasp the position or region to be confirmed or corrected in
the drawing and a communication item stored and displayed in
correspondence with the position or region, so that multiple people
can efficiently perform work such as correction of the drawing. The
same reference signs are attached to configurations in common with
the first embodiment, and a detailed description is omitted.
[0323] FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of an
information processing system 2 that includes an information
processing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present
disclosure. In the information processing system 2, in addition to
a user 211 who operates the input interface 14 and the display 15,
a user 212 who operates an input interface 16 and a display 17 is
also involved in creating the drawings. The information processing
apparatus 10 of the information processing system 2 includes a
comment/response storage 124 in the storage 12. The
comment/response storage 124 stores data indicating a position of a
commented area selected in the drawing by one user, a comment
content assigned to the commented area, a response by another user
to the comment content, and the like. In the present embodiment,
such data is referred to as comment/response data. The
comment/response data is mapped to a drawing and associated with a
position on the drawing. Here, the data is stored in a form that is
linked to the element targeted by the comment and positional
information, such as coordinates on the drawing, so that the
comment/response location can be displayed on the drawing in an
identifiable manner.
[0324] FIGS. 29 and 30 are diagrams illustrating examples of
screens on the display 15 connected to the information processing
apparatus 10. In the present embodiment, an example is described in
which a screen identical to the screen displayed on the display 15
operated by the user 211 is displayed on the display 17 operated by
the user 212. Hereafter, the user 211 is also referred to as user A
(first user), and the user 212 is also referred to as user B
(second user). The number of these users may be two or more, and
the users are not limited to both being engineers involved in
creating or correcting drawings. One user may be a customer, and
the other may be an engineer who makes corrections and the like to
the drawings in response to customer requests.
[0325] In FIG. 29, the user A (a correction requestor or the like)
designates a location 21 requiring correction from the drawing
displayed in the display area 151 of the screen. In FIG. 29, the
user A operates the touch panel with a hand 101 to designate the
location 21 requiring correction.
[0326] In the case in which the location requiring correction is an
area such as an element group (group), the user A selects the area.
The selection target is not limited to an element group formed by
multiple elements, but may be a single element. The user A
designates a point when the location requiring correction is an
element, such as a device. Although a variety of existing methods
may be used to designate an element or element group, an
evolutionary method is described in detail in the seventh and
eighth embodiments. The user A designates a location requiring
correction, and inputs a communication item, as a message, for the
user B regarding the location requiring correction with details
such as a comment and desired correction, confirmation request, or
the like (the communication item is not limited to correction, but
may prompt for confirmation or other operations). Rather than
inputting a message, the user A may select a message (a type of
comment or request) from a selection button (see FIG. 31B). For
example, if the information processing apparatus 10 displays
selection buttons such as "model number error", "value setting
omission", "distorted graphic", and the like, and the user A
selects from among these buttons, the user A can efficiently input
an instruction/comment summary without the trouble of text input.
When the communication item is inputted by the selection buttons,
an operation can be designated efficiently even without keyboard
input or the like. Instructions using a smartphone or the like, and
efficient input only by operation of a pointing device, are
envisioned as examples. When such ready-made messages (tags, common
classifications) are used, the communication items share common
types, unlike messages that differ from one person providing input
to another (which makes the content difficult to summarize). This
facilitates subsequent analysis and classification. Specifically,
for example, it is easy to tally and quantitatively analyze the
breakdown of comments in 100 communication items in the form of 20
model number errors, 70 value setting omissions, and 10 distorted
graphics. The method of inputting communication items by text and
the method of inputting by selecting from among predetermined
options may be combined. For example, after selecting "model number
error", the user A may input the model number information that the
user A considers to be correct, a detailed communication item, or
the like.
[0327] In the example in FIG. 29, an element group (21 in the
display area 151) selected by the user A is displayed in the
display area 102 within the display area 152. In the display area
103, information on the element B included in the selected element
group is displayed. In the display area 104, communication items
from the user A to the user B are displayed. The information
processing apparatus 10 enables the user A to enter a comment on
the display area 104 to assign a communication item from the user A
to the user B for the position or region in which the selection is
received.
[0328] FIG. 30 illustrates the user B performing an operation on
the screen. In FIG. 30, the location 108 commented on by the user A
is highlighted in the drawing. The user B (corrector or the like)
selects this location. For example, the user B selects the
highlighted location 108 by a touch operation on the touch panel as
illustrated by 105, by operating a pointing device or other input
device to move the cursor to this location, or the like. In
response, a message is displayed in a display column outside the
drawing (in the example in FIG. 30, the display area 152 on the
right side of the screen) indicating a communication item from the
user A to the user B regarding the work plan and the content of the
correction. Alternatively, the message may be displayed near the
location 108 that corresponds to the commented area on the drawing.
In this case, the message may be hidden so as not to interfere with
viewing of the drawing until the user B designates the area. The
controller 11 may display details, such as the content of the
comment, in a form that does not interfere with the visibility of
the drawing, for example in a different area or as a pop-up.
[0329] The user B confirms the message, and makes corrections or
the like according to the content and plan in the message. The
response to the message is not limited to a correction and may, for
example, be an answer from the user B to a question posed by the
user A. In the example in FIG. 30, in the display area 103, the
model number is corrected from "ADC11" to "ABC110", and the setting
value that was blank is set to a value of 25.
[0330] The user B performs work, such as correcting the commented
location and setting omitted values, and inputs a response message.
The user B may instead perform only such work or only message
input. In some cases, the message is unnecessary if work is
performed in response to a request. In some cases, the user B might
not perform work but only input a message that work is unnecessary,
or may perform a correction operation and then input a related
communication item. In the example in FIG. 30, communication items
from the user B to the user A are inputted in the display area
110.
[0331] When the work by the user B is completed, the commented area
may be highlighted to indicate that the work has been completed.
This may be a mark 107 including a character such as "done" as in
the example in FIG. 30, or a character, mark, color, etc. and/or a
combination thereof. A setting that the work has been completed is
made by the user B providing input indicating completion.
Alternatively, in a case in which completion is not finalized
without approval from the user A who made the comment, the status
of completion may be set by confirmation (approval) from the user A
after the user B has made corrections or the like.
[0332] When such a mark is assigned, the corresponding user can
intuitively see where the commented area is on the drawing, what
has been responded to and what has not (what location to respond to
next), and so forth. The user can also search for, tally, and
analyze locations to which a mark is assigned. For example, when
work has been completed for 70 out of 100 commented areas, the
information processing apparatus 10 may display the 100 commented
areas, 70 work completed locations, 30 remaining, and the like in
response to pressing of a tally button or the like (or
automatically without instruction).
[0333] The information inputted by the user A and the information
inputted by the user B may be displayed in different colors. This
example is not limiting, and the display of colors, symbols, or the
like may be changed for each user to make it easy to identify who
has inputted the information. The distribution of operators on the
drawing can also be recognized, and in cases such as when a
plurality of users are involved in the drawing, and a rule or
division of labor is predetermined, such as that a certain worker
responds to comments and requests from the user A, it is easy to
recognize the workers and the status of their response.
[0334] FIGS. 31A and 31B are diagrams schematically illustrating a
user interface for correcting the settings of an element. When
changing a setting for an element B, the user A selects the graphic
indicating the element B, as illustrated in FIG. 31A. In response,
the information processing apparatus 10 displays options as
illustrated in FIG. 31B, such as the type of correction (comment)
to be made, in a selectable manner by a pop-up or the like. In the
example in FIG. 31B, "omitted setting", "mistake", and "distorted
graphic" can be selected (the options are not limited to this
example). The user A selects the necessary correction from among
these options and inputs the content of the correction (comment)
and the like for the element B. Comments and the like not only from
the user A but also the user B may be selected by such presentation
of options for processing that eliminates the hassle of input and
facilitates classification and correction with common content.
[0335] FIG. 32 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen on
the display 15 connected to the information processing apparatus
10. Highlighting a commented area in the drawing is effective, as
the user can identify the location at a glance. However, when a
plurality of commented areas are scattered in a large drawing, the
user needs to manually transition between screens by scrolling,
move the operation point, and the like to move between commented
areas that require a response. To move to the next location after a
certain location (commented area) is complete (responded to), an
operation such as greatly moving the cursor with a pointing device,
keyboard, or the like becomes necessary. In particular, when the
commented areas are scattered in a drawing illustrating a vast
plant, the screen needs to be scrolled and the operation point
moved each time a new commented area is to be confirmed. This may
make it difficult to find the commented areas, or require
complicated operations to reach the commented areas.
[0336] Therefore, the information processing apparatus 10 according
to the present embodiment switches between and displays, on the
display 15, the positions or regions (commented areas) to which a
communication item is assigned in response to a specific input of a
simple operation from the user, such as pressing of a "Move to Next
Point" button displayed on the screen, or pressing of a specific
button of an input device. A simple operation here is a specific
operation such as a single button press or a single click. This
simple operation is for quickly executing a predetermined button or
command with a concise operation (a single click or the like) and
differs from an operation that requires time and effort, such as
visually searching for an operation point on the screen,
continuously turning the wheel of a pointing device to scroll the
screen and search, or moving the cursor to the position after
searching. Consequently, the position or region to which the
communication item is assigned is switched and displayed in
response to the operation input (simple operation) from the user.
The user can therefore confirm the location to which the
communication item is assigned without effort and without omission.
Specifically, when the commented areas are recorded and are mapped
on the drawing, the information processing apparatus 10 holds the
positional information of the commented areas. The positional
information of a commented area is information such as which
drawing in the case of multiple drawings, the coordinates on the
drawing, or matrix information.
[0337] The information processing apparatus 10 may then perform
control to transition to the next commented area in response to a
predetermined operation input (simple operation) to the input
interface 14. Such an operation input may be a selection/execution
operation, for example on a forward button with a display such as
"move to next point" displayed on the screen or a predetermined key
(forward button) assigned to an input device such as a keyboard, or
may be a click operation with a pointing device. The user can
thereby move to and display the next commented area by a simple
operation, without having to visually search for the commented
areas one by one or perform a complicated operation. Accordingly,
the user does not need to look for the location of the commented
area, which can prevent omission of confirmation of the commented
area. In the example in FIG. 32, the information processing
apparatus 10 transitions to the next commented area in order (each
time confirmation of a commented area is completed) among the
commented areas to be responded to, i.e. the element group 111, the
element group 112, the element group 113, and the element group
115, in response to operation input by the user (pressing of a
forward button or the like on the input device), and switches the
display area and the displayed content as appropriate.
[0338] Furthermore, when response operations for the element group
are completed, the information processing apparatus 10 may
automatically attach a completion mark ("done" in the figure) to
the commented area and automatically transition to the next
commented area nearby. In this way, even the input operation for
switching the commented area is eliminated, making the work even
more efficient. As described above, when confirmation from the user
A that commented is necessary, the user A also confirms the
commented areas (i.e., the areas responded to by the user B) while
similarly transitioning between the commented areas. The areas with
no new comments may sequentially be assigned a completed status and
assigned a completion mark. Therefore, although commented areas
were described as an example, such transition control may be
performed for both the commented points (areas) and the responded
points (areas).
[0339] When switching the commented area, the information
processing apparatus 10 may simply move to the nearest commented
area or move according to a general rule such as from upstream to
downstream or from top to bottom on the drawing. The information
processing apparatus 10 may also set a degree of importance for the
commented areas and transition in descending order of the degree of
importance. For example, suppose that among 100 commented areas in
the entire drawing, there are 10 commented areas with a high degree
of importance, 20 commented areas with a medium degree of
importance, and 70 commented areas with a normal degree of
importance. In this case, control to simply move to the nearest
commented area may result in low priority areas being worked on
first while high priority areas are left until later. The
information processing apparatus 10 addresses this issue by using
information on the set degree of importance (priority) and
transitioning between the ten areas with a high degree of
importance first, so that the user can respond to these important
areas first. After operations to respond to the commented areas
with a high degree of importance are finished, the information
processing apparatus 10 performs control to transition to the next
20 areas with a medium degree of importance. The degree of
importance is an index indicating the degree to which priority
should be given to correcting, changing, or otherwise responding to
the commented area. For example, the degree of importance is
assigned and set by the user who selected the commented area.
Specifically, the degree of importance is a rank or value that
reflects, for example, the content and degree of the setting error
or mistake at the position or region, the degree to which the
correction or change is required, and the severity of the effect,
on the equipment or the like represented in the drawing, caused by
the current content of the position or region. In other words, the
degree of importance may be indicated numerically or may be set in
steps such as a large, medium, or small degree of importance, or a
rank A, B, or C.
[0340] Even in the case of receiving operations for the ten areas
classified as having a large degree of importance, the information
processing apparatus 10 need not randomly determine the order of
transition, but may transition in descending order starting from
the commented area with the highest degree of importance. In this
way, work can be performed preferentially starting from the more
important commented areas.
[0341] Alternatively, the information processing apparatus 10 may
transition in order among the commented areas for which the work
content is highly similar. In this case, information prescribing
the commonality of the work and the like is set manually or
automatically, and transitioning is controlled based on this
information. For example, as illustrated in the example in FIG.
31B, if options such as the type of work are prepared, transitions
are made using these options so that the same types are responded
to together. This enables the user to group together tasks that
have similarity or commonality and to proceed with the work
efficiently. For example, consider a case in which there are 10
commented areas requiring a response to a setting omission, 10
requiring correction of a mistake, and 10 requiring correction of a
distorted graphic as the content of the work. In this case, the
information processing apparatus 10 may transition among the 10
commented areas requiring a response to a setting omission, then
the 10 requiring correction of a mistake, and the 10 requiring
correction of a distorted graphic. This enables the user to perform
the same type of work together, making the work more efficient and
preventing errors.
[0342] These transition rules may be stored in the storage 12 so
that the user can select or organize the transition rules. The
transition rules may also be applied by the user switching the
applicable target between "degree of importance", "similarity (work
type)", and the like using an application installed on the
information processing apparatus 10. These may be switched on and
off. For example, when "degree of importance" and "similarity" are
turned ON, the information processing apparatus 10 performs control
to transition preferentially among the important commented areas,
while at the same time switching in order among a group of work
areas that require similar work. Alternatively, even if the user
does not select a rule for the transition, the information
processing apparatus 10 may, as a default setting, perform control
to start with important commented areas and transition in order
among a group of commented areas requiring similar work.
[0343] In the drawing, there can be a plurality of commented areas
that require the same work. Therefore, in the case in which there
is a plurality of commented areas that require the same work, and
the user A designates any of these commented areas, the information
processing apparatus 10 may automatically designate other areas of
the same type. If the user A then assigns a communication item to a
certain commented area, the information processing apparatus 10 may
automatically assign the same communication item to the other
similar commented areas. In other words, if there are 10 locations
in the entire drawing requiring the same correction when one
location is designated, those 10 locations become commented areas.
In a case in which the user B performs a response operation for any
of the commented areas that require the same work, the information
processing apparatus 10 may automatically perform the same response
operation for the other commented areas of the same type.
Previously, the user A would comment on the 10 locations
individually, and the user B would also respond to the 10 locations
individually, which was extremely time-consuming and could lead to
omissions in extraction and response operations. By contrast,
according to the configuration of the present embodiment, once one
location is commented, the same locations in the drawing can be
automatically detected and marked, and a response to one location
can be processed collectively for the other locations. These
processes can improve the efficiency of work by the users A and
B.
[0344] The screen of the display 15 is not limited to the example
configurations in FIGS. 29, 30, and 32. FIG. 33 is a diagram
illustrating an example of a screen on the display 15 connected to
the information processing apparatus 10. In FIG. 33, a display area
154 indicating the work by the user A is on the left of the display
area 151 of the drawing, and a display area 152 indicating the work
by the user B is on the right of the display area 151. The user can
designate location 116 by touching the touch panel or moving the
cursor with the input device to select 117, 118, or other regions
in the drawing. The information processing apparatus 10 displays
the content of the work and response by the user, corresponding
tally information, and the like in the display areas 152 and 154.
In the example in FIG. 33, the communication items between users
are also displayed in the display area 151 of the drawing. A
sentence indicating a communication item from the user A to the
user B is assigned in association with an element group 118. A
request from the user A is displayed in 119, and an answer from the
user B is displayed by 161. The content of comments and responses
may be displayed as appropriate in the display areas 151, 152, and
154 when a commented/responded area is designated on the drawing.
Either comments or the responses may be displayed, or the comments
and responses may be displayed together. In the example in FIG. 33,
the quantity, progress, and the like of the comments and responses
are displayed so that the status can be checked and managed. The
user A commented on 45 locations on 8/10, and the user B responded,
but the user A commented again, and 5 locations remain in an
unfinished state (see the display areas 152, 154). Furthermore, the
user A commented on 30 new locations on 8/18, and the users can
share the information that there currently remains a total of 35
locations requiring a response, i.e. the 5 unprocessed locations
and the 30 newly commented locations. In response to the user B
selecting (designating) the "new" or "30" portions, the controller
11 may perform control to display the positions, in the drawing, of
the 30 locations in correspondence with the drawing and to
transition among the commented points, as described above. For the
"incomplete 35" as well, the controller 11 can display the
positions where the work has not been completed on the drawing, and
can transition among the points.
[0345] Next, with reference to FIG. 34, operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 will be described. The
operations of the information processing apparatus 10 described
with reference to FIG. 34 correspond to an information processing
method according to the present embodiment, and the operation of
each step is performed based on control by the controller 11. FIG.
34 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure.
[0346] In step S61, the controller 11 receives a selection of a
position or a region (commented point or commented area) in at
least one drawing from a first user. While various known methods
may be used for the selection of the position or region, details of
an evolutionary method will be described later in the seventh and
eighth embodiments.
[0347] In step S62, the controller 11 receives the assignment of a
communication item for a second user from the first user to the
position or the region for which the selection from the first user
was newly received. Alternatively, the controller 11 receives a
selection from the second user for a position or region already
selected by the first user and the assignment of a communication
item regarding a response. The communication item may include a
comment from the first user, a response by the second user, a
comment again by the first user, or the like. The selection of a
new position or region on the drawing is only made by the user who
initially comments. Therefore, for the initially selected position
or region, step S61 may be omitted, and a new communication item
such as a response or another comment for a selected position or
region may be stored in the storage 12 in the form of an addition
corresponding to the position or region. As already described,
additional processes (response or another comment) are repeated
until the process for that position or region is completed.
[0348] In step S63, the controller 11 stores marking information
indicating the position or the region for which the selection from
the first user is received and communication information indicating
the communication item in association in the storage 12. As
described above, although marking of a new position or region is
not necessary in the case of the second user, the controller 11
stores a communication item regarding a response in association
with an already marked location. If other communication information
has already been stored in association with the marking
information, the controller 11 may store the communication
information in the storage 12 in association with the other
communication information instead of with the marking
information.
[0349] In step S64, the controller 11 displays the aforementioned
communication item on the display 15 in correspondence with the
position or region to which the communication item is assigned.
Since the communication item from the first user to the second user
is displayed in correspondence with the position or region, the
second user can easily grasp the position or region to be checked
in the drawing and the communication item corresponding to the
position or region (the same holds when a response by the second
user is communicated to the first user). Accordingly, multiple
persons can efficiently perform work, such as correction of a
drawing, and communicate information for the work. Here, the
controller 11 may display the position or region indicated by the
marking information in a different manner from other positions or
regions. The drawing may be displayed on the display 15 with
emphasis by changing the color or line type, or by adding a mark or
the like indicating the first user or the second user. In this
case, the color may be changed for each user. In this way, the
position or region of the drawing to which the communication item
was assigned is displayed with emphasis, thereby enabling each user
to easily grasp the position or region of the drawing to which the
communication item was assigned.
[0350] As described above, the controller 11 switches the position
or region to which the communication item is assigned in response
to an operation input from the first user or the second user and
displays the position or region on the display 15. In step S65, the
controller 11 determines whether such an operation input was
provided. When such an operation input was provided (YES in step
S65), the controller 11 proceeds to step S66, whereas otherwise (NO
in step S65), the controller 11 terminates the process of the
flowchart.
[0351] In step S66, when the user confirms or works on the
communication item, from another user, regarding each position or
region, the controller 11 displays the content of the communication
item regarding the position or region to which the communication
item is assigned. When the user finishes checking the position or
region and moves to the next position or region, the position or
region is switched and displayed on the display 15. Accordingly,
the user can check locations to which the communication items are
assigned without omission.
[0352] The controller 11 may receive a selection of a degree of
importance from the first user for each of the positions or regions
for which the selection from the first user was received. Then, for
each of the positions or regions for which the selection was
received from the first user, the controller 11 may store degree of
importance information, which is information indicating the degree
of importance of the position or the region, in the storage 12 in
association with the marking information. Furthermore, the
controller 11 may display on the display 15 the positions or
regions to which the communication items are assigned by switching
the positions or regions in descending order of the degree of
importance, in response to an operation input from the first user
or the second user. Accordingly, the position or region is switched
in descending order of the degree of importance in response to the
operation input by the user, thereby enabling the user to confirm
the locations to which the communication items were assigned in
descending order of need for consideration.
[0353] The controller 11 may store response information, indicating
whether the second user has responded to a position or region to
which a communication item was assigned, in the storage 12 for each
piece of marking information, in association with the corresponding
marking information. Based on the response information, the
controller 11 may then display responded information (for example,
an image, mark, or character string indicating "responded") on the
display 15 for each of the positions or regions to which a
communication item is assigned. The responded information is a
marking, as the status of the communication item, indicating that
the second user has responded. In this way, an image or the like
indicates whether the second user has responded to or confirmed the
position or region to which the communication item was assigned by
the first user, making it easy for the user to distinguish between
locations that have been responded to and locations that have not
been responded to. When transitioning between positions or regions,
since the portions that have been responded to do not require
confirmation, the controller 11 may perform control to switch and
transition in order only among the points that have not been
responded to.
[0354] The controller 11 may receive the assignment of the
communication item by character input or an operation to select
from among options. Accordingly, the user can assign a
communication item to a position or region in the drawing by
character input or an operation to select from among options.
[0355] The controller 11 may receive assignment of a second
communication item from the second user for the position or the
region for which the selection from the first user is received. The
controller 11 may then store second communication information,
which is communication information indicating the second
communication item, in the storage 12 in association with the
marking information, which is information indicating the position
or region for which assignment of the second communication item was
received, or in association with other communication information
already stored in association with the marking information.
Furthermore, the controller 11 may display the second communication
item on the display 15 in correspondence with the position or
region to which the second communication item is assigned. In this
way, not only the communication item from the first user, but also
the communication item from the second user are displayed in
correspondence with the position or region in the drawing, thereby
enabling the user to easily grasp the discussion at the location of
interest in the drawing.
Seventh Embodiment
[0356] In the present embodiment, a configuration is described in
which the elements indicated by all of the graphics even partially
included within a region selected by the user are not selected as
an element group, but rather the elements to be included in the
element group are extracted from the graphics (elements)
intersecting (having an intersecting point) with the boundary of
the region based on the positional relationship between the
boundary of the region and the graphics. According to the
configuration of the present embodiment, the user can quickly
select the desired element group by a simple operation, without
needing to perform a precise and careful operation. The method for
the user to select an element group according to the present
embodiment can be applied to any configuration of the first to
sixth embodiments. The same reference signs are attached to
configurations in common with the first embodiment, and a detailed
description is omitted.
[0357] Next, with reference to FIG. 35, operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 will be described. The
operations of the information processing apparatus 10 described
with reference to FIG. 35 correspond to an information processing
method according to the present embodiment, and the operation of
each step is performed based on control by the controller 11. FIG.
35 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of
the present disclosure.
[0358] In step S71, the controller 11 receives a selection, from a
user, of a region in a drawing in which elements are indicated by
graphics. FIG. 36 is a diagram schematically illustrating an
operation to select an element group. In FIG. 36, a trajectory 163
indicating the periphery (boundary) of the selected region is drawn
on the drawing by 162 (which may be a finger or a touch pen
touching on the touch panel, or a cursor on the screen operated by
an input device) of the user 201, and the region bounded by the
trajectory 163 is selected. In FIG. 36, the user 201 is attempting
to select a element group formed by a valve, an element A, and an
element B. However, only the graphic 164 of the valve and the
graphic 125 of the element A are completely contained within the
trajectory 163. Besides the graphic 126 of the element B, the
trajectory 163 also intersects the graphic 127 of an element E and
the graphic 128 of an element F, which the user does not intend to
select. The operation to select the region will be described later
with reference to FIGS. 38A and 38B.
[0359] In step S72, the controller 11 extracts from the drawing
first elements indicated by graphics included within the region for
which the selection was received (the elements to be selected
having not been determined at this point). In the example in FIG.
36, since the graphic 164 and the graphic 125 are included within
the region, the controller 11 extracts the valve and the element A
as first elements.
[0360] In step S73, the controller 11 extracts from the drawing
second elements indicated by graphics intersected by the boundary
of the region for which the selection was received. In the example
in FIG. 36, the trajectory 163 defining the boundary of the region
intersects the graphics 126, 127, and 128. Therefore, the
controller 11 extracts the element B, the element E, and the
element F as second elements.
[0361] In step S74, the controller 11 determines whether the
positional relationship between the graphic indicating a second
element extracted in step S73 and the boundary is a predetermined
relationship. When the graphic and the boundary are in a
predetermined positional relationship (YES in step S74), the
controller 11 proceeds to step S75, and otherwise (NO in step S74)
proceeds to step S76.
[0362] In step S75, the controller 11 extracts the second element
that is a processing target as a third element.
[0363] In step S76, the controller 11 determines whether the
processing of step S73 to step S75 has been performed for all of
the second elements extracted in step S73. When the process has
been performed (YES in step S76), the controller 11 proceeds to
step S77. When the process has not been performed (NO in step S76),
the controller 11 returns to step S73 and continues the process for
the other second elements.
[0364] In step S77, the controller 11 stores a set of elements,
formed by the first elements and the third elements, in the storage
12 as an element group selected by the user 201. The controller 11
then terminates the process of the flowchart.
[0365] In this way, the controller 11 does not simply select, as an
element group, the elements indicated by the graphics that are even
partially included within the region selected by the user, but
rather extracts the elements to be included in the element group
from the elements indicated by the graphics intersecting with the
boundary of the region based on the positional relationship between
the boundary of the region and the graphics, and excludes elements
that should not be included. Accordingly, the user can quickly
select the desired element group by a simple operation, without
needing to take time to perform a precise and careful selection
operation to prevent the boundary of the selected area from
intersecting with the graphics indicating extra elements in an
intricate drawing.
[0366] As the predetermined positional relationship in step S74,
the controller 11 may, for example, determine whether the ratio of
the area of the portion, included within the region, of the graphic
indicating the second element to the area of the graphic as a whole
is a predetermined value (such as 50%) or more. When such a
criterion is adopted, the controller 11 includes even elements with
graphics partially protruding from the boundary of the region, such
as the element B in FIG. 36, in the element group. Therefore, the
user can quickly select the desired element group by a simple
operation, without needing to take time to perform a precise and
careful operation.
[0367] Alternatively, when the connection relationship between the
elements in the drawing is indicated by connecting lines, the
controller 11 may, for example, determine in step S74 whether any
of the second elements is connected by the same connecting line as
any of the first elements (i.e., whether the elements are in an
adjacent relationship along the same connecting line). When such a
criterion is adopted, the controller 11 includes elements, among
the elements whose graphics intersect with the boundary of the
region, for which a portion of the graphic inside the region is in
a connection relationship with the first elements (the valve and
the element A in the example in FIG. 36), such as the element B in
FIG. 36, in the element group. That is, the element B is selected
by virtue of being in an adjacent relationship along the same
connecting line as the valve and the element A, which have
definitely been selected. On the other hand, the elements E and F,
for which a portion of the graphic is within the region due to the
close position in the drawing to the valve and the element A, are
excluded due to not being on the same connecting line. Therefore,
the user can quickly select the desired element group by a simple
operation, without needing to perform a precise and careful
operation.
[0368] Alternatively, the controller 11 may, for example, determine
in step S74 whether the positional relationship between the
boundary of the region and the center of the graphic indicating the
second element is a specific relationship. Alternatively, the
controller 11 may, for example, determine in step S74 whether the
positional relationship between the point where the boundary of the
region and the periphery of the graphic indicating the second
element intersect and the center of the graphic indicating the
second element is a specific relationship.
[0369] FIG. 37 is a diagram schematically illustrating the
relationship between graphics indicating an element group and the
selected region. The periphery of the graphic 165 intersects the
trajectory 134 drawn by the user 201 at two intersection points
135, 136. The graphic 165 has a center point 139. The point 137 is
the intersection of a first straight line that passes through the
two intersection points 135 and 136 and a second straight line that
passes through the center point 139 of the graphic 165 and is
orthogonal to the first straight line. In the example as
illustrated in FIG. 37, the controller 11 may, for example,
determine whether the center point 139 of the graphic 165 is
included within the region defined by the trajectory 134 as the
positional relationship between the boundary of the region and the
center of the graphic indicating the second element. Also, as the
positional relationship between the point where the boundary of the
region and the periphery of the graphic indicating the second
element intersect and the center of the graphic indicating the
second element, the controller 11 may, for example, determine which
side of the center point 139 the point 137 is located on (for
example, on the upper or lower side in the drawing). Since the
controller 11 extracts the elements to be included in the element
group based on such a positional relationship, the user can quickly
select the desired element group by a simple operation, without
needing to perform a precise and careful operation.
[0370] The determination criteria of step S74 illustrated here may
be used in combination. That is, the controller 11 may include the
second element in the element group when the second element
satisfies all of a plurality of criteria, or the second element may
be included in the element group when the second element satisfies
at least one criterion among the plurality of criteria.
[0371] The operation by the user 201 to select a region in step S71
will be described with reference to FIGS. 38A and 38B. FIGS. 38A
and 38B are diagrams schematically illustrating an operation to
select an element group.
[0372] In FIG. 38A, the controller 11 receives a first operation
for a first position of the drawing via a pointing device or a
touch panel and further receives a second operation for a second
position of the drawing via a pointing device or a touch panel. The
controller 11 then receives, from the user, a selection of a
rectangular region having the first position and the second
position as ends of a diagonal. Accordingly, the user can easily
select a desired element group by a cursor movement operation using
the pointing device or by a touch operation on the touch panel.
[0373] In FIG. 38B, the controller 11 receives the selection of a
region from the user, taking the trajectory traced by an operation
with the pointing device or an operation on the touch panel as the
boundary of the region. Accordingly, the user can easily select a
desired element group by an operation with the pointing device or
an operation on the touch panel.
Eighth Embodiment
[0374] In the configuration according to the present embodiment, it
is determined, based on the time from selection of a region until
subsequent selection of a graphic (element) outside the region
and/or a positional relationship between the selected region and a
subsequently selected graphic (element) outside the region, whether
to include the element indicated by the graphic selected after
selection of the region as an additionally selected element in the
element group selected in the region. Accordingly, it can be
automatically determined whether an operation performed after
selection of the region is related to the most recent selection
operation or is a new selection operation, and an element to be
added to an already selected element group can be added by a simple
operation. The method for the user to select an element group
according to the present embodiment can be applied to any
configuration of the first to seventh embodiments. The same
reference signs are attached to configurations in common with the
first embodiment, and a detailed description is omitted.
[0375] With reference to FIG. 39, operations of the information
processing apparatus 10 will be described. The operations of the
information processing apparatus 10 described with reference to
FIG. 39 correspond to an information processing method according to
the present embodiment, and the operation of each step is performed
based on control by the controller 11. FIG. 39 is a flowchart
illustrating example operations of the information processing
apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
Hereinafter, in the drawings, examples will be described in which
the connection relationships between elements are indicated by
connecting lines.
[0376] In step S81, the controller 11 receives a selection from a
user of a region, in a drawing in which elements are indicated by
graphics, that contains a plurality of graphics indicating first
elements. FIGS. 40A to 41B are diagrams schematically illustrating
an operation to select an element group. In FIGS. 40A and 41A, the
user 201 selects a region including a valve and an element A as
first elements.
[0377] After receiving the selection of the region in step S81, the
controller 11 receives a selection from the user of a graphic
indicating a second element in step S82. In FIG. 40B, the user 201
selects an element B as the second element. In FIG. 41B, the user
201 selects an element C as the second element.
[0378] In step S83, the controller 11 determines whether the time
from receipt of the selection of the region that includes the
graphics of the first elements until receipt of the selection of
the graphic indicating the second element is within a predetermined
time (for example, 3 seconds). This time may be set to be
changeable by the user. When the time is within the predetermined
time (YES in step S83), the controller 11 proceeds to step S84,
whereas otherwise (NO in step S83), the controller 11 terminates
the process of the flowchart.
[0379] In step S84, the controller 11 determines whether (1) the
distance between the region including the graphic of the first
element and the graphic indicating the second element is less than
a predetermined distance, or (2) the second element is connected by
the same connecting line as any of the first elements. When at
least one of the conditions (1) and (2) is satisfied (YES in step
S84), the controller 11 proceeds to step S85, whereas otherwise (NO
in step S84), the controller 11 terminates the process of the
flowchart.
[0380] In step S85, the controller 11 stores a set of elements,
formed by the first elements and the second element, in the storage
12 as an element group selected by the user. The controller 11 then
terminates the process of the flowchart.
[0381] The controller 11 includes the second element in the
selected element group when the time from receipt of the selection
of the region that includes the graphics of the first elements
until receipt of the selection of the graphic indicating the second
element is within the predetermined time, and the region and the
second element are in a specific positional relationship (steps S83
to S85, FIG. 40C). Accordingly, once the user selects an element
group, the user can select an element near the element group, or an
element connected by the same connecting line as an element
included in the element group, within a predetermined time to add
the element to the element group selected immediately prior. The
user can therefore add an element that is to be added to an already
selected element group by a simple operation, without having to
select the element group again. Although both the temporal
condition and the positional condition are listed in the flow of
FIG. 39, either of the procedures may be omitted for a
determination based only on one of the conditions.
[0382] In this way, the controller 11 determines whether an element
indicated by a graphic selected after the selection of the region
is to be included in the element group based on the time from
selection of the region until selection of the graphic, the
distance between the selected region and the graphic, and/or the
connection relationship between the selected region and the
graphic. Accordingly, the controller 11 can automatically determine
whether an operation performed after selection of the region is
related to the most recent selection operation or is a new
selection operation, and an element to be added to an already
selected element group can be added by a simple operation.
[0383] In FIG. 39, the controller 11 includes the second element in
the selected element group when (a), (b), and/or (c) among the
following conditions (a) to (c) is satisfied, but the conditions
for including the second element in the element group are not
limited to these examples. For example, the controller 11 may
include the second element in the selected element group when any
one or more of the following conditions are satisfied, when any two
or more of the conditions are satisfied, or when all of the
conditions are satisfied. [0384] (a) The time from receipt of the
selection of the region that includes the graphics of the first
elements until receipt of the selection of the graphic indicating
the second element is within a predetermined time. [0385] (b) The
distance between the region containing the graphics of the first
elements and the graphic indicating the second element is less than
a predetermined distance. [0386] (c) The second element is
connected by the same connecting line as any of the first
elements.
[0387] In addition to the elements indicated by graphics included
within the region for which the selection is received, the
controller 11 may, in step S81, extract elements indicated by
graphics that intersect the boundary of the region as first
elements, as illustrated in the seventh embodiment. Not only the
elements whose graphics are entirely included within the selected
region, but also elements whose graphics intersect the boundary of
the region can thus be extracted as the first elements, enabling
the user to select a desired element group with a simple
operation.
[0388] When the user performs an operation to drag the graphic of
the second element to the region after the selection of the region
containing the graphics of the first elements is received, the
controller 11 may determine a set of elements formed by the first
elements and the second element as the element group selected by
the user. FIG. 42 is a diagram schematically illustrating an
operation to select an element group. In FIG. 42, after an element
group 1 formed by a valve, an element A, and an element B is
selected, an element group 2 formed by a valve, an element C, and a
valve is selected. Subsequently, the element E is dragged to the
region of the element group 1. In such a case, the controller 11
adds the element E to the element group 1 and stores the element
group 1 in the storage 12. According to such a process, the user
can select a desired element group with an intuitive,
understandable operation. In this case, if the user simply drags
the element in the direction of the region to which the user wants
to add the element, without completely dragging the element into
the displayed region, the controller 11 may add the element to the
region located in that direction. In other words, operations to
drag the graphic of the second element to the region include not
only dragging the element into the region but also dragging the
element in the direction in which the region is located.
[0389] The present disclosure is not limited to the above-described
embodiments. For example, a plurality of blocks described in the
block diagrams may be integrated, or a block may be divided.
Instead of a plurality of steps described in the flowcharts being
executed in chronological order in accordance with the description,
the plurality of steps may be executed in parallel or in a
different order according to the processing capability of the
apparatus that executes each step, or as required. Other
modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the
present disclosure. Although each disclosed example has been
described using drawings of a plant, the present disclosure is not
limited to the example of plants and may be applied in fields that
deal with drawings depicting a plurality of graphic elements.
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