Apparatus for producing exploded view and animation of assembling, and method thereof

An apparatus for producing an exploded view of an assembly having an input unit, a geometrical data memory for storing geometrical data of parts composing said assembly and a calculating unit for displaying said assembly to a display unit based on said geometrical data, which comprises:

• a memory for assembling process data for storing assembling data composed of attaching orders and attaching directions of said parts;
• minimum scalar product value calculating means for calculating the scalar products of the vertex coordinates of a part in said memory for geometrical data and the attaching direction vector in said memory for assembling process data and for obtaining the minimum value of the scalar products;
• maximum scalar product value calculating means for calculating the scalar products of the vertex coordinates of said part and said attaching direction vector and for obtaining the maximum value of the scalar products;
• and
• means for obtaining the difference between said minimum value of scalar product and said maximum value of scalar product obtained and for determining distances between the parts composing said assembly in a disassembled state on an exploded view based on the obtained difference, thereby an exploded view being displayed in said display unit corresponding to said distances determined.

An apparatus for producing an exploded view of an assembly having an input unit, a geometrical data memory for storing geometrical data of parts composing said assembly and a calculating unit for displaying said assembly to a display unit based on said geometrical data, which comprises:

• a memory for assembling process data for storing assembling data composed of attaching orders and attaching directions of said parts;
• means for producing a first polyhedron containing the geometrical form of a part to be attached and a second polyhedron containing the geometrical form of a part accepting part to be attached using geometrical data of parts in a memory for said geometrical data;
• and
• means for determining distances between the parts composing said assembly in a disassembled state on an exploded view based on the produced geometrical data of the first and the second polyhedrons and attaching direction vector in said memory for assembling process data, thereby an exploded view being displayed in said display unit corresponding to said distances determined.

An apparatus for producing an exploded view of an assembly having an input unit, a geometrical data memory for storing geometrical data of parts composing said assembly and a calculating unit for displaying said assembly to a display unit based on said geometrical data, which comprises:

• a memory for assembling process data for storing assembling data composed of attaching orders and attaching directions of said parts;
• contact surface detecting means for obtaining a contact surface between a part to be attached and a part accepting part to be attached based on the geometrical data of part to be attached and the geometrical data of part accepting part to be attached in said memory for geometrical data;
• minimum scalar product value calculating means for calculating the scalar products of the vertex coordinates of the obtained contact surface and the attaching direction vector in said memory for assembling process data and for obtaining the minimum value of the scalar products;
• maximum scalar product value calculating means for calculating the scalar products of the vertex coordinates of said part to be attached and the attaching direction vector and for obtaining the maximum value of the scalar products;
• and
• means for obtaining the difference between said minimum value of scalar product and said maximum value of scalar product obtained and for determining distances between the parts composing said assembly in a disassembled state on an exploded view based on the obtained difference, thereby an exploded view being displayed in said display unit corresponding to said distances determined.

A method of producing an exploded view of an assembly using an apparatus having an input unit, a geometrical data memory for storing geometrical data of parts composing said assembly and a calculating unit for displaying said assembly to a display unit based on said geometrical data, the method comprising the steps of:

• reading out vertex coordinates of a part from said memory for geometrical data;
• reading out an attaching direction vector from an assembling process data memory storing assembling process data composed of attaching orders and attaching directions of parts;
• calculating the scalar products of the vertex coordinates of the part and the assembling vector and obtaining the minimum value of the scalar products;
• calculating the scalar products of said read-out vertex coordinates of the part and said read-out attaching direction vector and obtaining the maximum value of the scalar products;
• obtaining the difference between the minimum value of scalar product and the maximum value of scalar product and determining distances between the parts composing said assembly in a disassembled state on an exploded view based on the obtained difference;
• and
• displaying an exploded view in said display unit corresponding to said distances determined.

An apparatus for producing animation of assembling, comprising:

• a geometrical data memory for storing geometrical data of parts composing an assembly;
• an attaching procedure data memory for storing attaching procedure data composed of attaching orders, part to be attached data and attaching direction data;
• a jointing data memory for storing jointing data composed of part to be attached data and jointing method data;
• a table for special jointing operation data memory for storing a table for special jointing operation composed of jointing method data and operation data depending on for said jointing method data;
• and
• operating data producing means for producing operating data for an animation displayed from the geometrical data in said geometrical data memory, the attaching procedure data in said attaching procedure data memory, the jointing data in said jointing data memory, and the table for special jointing operation in said table for special jointing operation memory.

An apparatus for producing animation of assembling, comprising:

• a geometrical data memory for storing geometrical data of parts composing an assembly;
• an attaching procedure data memory for storing attaching procedures composed of attaching orders, part to be attached data and attaching direction data;
• a jointing data memory for storing jointing data composed of part to be attached data and jointing method data;
• a table for animation speed ratio memory for storing a table for animation speed ratio composed of jointing method data and operating speed ratio data special for said jointing method data;
• and
• operating data producing means for producing operating data for an animation displayed from the geometrical data in said geometrical data memory, the attaching procedure data in said attaching procedure data memory, the jointing data in said jointing data memory, and the table for animation speed ratio in said table for animation speed ratio memory.

An apparatus for producing animation of assembling, comprising:

• a geometrical data memory for storing geometrical data of parts composing an assembly;
• an attaching procedure data memory for storing attaching procedures composed of attaching orders, part to be attached data and attaching direction data;
• a jointing data memory for storing jointing data composed of part to be attached data and jointing method data;
• a table for jointing sound memory for storing a table for jointing sound composed of jointing method data and sound data special for said jointing method data;
• and
• operating data producing means for producing operating data for an animation displayed from the geometrical data in said geometrical data memory, the attaching procedure data in said attaching procedure data memory, the jointing data in said jointing data memory, and the table for jointing sound in said table for jointing sound memory.

A method for producing animation of assembling, the method comprising steps of:

• reading out necessary geometrical data from geometrical data of parts composing an assembly;
• reading out part to be attached data and attaching direction data from attaching procedure data composed of attaching orders, part to be attached data and attaching direction data;
• obtaining a corresponding jointing method to the part to be attached read out in the above step from jointing data composed of part to be attached data and jointing method data;
• obtaining a corresponding special operation to the jointing method obtained in the above step from a table for special jointing operation composed of jointing method data and operation data special for said jointing method data;
• and
• producing operating data for part to be attached as an input parameter to an animation display function from the attaching direction and the special operation with referring to the geometrical data of the part to be attached.

A method for producing animation of assembling, the method comprising steps of:

• reading out necessary geometrical data from geometrical data of parts composing an assembly;
• reading out part to be attached data and attaching direction data from attaching procedure data composed of attaching orders, part to be attached data and attaching direction data;
• obtaining a corresponding jointing method to the part to be attached read out in the above step from jointing data composed of part to be attached data and jointing method data;
• obtaining a corresponding animation speed ratio to the jointing method obtained in the above step from a table for animation speed composed of jointing method data and operating speed ratio data special for said jointing method data;
• and
• producing operating data for part to be attached as an input parameter to an animation display function from the attaching direction and the animation speed ratio with referring to the geometrical data of the part to be attached.

A method for producing animation of assembling, the method comprising steps of:

• reading out necessary geometrical data from geometrical data of parts composing an assembly;
• reading out part to be attached data and attaching direction data from attaching procedure data composed of attaching orders, part to be attached data and attaching direction data;
• obtaining a corresponding jointing method data to the part to be attached read out in the above step from jointing data composed of part to be attached data and jointing method data;
• obtaining a corresponding sound data to the jointing method obtained in the above step from a table for jointing sound composed of jointing methods and sound data special for said jointing method data;
• and
• producing operating data for part to be attached as an input parameter to an animation display function from the attaching direction and the sound data with referring to the geometrical data of the part to be attached.