Assistance system

A design assistance system for designing a network system in which at least one slave device joins a communication bus by drawing a line, tree, or star topology from a master device as a starting point, the network system being formed by interconnecting ports of each of the master device and the at least one slave device, the design assistance system comprising:

• a display configured to display a design assistance GUI;
• a control device configured to control the design assistance GUI which is displayed on the display;
• and
• an input device configured to receive an input to operate the design assistance GUI, wherein:
• the control device comprises:
• a memory configured to store slave information data in which unique information of each of the at least one slave device is described;
• and
• a processor configured to acquire information of a port of each of the at least one slave device from the slave information data,
• generate a port component serving as a first GUI component representing a type of a connection interface of the port of each of the at least one slave device based on information of the port, generate a device component serving as a second GUI component representing each of the at least one slave device based on the slave information data, and generate a design assistance GUI containing a topology display screen configured to display a design of a topology of the network system, which includes the device component and the port component;
• wherein
• the processor acquires information configured to identify an inport serving as a port to which a slave device serving as a parent on the communication bus is connected, an outport serving as a port to which a slave device serving as a child on the communication bus is connected, and a branching port serving as a port at which the communication bus branches off;
• and
• the processor generates a mutually different first hierarchy and a second hierarchy in a right-and-left direction, the first hierarchy in which a device component representing the child slave device is disposed below a device component representing the parent slave device and a device component representing a branching slave device, which is a slave device having the branching port, and a device component representing the slave device which is connected to the outport of the branching slave device are disposed, and the second hierarchy in which the device component representing the slave device which is connected to the branching port of the branching slave device is disposed, on a topology display screen.

A design assistance system for designing a network system in which at least one slave device joins a communication bus by drawing a line, tree, or star topology from a master device as a starting point, the network system being formed by interconnecting ports of each of the master device and the at least one slave device, the design assistance system comprising:

• a display configured to display a design assistance GUI;
• a control device configured to control the design assistance GUI which is displayed on the display;
• and
• an input device configured to receive an input to operate the design assistance GUI, wherein:
• the control device comprises:
• a memory configured to store slave information data in which unique information of each of the at least one slave device is described;
• and
• a processor configured to acquire information of a port of each of the at least one slave device from the slave information data,
• generate a port component serving as a first GUI component representing the port of each of the at least one slave device, based on the information of the port, generate a device component serving as a second GUI component representing each of the at least one slave device, based on the slave information data, and generate a design assistance GUI containing a topology display screen configured to display a design of a topology of the network system, which includes the device component and the port component;
• wherein
• the processor generates a device list display screen displaying a list of device components representing slave devices which are designed to be newly joined to the network system and also generates the design assistance GUI containing the topology display screen and the device list display screen;
• and
• if operations to drag any one of the device components enumerated on the device list display screen and drop the dragged device component to any one of the device components composing the topology display screen are performed, the processor generates a port list component representing a list of the ports to which the slave device represented by the dragged device component can be connected, the port list component being provided to the slave device represented by the device component that is dragged and dropped.

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program for designing a network system in which a master device and at least one slave device are connected to a communication bus such that the master device and the at least one slave device communicate with each other, the network system being formed by interconnecting ports of each of the master and slave devices, the program, if executed by a computer, causing the computer to:

• store, in a storage, slave information data in which unique information of each of the at least one slave device is described;
• acquire information of a connection interface of a port of each of the at least one slave device from the slave information data;
• and
• generate a port component serving as a first GUI component representing a type of the connection interface of a port of each of the at least one slave device based on information of the port, generate a device component serving as a second GUI component representing each of the at least one slave device based on the slave information data, and generate a design assisting GUI having a topology display screen configured to display a design of a topology of the network system, which is built by connecting the device component and the port component to each other.

A design assistance method for designing a network system in which a master device and at least one slave device joins a communication bus such that the master device and at least one slave device communicate with each other, the network system being formed by interconnecting ports of each of the master device and the at least one slave device, and the design assistance method causing a computer to perform:

• storing slave information data in which unique information of each of the at least one slave device is described;
• acquiring information of a port of each of the at least one slave device from the slave information data;
• and
• generating a port component serving as a first GUI component representing a type of a connection interface of the port of each of the at least one slave device based on information of the port, generating a device component serving as a second GUI component representing each of the at least one slave device based on the slave information data, and generating a design assisting GUI having a topology display screen configured to display a design of a topology of the network system, which is built by connecting the device component and the port component to each other.