Design support system

Abstract

To add the perspective of plywood's layered surfaces in a design support system that uses parts made of a plywood material to design an assembly.SOLUTION: A design support system 1 is designed for designing an assembly A using parts made of a plywood material, with a short side b and a long side c, which are plywood stacking planes, displayed in a discernible manner. With the design support system 1, the plywood lamination surfaces of the short side b and the long side c that are different from a plane (a) can be discerned from the display, so that the assembly can be designed with the lamination surfaces in mind.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a design support system, and more particularly to a design support system for performing design using parts made of plywood material. [Background technology]

[0002] So-called DIY (Do It Yourself), in which people assemble furniture, storage sheds, etc., using parts made of wood or the like, is becoming increasingly popular. Recently, computer-aided design systems, known as CAD (Computer Aided Design), have come to be widely used in assembling these items. Patent Documents 1 and 2 are known as inventions relating to such design support systems.

[0003] Furthermore, the design support systems actually in use include not only those that have been used for some time and require a certain degree of specialized knowledge, but also, due to the popularity of DIY, design support systems specialized for the general public. For example, as described in Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2, several easy-to-use design support systems that do not require much specialized knowledge have recently been put into practical use. The applicant of the present application also sells "caDIY3D" (registered trademark) described in Non-Patent Document 3, which has been very well received.

[0004] For example, the design support system in Non-Patent Document 1 provides simple design support by selecting furniture from a selection of furniture types such as desks and chairs and changing the dimensions of the selected furniture.

[0005] On the other hand, the design support system provided by the applicant of the present application allows users to easily create 3D models of assemblies by adding parts (materials) to a drawing, adjusting the size of the added parts, and moving the parts to create a layout, just like playing with building blocks.

[0006] The design support system provided by the applicant of the present application has also attracted attention from educational institutions due to its simple operability, and is being widely used, for example, as a design and drafting app for technology and home economics classes in junior high schools.

[0007] Previously, school education focused on the creation of things, for example efficiently cutting wood from wooden boards and assembling the pieces. Recently, however, the focus has shifted to thinking in the design stage, which comes before the manufacturing stage, and more time is being spent on design before assembly. Therefore, it is expected that the use of design support systems in classes will continue to spread in the future.

[0008] Incidentally, there are parts made of plywood that can be used in the design support system of Non-Patent Document 3 provided by the applicant of the present application. Plywood is made by applying adhesive to thin veneers (also called veneers) made from raw wood and gluing multiple sheets together. Compared to solid wood materials, it is generally cheaper, has stable quality, and is easily available, making it a very suitable material for DIY projects.

[0009] Taking advantage of the benefits of plywood material, efforts are also being made to popularize dimensioned lumber parts made from plywood material in educational settings as “plywood DL” (see Non-Patent Document 4). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0010] [Patent Document 1] JP 2007-323242 A [Patent Document 2] JP 6000486 A [Non-patent literature]

[0011] [Non-Patent Document 1] Okada Metal Industry Co., Ltd., Easy Woodworking Drawing Tool Modelin Cloud, Retrieved on July 15, 2023〈https: / / life-diy.com / modelin2019new.html〉 [Non-Patent Document 2] Internous Co., Ltd., HOME>CAD Column>CAD Useful Information>Easily draw furniture design plans! 8 free smartphone apps and free software, search date: July 15, 2023〈https: / / www.lulucad.jp / 2019 / 08 / 21 / furniture_design_app_soft / 〉 [Non-Patent Document 3] Japan Microsystems Co., Ltd., Let's start DIY with caDIY3D!, Search date: July 15, 2023〈https: / / cadiy3d.com / wp / 〉 [Non-Patent Document 4] Plywood DL Promotion Association, general incorporated association, search date: July 15, 2020〈https: / / gia.gouhan-dl-fukyu-kyoukai.com / 〉 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0012] Plywood material is made by applying adhesive to veneer and gluing several sheets together, resulting in a multi-layer structure, or laminated wood.

[0013] When assembling parts made of plywood, it is natural to join the parts together, but adhesives can be used as a means of joining them in addition to screws and nails. To make a large object, joining with screws or nails is necessary in terms of strength, but for relatively small objects such as bookstands, adhesives are very convenient in terms of ease and safety of work, and joining with adhesives is also introduced in Non-Patent Document 4.

[0014] In this way, parts made of plywood are sometimes glued together, but unlike solid wood, plywood has a layered surface. If the layered surface is used as the adhesive surface when gluing parts made of plywood, the adhesive may be easily absorbed by the layered surface, and the parts may not be strong enough. Therefore, it is preferable not to use the layered surface as the adhesive surface when gluing parts made of plywood.

[0015] Another feature of plywood material is that its strength varies depending on the orientation of the plywood. Specifically, for a standardized lumber called DL plywood described in Non-Patent Document 4, when comparing the central load on the layered surface (edge) side and the central load on the flat surface (front / back side) side of a 1x1 piece (12x12x300mm), the load from the layered surface causes breakage at approximately 16kg, while the load from the flat surface causes breakage at approximately 22kg. In this way, the strength of a plywood material part varies greatly depending on the orientation in which it is used, and from this point of view, the orientation of the layered surface is also important. On the other hand, when assembling a product using plywood parts, it may be desirable to utilize the layered surface from a design perspective. Therefore, when building an assembly using plywood parts, unlike with other materials, it is important to consider the layering surfaces.

[0016] However, conventional design support systems for designing assemblies using parts made of plywood material have not taken into consideration the layered surfaces of the plywood material. As mentioned above, it is expected that design support systems will be increasingly introduced into educational settings in the future. In light of the education that develops thinking skills, it will be extremely important to add considerations of design strength and design regarding the laminated surfaces when designing parts using plywood material.

[0017] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a design support system for designing an assembly using parts made of plywood material, which takes into account the layered surfaces of the plywood material. [Means for solving the problem]

[0018] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a design support system for designing an assembly using parts made of plywood material, which is characterized in that the plywood layered surfaces are displayed in a distinguishable manner.

[0019] With this invention, in a design using parts made of plywood, the plywood lamination surface can be seen from the display, so that the assembly can be designed while taking the lamination surface into consideration. Note that the display that allows the plywood lamination surface to be distinguished can be made by, for example, changing the display color between the plywood lamination surface and the plywood surface.

[0020] And because it is possible to distinguish between plywood laminated surfaces, for example, when plywood laminated surfaces are joined together with adhesive, the strength is reduced, and the strength varies depending on the orientation of the plywood material parts, so the design can be made with these things in mind. Also, if the design is completed, these points can be pointed out and design changes can be made before the product is actually manufactured. Therefore, because the viewer is made aware of the laminated surfaces of plywood material from the display on the screen, this is extremely suitable as a design support system, especially in the field of education, in terms of cultivating thinking skills.

[0021] In addition, the distinguishable display of the plywood laminated surface of the design support system of the present invention is characterized in that it is a display of a laminated pattern. According to the design support system of the present invention, by displaying the laminated pattern as a distinguishable display of the plywood laminated surface, it is possible to perform a design that takes into consideration the actual parts of the plywood material, and for example, it is possible to perform a design that takes into consideration the direction of the laminated pattern from a design standpoint.

[0022] The design support system of the present invention is also characterized in that it is also capable of designing an assembly using parts made of materials other than the plywood material, in addition to the parts made of the plywood material.

[0023] According to the design support system of the present invention, it is possible to design using parts other than plywood, which expands the variation of designs. Parts made of materials other than plywood can be, for example, solid materials, metal materials, or parts frequently used in DIY such as casters, handles, and hinges.

[0024] The design support system of the present invention further comprises a parts information storage means for storing parts information relating to the parts, the parts information including local coordinate information of the parts in X-direction, Y-direction and Z-direction.

[0025] According to the design support system of the present invention, since the local coordinate information of the X, Y, and Z directions of the parts is included, by setting patterns (textures) corresponding to the X, Y, and Z directions, respectively, when a 3D display is performed, even if the parts are moved or rotated in various directions in the 3D space, the textures corresponding to the X, Y, and Z directions can always be displayed. Therefore, the system user does not need to take the trouble of setting the display of the stacking surfaces.

[0026] The design support system of the present invention is also characterized in that it issues a warning when designing a part made of plywood material with a laminated surface as a joint surface. With the design support system of the present invention, it is easy to notice that there is something about the laminated surface that requires attention during design.

[0027] The design support system of the present invention also has a function for selecting a mode for use in a specific purpose, and is characterized in that the mode selection allows only specific parts of the plywood material to be used. The design support system of the present invention can be used efficiently when used by a large number of people in specific situations, such as when the system is used in an educational setting or at a training session on how to use the design system. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0028] [Figure 1] (A) is an image of an actual assembly, (B) is a representation of an assembly designed using a conventional design support system, and (C) is a representation of an assembly designed using the design support system of the present invention. [Diagram 2] (A) is an enlarged view of region IIB in FIG. 1B, and (B) is an enlarged view of region IIC in FIG. 1C. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a plywood material part. [Figure 4] (A) is a diagram showing an example of gluing end grains of plywood parts, (B) is a diagram showing an example of gluing end grains to end grains, and (C) is a diagram showing an example of gluing end grains to end grains. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the design support system according to the present embodiment. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the design support system according to the present embodiment. [Figure 7] FIG. 1A is part information according to this embodiment, and FIG. 1B is a diagram showing the local coordinates of the part. [Figure 8] 11 is a display screen for selecting parts in the parts selection means of the present embodiment. [Figure 9] 4 is a process flow of a texture processing means of the present embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0029] The following describes the mode for carrying out the present invention with reference to the embodiments and drawings, but the embodiments shown below are not intended to limit the present invention to those described herein, and the present invention is equally applicable to those in which various modifications are made without departing from the technical ideas set forth in the claims. Note that in each drawing used for explanation in this specification, each component is shown at a different scale so that each component is large enough to be recognized on the drawing, and is not necessarily shown in proportion to the actual dimensions.

[0030] The design support system of the present invention is designed to be able to distinguish the layering surface of the plywood material when a part made of plywood material is displayed. This point will be explained in detail first with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1A is an image of a book stand, which is an actual assembly A using parts made of plywood material, FIG. 1B is an example of the display of assembly A designed using a conventional design support system, and FIG. 1C is an example of the display of assembly A designed using the design support system of the present invention. FIG. 2A is an enlarged view of region IIB in FIG. 1B, and FIG. 2B is an enlarged view of region IIC in FIG. 1C. Assembly A in FIG. 1A is made up of multiple parts made of plywood, and the parts are joined together using an adhesive.

[0031] This plywood material is a laminated material made by applying adhesive to thin veneers of raw wood and gluing multiple sheets together. Furthermore, parts made of this plywood material use DL plywood, a standard material also described in Non-Patent Document 4.

[0032] Figure 3 shows a perspective view of an example of a square timber part made of plywood material. As shown in Figure 3, unlike the pattern on the flat surface a called the front and back of the wood, a part made of plywood material has a layered surface with a layered pattern unique to laminated timber on the short side b called the end grain and the long side c called the edge grain. This is similar to the fact that the layered surfaces are visible on the end grain and edge grain of actual DL plywood. However, naturally, the pattern of the actual DL plywood is slightly different.

[0033] Then, before manufacturing assembly A using a plurality of parts made of such plywood material, a design support system is utilized, and preliminary design is performed using the design support system.

[0034] Figure 1B shows assembly A designed using plywood parts using a conventional design support system. In this conventional design support system, even for parts made of plywood, the patterns on plane a, short side b, and long side c were displayed with the same pattern and color. In other words, the layered surfaces of short side b and long side c were not distinguishable on the display, and were displayed in the same way as plane a.

[0035] Therefore, in designs using conventional design support systems, since it is not possible to recognize the layered surfaces of plywood materials on the display screen, for example, in designs by students, bonding between layered surfaces as shown in Figure 4 (bonding between ends of wood in Figure 4A, bonding between ends of wood in Figure 4B, and bonding between ends of wood in Figure 4C) occurs. Also, since the strength of parts of plywood materials differs depending on the orientation, for example, designs were made in which the book placement surface of assembly A, which is a book stand, was the layered surface (end of wood) side, which has low strength. As a result, in the actual manufacturing stage, it was discovered that assembly A was not strong enough when it was assembled. Also, even when teachers checked the designs by students, bonding between layered surfaces was sometimes overlooked while checking the designs of many students.

[0036] On the other hand, Fig. 1C shows an assembly A designed using plywood parts using the design support system of the present invention. In the design support system of the present invention, the plywood parts are displayed with a layered pattern on the short side b and long side c, which is different from the pattern on the plane a, as shown in Fig. 3. In other words, the short side b and long side c are displayed with a pattern different from the pattern on the plane a.

[0037] Therefore, in design using the design support system of the present invention, students can design while being aware of the layered surfaces of the plywood material on the display screen. This makes it difficult for students to make mistakes in their designs, such as gluing the layered surfaces together as shown in Figure 4, or making mistakes in the orientation of the plywood material parts, so that insufficient strength of the assembly A is unlikely to occur in the actual manufacturing stage. Also, when a teacher checks a student's design, it is easy to see that the layered surfaces are glued together, so it is unlikely for an oversight to occur when checking the designs of many students.

[0038] Furthermore, in the design support system of the present invention, the layered surfaces of the plywood parts are displayed on the screen, so that the design can be carried out with the same image as the actual finished product, the assembly A, and therefore it is possible to make use of the layered surfaces from a design perspective.

[0039] In this way, the design support system of the present invention displays the plywood laminated surfaces in a distinguishable manner by using the patterns on the short side surface b and the long side surface c for lamination, just like an actual plywood material square timber part.

[0040] [Embodiment] Next, a specific embodiment of the design support system of the present invention will be described. Fig. 5 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the design support system 1 in this embodiment. As shown in Fig. 5, the design support system 1 includes a control unit 11, a storage unit 12, a display output unit 13, an input operation unit 14, and a communication unit 15.

[0041] The control unit 11 is made up of a calculation device such as a CPU, and executes various programs and performs various processes. The storage unit 12 is made up of storage devices such as a RAM, a ROM, and stores the programs executed by the control unit 11, the results of processing by the programs, and various data. Data on a texture image of a layered pattern and a texture image of a wood grain pattern, which will be described later, is also stored in the storage unit 12.

[0042] The display output unit 13 is a display device such as an LCD, and the system user designs while viewing various parts, information, assemblies, etc. on the screen. The screen in FIG. 1C is also an example of a display displayed by this display output unit 13.

[0043] The input operation unit 14 consists of a keyboard, mouse, touch panel, etc., and is used to select parts to be displayed on the display output unit 13, change their size, adjust them, and perform operations to change the orientation and angle of parts via the screen of the display output unit 13. The communication unit 15 connects the design support system 1 to a network via the Internet, a LAN, or the like.

[0044] As a specific example of the hardware configuration of the design support system 1 shown in Fig. 5, a mobile terminal such as a tablet can be used in addition to a personal computer (PC). It is also possible to realize the design support system using a terminal dedicated to the design support system.

[0045] Furthermore, the program for realizing the design support system 1 can be acquired as an application program from a server connected to the network via the communication unit 15, or may be stored in the storage unit 12 from the beginning. Furthermore, the design support system 1 may be realized in the form of a so-called thin client, with the terminal having the configuration shown in FIG. 5 serving as a client terminal.

[0046] The design support system 1 realized by such a hardware configuration realizes the functions shown in Fig. 6. Specifically, as shown in Fig. 6, the design support system 1 includes a parts information storage means 110, a parts selection means 120, and a texture processing means 130.

[0047] The parts information storage means 110 is mainly composed of a control unit 11 and a storage unit 12, and stores information about various parts used to manufacture the assembly A. Fig. 7A shows an example of parts information stored in the parts storage means 110.

[0048] The part information includes material information about the parts, and as shown in Fig. 7A, at least plywood material is included, and in this embodiment, solid material is also included. Note that Fig. 7A is merely an example of some parts, and other materials such as metal materials may also be included.

[0049] The part information also includes size information on the size. The 1×1 lumber (12×12×300 mm) and 1×2 lumber (12×24×300 mm) of the plywood material shown in FIG. 7A are standardized square lumber made of plywood as described in Non-Patent Document 4. On the other hand, the 1×1 lumber (19×19×910 mm) and 2×2 lumber (38×38×910 mm) shown as solid materials are square lumber called one-by lumber or two-by lumber that is easy to obtain and often used in DIY. Also, the 12×910×1820 mm plywood material is a rectangular board material that is sometimes called a 6-6 board. In this way, in this embodiment, by having information on standardized parts that are easy to use in DIY, it is possible to easily design and manufacture the actual assembly A.

[0050] The parts information also includes teaching material information. This teaching material information indicates parts used as teaching materials in DL plywood materials that are being popularized by the DL Plywood Promotion Association in Non-Patent Document 4. Therefore, in this embodiment, even for 1×1 and 1×2 plywood materials shown in FIG. 7A, there are two types of data: parts for teaching materials and parts that are not for teaching materials.

[0051] By including teaching material information in the parts information in this way, for example, parts for teaching materials only can be selected to design an assembly. The reason why the inventor includes teaching material information in the parts information is that the Plywood DL Promotion Association (Non-Patent Document 4) is promoting the use of a teaching material woodworking kit (Plywood DL Module Woodworking Kit (registered trademark)) which is a set of several parts for teaching materials. Since such woodworking kits are very suitable for school education that must be completed within a set time, it is expected that they will become more popular in the future. When the design support system 1 is used together with the popularization of the woodworking kit, the design support system 1 can also be used specifically for the woodworking kit consisting of several types of plywood parts. For this reason, teaching material information is included in the parts information to make it possible to identify the parts included in the woodworking kit. Note that the name "teaching material information" itself does not have any particular meaning, and if it is known that the parts are specialized for a specific product such as a woodworking kit, it is sufficient to be able to identify them using other names, such as a specific product name. For this reason, "teaching material information" has a broad meaning such as "specific use information."

[0052] The part information also includes coordinate system information for the X, Y, and Z directions of the part. This coordinate system information is local coordinates with respect to absolute coordinates (world coordinates) in 3D space when performing 3D display in 3D CAD. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7B, the information is defined such that the direction of the short side surface b called the end of the wood is the X direction, the direction of the plane a called the front and back of the wood is the Y direction, and the direction of the long side surface b called the edge of the wood is the Z direction. And, by having the local coordinate information for the part in this way, it becomes possible to display the part by moving it in various directions and rotating it within the world coordinates of the 3D space.

[0053] In other words, even if the part is moved or rotated in various directions in the 3D space of the world coordinates, or the orientation of the world coordinates is changed, it is possible to display a pattern corresponding to the plane a, short side b, and long side c that correspond to the local coordinates of the part itself. Therefore, even if the system user moves or rotates the part or changes the viewpoint, the plane a, short side b, and long side c will also move, rotate, and change accordingly.

[0054] Such parts information is stored in the parts information storage means 110. Note that the parts information shown in FIG. 7A is merely an example. In reality, there may be a plurality of parts made of plywood and other materials, and there may also be a plurality of parts made of solid materials. In addition to parts made of square lumber, there may also be part information for parts such as round bars. Furthermore, information on parts that are frequently used when manufacturing an assembly by DIY, such as casters, handles, hinges, and other parts such as stone supports and blocks, may also be included.

[0055] Furthermore, the parts information storage means 110 can also have a function of obtaining new parts information from a server on the network via the communication unit 15 and updating the parts information, thereby changing the parts information.

[0056] The part selection means 120 is mainly composed of the control unit 11, the storage unit 12, the display output unit 13, and the input operation unit 14. Specifically, as shown in Fig. 8, the display output unit 13 displays commands for each material (plywood parts and solid wood parts in Fig. 8) based on the part information stored by the part information storage means 110. Then, for the part of the material (plywood parts in Fig. 8) selected by operating the input operation unit 14 (for example, a mouse), information on various plywood parts stored based on the size information of the part information is displayed (1x1 board, 1x2 board, 1x3 board in Fig. 8). Then, an image of the selected plywood part is displayed in 3D (1x2 board is displayed in Fig. 8).

[0057] In this manner, the parts displayed on the screen are selected by the parts selection means 120. Other parts required for designing the assembly A are then selected by repeating the same operation.

[0058] Texture processing means 130 is mainly composed of control unit 11 and storage unit 12, and performs processing to draw the pattern of a part selected by part selection means 120 when this part is displayed on the screen of display output unit 13. A specific processing flow of this texture processing is shown in Fig. 9.

[0059] First, this process starts when a plywood part is selected by the part selection means 120. Specifically, for the selected part, a determination is made as to whether or not it is a part for teaching materials based on the part information shown in FIG. 7 (S1).

[0060] If it is a part for teaching materials (YES in S1), a layered pattern is drawn on both short side surfaces b of the part in the X direction, which are the ends of the wood, using the layered pattern texture image data (S2). Next, a wood grain pattern is drawn on both flat surfaces a of the part in the Y direction, which are the front (back) of the wood, using the wood grain texture image data (S3). Next, a layered pattern is drawn on both long side surfaces c of the part in the Z direction, which are the ends of the wood, using the layered pattern texture image data (S4). Unlike conventional plywood parts, which have been processed in this way, the layers are displayed on the ends and the wood edges, making it possible to distinguish the layered surfaces of the plywood on the display.

[0061] If the part is not for teaching materials (NO in S1), a wood grain pattern is drawn on both short side surfaces b in the X direction of the part using wood grain texture image data (S5). Next, a wood grain pattern is drawn on both flat surfaces a in the Y direction of the part using wood grain texture image data (S6). Next, a wood grain pattern is drawn on both long side surfaces c in the Z direction of the part using wood grain texture image data (S4). Plywood parts that have been processed in this way have the same pattern on the end, edge, top and bottom of the wood, just like conventional parts, and the layered surfaces of the plywood are not distinguishable on the display.

[0062] After completing this process, the plywood parts are displayed on the screen of the output display unit 13 as shown in Fig. 8. The system user then repeats this part selection and processing for each part, adjusting the size of each part and laying out the parts, designing assembly A just as if playing with building blocks.

[0063] In the texture processing means 130 of this embodiment, whether or not to perform the rendering process for the plywood laminated surface of a part made of plywood material is determined based on whether or not the part is a teaching material part in the part information.

[0064] This is because it is assumed that the design support system 1 is used together with the woodworking kit described above when it is used in an educational field. In other words, when it is used in school education, it is important to design it with consideration of the laminated surface of the plywood in terms of education, so it is important to display the laminated surface so that it can be identified. On the other hand, when the design support system 1 is used in a field other than school education, depending on the user, it may not be necessary to be very conscious of the laminated surface of the plywood. For example, in a woodworking kit, it is assumed that only an assembly A that can be joined with adhesive is designed, but in general DIY, a large assembly A that requires joining with screws or nails rather than adhesive may be designed. In the case of such a large assembly A that uses screws and nails, the need to be conscious of the laminated surface of the plywood is reduced. Therefore, in the case of parts for teaching materials, since it is necessary to display the laminated surface of the plywood, the texture processing means 130 as shown in this embodiment in FIG. 9 is adopted.

[0065] However, the texture processing means 130 is merely one example, and it is of course possible to adopt a processing flow other than that shown in FIG. 9. For example, a process may be adopted in which it is determined whether or not the material is plywood, and if so, the layered surface is always drawn.

[0066] As described above, the design support system 1 of this embodiment is for designing an assembly A using parts made of plywood material, and displays the short side surface b and long side surface c, which are the laminated surfaces of the plywood, in a distinguishable manner. With conventional design support systems, in parts made of plywood material, the plane a, short side surface b, and long side surface c could only be identified from the shape, and the laminated surfaces of the plywood could not be recognized on the display, but with this design support system 1, the plywood laminated surfaces can be seen from the display, so it is possible to design an assembly while being aware of the laminated surfaces.

[0067] In this embodiment, the distinguishable display of the plywood laminated surfaces is performed by displaying the texture of the laminated pattern. This makes it possible to perform a design that takes into consideration the appearance of the actual completed assembly A. However, other methods may be used as long as the plywood laminated surfaces can be distinguished, for example, by changing the color of the laminated surfaces or drawing a special pattern. Such drawing can be realized, for example, by using a texture processing means to apply a solid color to the drawing in the X and Z directions or by drawing a special pattern that has been stored.

[0068] In addition, by designing the assembly A using the design support system 1 of this embodiment, adhesion between laminated surfaces of parts made of plywood material as shown in FIG. 4 is unlikely to occur. However, for example, when designed to bond between laminated surfaces as shown in FIG. 4 or to join not only laminated surfaces but also parts made of plywood material, it is possible to adopt a configuration that issues a warning such as a warning display or a warning sound. Such a configuration not only quickly and reliably notices that attention is required for the laminated surfaces, but also reduces the burden of checking on teachers when using the design support system in educational settings. Note that the warning may be different depending on the degree of danger, such as in the case of joining between laminated surfaces and in the case of joining between a laminated surface and another part. In addition, the warning display can be realized, for example, by using the display output unit 13 to change the color or display a comment.

[0069] In addition, the design support system 1 of this embodiment is also intended for use in specific applications, such as in an educational setting with a woodworking kit as described in Non-Patent Document 4, and for this purpose, the parts information as shown in FIG. 7A includes educational information. For this reason, for example, when the design support system 1 is used with a woodworking kit in an educational setting or in a training session for using the design system, it is possible to add a mode selection function to the design support system 1 so that only parts made of the corresponding plywood material can be used in the corresponding mode, so that the system can be limited to such specialized uses. This configuration allows efficient operation when the system is used by a large number of users, such as students or in a training session. The mode selection function can be realized by the control unit 11, the display output unit 13, and the input operation unit 14, and can be realized by limiting parts based on information in the parts information linked to the selected mode.

[0070] Furthermore, in the explanation of the design support system 1 of this embodiment, all of the examples of screen displays of the display output unit 13 were so-called 3D displays of plywood material parts, but the design support system 1 of the present invention is not limited to 3D displays, and the screen display of the parts may be so-called 2D displays. [Explanation of symbols]

[0071] 1 Design support system 11 Control section 12 Storage section 13 Display output section 14 Input operation section 15 Communications Department a Plane (wood surface / wood back) b Short side (end of wood) c Long side (wooden edge)

Claims

1. A design support system for designing an assembly using plywood parts, comprising: A design support system characterized by displaying plywood laminate surfaces in a distinguishable manner.

2. 2. The design support system according to claim 1, wherein the distinguishable display of the plywood laminated surface is a display of a laminated pattern.

3. 2. The design support system according to claim 1, further comprising a component part made of a material other than the plywood material, which is also used to design an assembly in addition to the plywood material parts.

4. a parts information storage means for storing parts information relating to the parts; 4. The design support system according to claim 3, wherein the part information includes local coordinate information of the part in X-direction, Y-direction, and Z-direction.

5. The design support system according to claim 1, wherein a warning is given in the case of a design in which the laminated surfaces of the parts made of plywood material are to be joint surfaces.

6. 2. The design support system according to claim 1, further comprising a function for selecting a mode for use in a specific application, which enables the use of only specific parts among the parts made of said plywood material by means of said mode selection.

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