Drawing difference extraction system and drawing difference extraction method

Abstract

To provide a drawing difference extraction system capable of easily grasping a difference between a drawing data group of an old version and a drawing data group of a new version.SOLUTION: The drawing difference extraction system includes a linking processing unit configured to perform linking processing of assigning a page number of an old version drawing data group to a page number of a new version drawing data group and linking a page of the old version drawing data group and a page of the new version drawing data group, a difference extraction unit configured to extract a difference including addition / deletion of contents and an increase / decrease in the number of pages between the page of the old version drawing data group and the page of the new version drawing data group corresponding to the page of the old version drawing data group subjected to the linking processing, a difference data generation unit configured to generate data of the extracted difference, and an output control unit configured to control to output the generated data of the difference.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a drawing difference extraction system and a drawing difference extraction method. [Background technology]

[0002] An image processing device including an acquisition unit that acquires a plurality of drawings has been disclosed (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The image processing device disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes an extraction unit that extracts graphic elements from each of the acquired plurality of drawings, a calculation unit that calculates a similarity between different images for each of the extracted graphic elements, and an output unit that outputs a difference in the image as a changed graphic element to a display device for a graphic element whose calculated similarity is equal to or greater than a first threshold and less than a second threshold. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2023-145231 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] For example, in construction management, a group of multi-page drawing data, such as floor plans for a building site, may be compiled under a single file name. In such cases, a new version of the drawing data may be created by updating a portion of the multi-page drawing data, deleting pages, or increasing the number of pages. The changes between the old and new versions of the drawing data are often subtle, making it difficult to grasp the differences. Making the differences easier to grasp would improve convenience for users of the drawing data.

[0005] Therefore, one of the objects is to provide a drawing difference extraction system that can easily grasp the differences between drawing data groups of an old version and drawing data groups of a new version. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] A drawing difference extraction system according to the present disclosure is a drawing difference extraction system that extracts differences between drawing data groups of old versions and drawing data groups of new versions. The drawing difference extraction system includes: a first receiving unit that receives a selection of project data including drawing data groups of multiple versions; a second receiving unit that, upon receiving the selection of project data from the first receiving unit, receives a selection of drawing data groups of old versions and drawing data groups of new versions from among the selected project data; a linking processing unit that, upon receiving the selection of drawing data groups of old versions and drawing data groups of new versions from the second receiving unit, performs a linking process that assigns page numbers of the drawing data groups of old versions to page numbers of the drawing data groups of new versions and links the pages of the drawing data groups of old versions with the pages of the drawing data groups of new versions; a difference extraction unit that extracts differences, including additions and deletions in content and increases and decreases in the number of pages, between pages of the drawing data groups of new versions that correspond to pages of the drawing data groups of old versions linked by the linking processing unit and pages of the drawing data groups of old versions; a difference data generation unit that generates data of the differences extracted by the difference extraction unit; and an output control unit that controls output of the difference data generated by the difference data generation unit. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to such a drawing difference extraction system, it is possible to easily grasp the differences between a group of drawing data of an old version and a group of drawing data of a new version. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an overview of a drawing difference extraction system according to the first embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the drawing difference extraction system according to the first embodiment. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the main processing flow when the drawing difference extraction system is used to extract differences between drawings. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen on which multiple project names are listed side by side. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen when a group of drawing data of a plurality of versions is displayed. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen showing the selection results. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen during the linking process in the linking processing unit. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen when displaying the linking result in which a page of a drawing data group of an old version is linked to a page of a drawing data group of a new version. [Figure 9] FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen when a blank page image is inserted. [Figure 10] FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing typical steps in the process of extracting differences. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen in which the difference data is displayed in different colors for the old version drawing data and the new version drawing data. [Figure 12] FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen in which the designated area is enlarged and the new version of drawing data is displayed alongside the old version of drawing data as difference data. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] [Description of the embodiments of the present disclosure] (1) The drawing difference extraction system according to the present disclosure is a drawing difference extraction system that extracts differences between a group of drawing data of an old version and a group of drawing data of a new version. The drawing difference extraction system includes a first receiving unit that receives a selection of project data including multiple versions of drawing data groups; a second receiving unit that, when the first receiving unit receives the selection of project data, receives a selection of an old version of drawing data group and a new version of drawing data group from the selected project data; a linking processing unit that, when the second receiving unit receives the selection of the old version of drawing data group and the selection of the new version of drawing data group, performs a linking process that assigns page numbers of the old version of drawing data group to page numbers of the new version of drawing data group and links the pages of the old version of drawing data group with the pages of the new version of drawing data group; a difference extraction unit that extracts differences, including additions and deletions in content and increases or decreases in the number of pages, between the pages of the new version of drawing data group and the pages of the old version of drawing data group that correspond to the pages of the old version of drawing data group that have been linked by the linking processing unit; a difference data generation unit that generates difference data extracted by the difference extraction unit; and an output control unit that controls the difference data generated by the difference data generation unit to be output.

[0010] The drawing difference extraction system disclosed herein accepts a selection of project data including multiple versions of drawing data. Upon accepting a selection of an old version of drawing data and a new version of drawing data, the system performs a linking process between the old version of drawing data and the new version of drawing data, then compares the old version of drawing data and the new version of drawing data, extracting differences, including additions or deletions to content and increases or decreases in the number of pages. Then, difference data is generated from the extracted differences and output. This extracts differences between each page of the new version of drawing data corresponding to each page of the old version of drawing data, eliminating the need for a user wanting to understand the differences to link pages. Furthermore, the difference data is output by an output control unit, allowing the user to easily understand the differences from the output result. Therefore, the drawing difference extraction system configured as described above allows the differences between the old version of drawing data and the new version of drawing data to be easily understood. Note that the difference extraction unit extracts differences even when pages are rearranged.

[0011] (2) In (1) above, the linking processor may use character data in a selected area in the drawing data as the drawing data name, and perform the linking process according to the degree of agreement between the drawing data names in the same selected area of ​​each drawing data. By doing so, when drawing data in a drawing data group includes drawing data with different drawing data names in the same selected area, the drawing data can be excluded, making the linking process easier. Therefore, the linking process can be performed with higher accuracy.

[0012] (3) In the above (1) or (2), if the output control unit detects an enclosed area on the drawing data as a designated area, it may control the output control unit to enlarge the designated area and display the new version of the drawing data alongside the old version of the drawing data as difference data. This makes it easier for the user to visually recognize the differences extracted for the designated area when outputting them. Therefore, the differences can be easily grasped visually.

[0013] (4) In any of the above (1) to (3), the output control unit may control the display of the difference data by changing the color of the changed portion, including additions or deletions, from the color of the unchanged portion. By doing so, the change portion, including additions or deletions, in the difference data can be more easily visually recognized due to the difference in color. Therefore, the difference can be more easily grasped visually.

[0014] (5) In any of (1) to (4) above, the output control unit may control to display a linking result that links pages of the drawing data group of the old version with pages of the drawing data group of the new version. By doing so, by looking at the displayed linking result, it is possible to easily understand whether there is a difference between the drawing data of the old version and the drawing data of the new version at the corresponding page number. Therefore, convenience can be further improved.

[0015] (6) In the above (5), the output control unit may control the display of the linking results in a row corresponding to the page number. By doing so, the linking results corresponding to the page number can be recognized at a glance. Therefore, convenience can be further improved.

[0016] (7) In the above (5) or (6), the output control unit may control the display of the linking result so that if there is no corresponding page in the linking result, the corresponding page number is displayed as blank. This makes it easy to determine whether there is a corresponding page number between the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group. This makes it easy to determine whether a page has been deleted or added to the new version drawing data group. Therefore, it is easy to determine whether the number of pages in the new version drawing data group has increased or decreased compared to the old version drawing data group.

[0017] (8) In the above (2) to (7), the linking processing unit may read the image in the selected area using OCR (Optical Character Recognition), recognize it as characters, and determine the degree of match with the drawing data name. By doing so, the image in the selected area is read, recognized as characters, and the degree of match with the drawing data is determined by identifying the characters, so the degree of match can be determined more appropriately. Therefore, the linking process can be performed more appropriately.

[0018] (9) In any of the above (1) to (8), the results of the linking process performed by the linking processing unit may be manually correctable. This allows the user to manually correct the linking results by viewing them. This allows the results of the linking process to be closer to what the user desires. Therefore, the linking process can be performed more accurately.

[0019] (10) In any of (1) to (9) above, the number of pixels indicating the criterion for determining differences in the difference extraction unit may be between 1 and 3 pixels. This allows the criterion for determining differences to be changed depending on the target drawing data, etc. Therefore, it is possible to perform difference extraction that better meets the user's needs.

[0020] (11) In any of (1) to (10) above, the drawing difference extraction system may further include a storage unit that stores data of a drawing data file containing a plurality of versions of drawing data. This allows a user to select a drawing data group and extract differences based on the drawing data file stored in the storage unit. Therefore, differences between a drawing data group of an old version and a drawing data group of a new version can be easily identified without requiring external data input, etc.

[0021] (12) In any of (1) to (11) above, the output control unit may control the display of the new version drawing data group alongside the old version drawing data group as the result of the linking process performed by the linking processing unit, and may also control the display of the new version drawing data group in order of page number, and may also control the display of a button that, when pressed, inserts a blank page between the old version drawing data group or the new version drawing data group. This makes it easy to compare the results of the linking process, and even if the number of pages has increased or decreased, pressing the button to insert a blank page allows the corresponding page numbers to be displayed side by side. This makes it easy to compare corresponding pages and to understand where the number of pages has increased or decreased.

[0022] (13) In the above (11), the system may further include a storage control unit that controls the storage of the difference data generated by the difference data generation unit together with the file names of the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group in the storage unit. The output control unit may also control the storage of the difference data controlled by the storage control unit to be displayed together with the file names of the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group. By doing so, even if multiple pieces of difference data generated by the difference data generation unit are stored, the difference data is displayed together with the file names of the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group, making it easy to identify which difference data it is. This makes the system for extracting drawing differences more user-friendly.

[0023] (14) In any of (3) to (13) above, when listing new version drawing data alongside old version drawing data as difference data, the output control unit may control the display of the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group together, and the display of the old version drawing data listed alongside from the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data listed alongside from the new version drawing data group to be displayed differently from the display of other drawing data. This makes it easy to recognize the old version drawing data listed alongside from the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data listed alongside from the new version drawing data group. This makes the drawing difference extraction system more user-friendly.

[0024] (15) A drawing difference extraction method disclosed herein is a drawing difference extraction method for extracting differences between drawing data groups of an old version and drawing data groups of a new version. The drawing difference extraction method includes: a first receiving step of receiving a selection of project data including drawing data groups of multiple versions; a second receiving step of receiving, upon receiving the project data selection, a selection of drawing data groups of the old version and a selection of drawing data groups of the new version from among the selected project data; a linking step of assigning page numbers of the drawing data groups of the old version to page numbers of the drawing data groups of the new version to link pages of the drawing data groups of the old version with pages of the drawing data groups of the new version, upon receiving the selection of drawing data groups of the old version and the new version; a step of extracting differences, including additions and deletions of content and increases and decreases in the number of pages, between pages of the drawing data groups of the new version and pages of the drawing data groups of the old version that correspond to the linked pages of the drawing data groups of the old version; a step of generating data of the extracted differences; and a step of controlling output of the generated difference data.

[0025] According to this drawing difference extraction method, the differences between the drawing data group of the old version and the drawing data group of the new version can be easily grasped.

[0026] [Details of the embodiments of the present disclosure] Next, an embodiment of the drawing difference extraction system of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following drawings, the same or corresponding parts are designated by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will not be repeated.

[0027] (Embodiment 1) A drawing difference extraction system according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure will be described. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an overview of the drawing difference extraction system according to the first embodiment. Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the drawing difference extraction system according to the first embodiment.

[0028] 1 and 2, a drawing difference extraction system 10 in the first embodiment extracts differences between a group of drawing data of an old version and a group of drawing data of a new version. The drawing difference extraction system 10 includes a terminal device 11 that serves as a terminal when extracting drawing differences, and a server 13 connected to the terminal device 11 via a network 12. Note that the server 13 may be a server located in a physically predetermined location, or may be a cloud server located on the cloud.

[0029] The server 13 includes a server network interface unit 21 for connecting to the network 12, a server control unit 22 for controlling the server 13 itself, and a server hard disk 23 as a storage unit (server storage unit) for storing various data. The server 13 can communicate with the terminal device 11 via the network 12 using the server network interface unit 21. Note that communication in this specification refers to both wired and wireless communication. The network 12 also includes the Internet, an in-house intranet, and the like. The server network interface unit 21 receives data transmitted from the terminal device 11. The server control unit 22 controls the exchange of data between the server 13 and the outside via the server network interface unit 21, the storage of data on the server hard disk 23, and the transmission of data stored on the server hard disk 23 to the outside. In this embodiment, the server hard disk 23 stores data in a drawing data file containing a group of drawing data of multiple versions. In this embodiment, the drawing data file is in the format of a PDF (Portable Document Format) file.

[0030] The terminal device 11 includes a terminal device network interface unit 31 for connecting to the network 12, a terminal device control unit 32 for controlling the terminal device 11 itself, and a terminal device hard disk 33 as a terminal device storage unit for storing various data. The terminal device 11 can communicate with the server 13 via the network 12 using the terminal device network interface unit 31. The terminal device control unit 32 controls the exchange of data between the terminal device 11 and the outside via the terminal device network interface unit 31, the storage of data on the terminal device hard disk 33, and the transmission of data stored on the terminal device hard disk 33 to the outside.

[0031] A display 14 having a display screen 17, a keyboard 15, and a mouse 16 are connected to the terminal device 11. Information from the terminal device 11 and information stored in the terminal device hard disk 33 are displayed on the display screen 17 of the display 14. Output by the output control unit 40, which will be described later, is performed, for example, using the display screen 17 of the display 14 connected to the terminal device 11. A user of the terminal device 11 inputs data into the terminal device 11 using the keyboard 15 and the mouse 16 while checking the screen displayed on the display screen 17 of the display 14.

[0032] Next, the configuration of the terminal device control unit 32 will be described. The terminal device control unit 32 includes a first receiving unit 34, a second receiving unit 35, a linking processing unit 36, a difference extraction unit 37, a difference data generation unit 38, a storage control unit 39, and an output control unit 40. The first receiving unit 34 receives a selection of project data including a plurality of versions of drawing data groups. When the first receiving unit 34 receives the selection of project data, the second receiving unit 35 receives a selection of drawing data groups of an old version and a selection of drawing data groups of a new version from the selected project data. When the second receiving unit 35 receives the selection of drawing data groups of the old version and the new version from the selection of drawing data groups of the new version, the linking processing unit 36 ​​performs a linking process in which the page numbers of the drawing data groups of the old version are assigned to the page numbers of the drawing data groups of the new version, and pages of the drawing data groups of the old version are linked to pages of the drawing data groups of the new version. The difference extraction unit 37 extracts differences, including additions and deletions of content and increases or decreases in the number of pages, between pages of the drawing data group of the new version and pages of the drawing data group of the old version that correspond to pages of the drawing data group of the old version that have been linked by the linking processing unit 36. The difference data generation unit 38 generates data of the differences extracted by the difference extraction unit 37. The storage control unit 39 controls the storage of the difference data generated by the difference data generation unit 38 together with the file names of the drawing data group of the old version and the drawing data group of the new version in the server hard disk 23 that serves as the storage unit, and the output control unit 40 controls the output of the difference data generated by the difference data generation unit 38. These configurations will be described in detail later.

[0033] Next, a method for extracting drawing differences using the drawing difference extraction system 10 will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the main processing flow when extracting drawing differences using the above-described drawing difference extraction system 10. Referring also to FIG. 3, first, a screen for extracting drawing differences is launched on the terminal device 11, and then a list of data in a drawing data file containing a group of drawing data of multiple versions is displayed on the display screen 17 (step S11 in FIG. 3; hereinafter, "step" will be omitted). In this case, the drawing data file containing a group of drawing data of multiple versions is displayed under the name of a project.

[0034] Fig. 4 is a diagram showing an example of display screen 17 on which multiple project names are listed. Referring also to Fig. 4, list screen 41a displays a column of item 42a related to ID, a column of item 42b related to project name, a column of item 42c related to the creator of the project data, a column of item 42d related to creation date, and a column of item 42e related to update date. Data for multiple projects is displayed in each of items 42a, 42b, 42c, 42d, and 42e. Specifically, project data 43a is displayed for a project with an id of 1, a project name of "AAA", a creator of "XXX", a creation date of "2023 / 7 / 1 (July 1, 2023)", and an update date of "2023 / 8 / 1 (August 1, 2023)", project data 43b is displayed for a project with an id of 2, a project name of "BBB", a creator of "YYY", a creation date of "2023 / 8 / 1", ​​and an update date of "2023 / 9 / 1", and project data 43c is displayed for a project with an id of 3, a project name of "CCC", a creator of "ZZZ", a creation date of "2023 / 9 / 1", and an update date of "2023 / 10 / 1".

[0035] The user selects one of the projects displayed on the list screen 41a of the display screen 17 as the project for which a difference extraction is requested. Then, the first receiving unit 34 receives, as a first receiving step, the selection of the project name, i.e., the selection of project data including a group of drawing data of multiple versions (S12). Upon receiving the selection of project data (YES in S12), the second receiving unit 35 then displays the group of drawing data of multiple versions included in the project (S13).

[0036] 5 is a diagram showing an example of the display screen 17 when multiple versions of drawing data groups are displayed. Referring also to FIG. 5, the list screen 41b displays a column of check boxes 44a for selecting drawing data groups of older versions, a column of check boxes 44b for selecting drawing data groups of newer versions, a column indicating version numbers 44c, a column indicating file names 44d, a column indicating uploaders 44e, and a column indicating upload dates 44f. Specifically, data 45a, which has a version number of "1," a file name of "AAA.pdf," an uploader of "XXX," and an upload date of "2023 / 7 / 1," and data 45b, which has a version number of "2," a file name of "AAA.pdf," an uploader of "XXX," and an upload date of "2023 / 8 / 1," are displayed.

[0037] When the first receiving unit 34 receives the selection of project data, the second receiving unit 35 receives the selection of an old version drawing data group and a new version drawing data group from among the drawing data groups of multiple versions (S14) as a second receiving step. In this case, the selection is received by detecting that the user has checked either the column of check boxes 44a or the column of check boxes 44b. In this case, the data is uploaded to the terminal device 11 and then imported into the terminal device 11.

[0038] When the selection of the drawing data group of the old version and the selection of the drawing data group of the new version are accepted (YES in S14), the selection results are displayed on the display screen 17, as shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the display screen 17 showing the selection results. Referring also to FIG. 6, the display screen 17 displays a check box 46a indicating the selection, a number 46b indicating the version of the difference result data, a number 46c of the selected old PDF version, a number 46d of the selected new PDF version, a creator 46e, and a creation date 46f. Specifically, data 47a is displayed in which the version is "1," the old PDF version number is "1," the new PDF version number is "2," the creator is "XXX," and the creation date is "2023 / 9 / 1."

[0039] When the second receiving unit 35 receives the selection of the drawing data group of the old version and the selection of the drawing data group of the new version, the linking processing unit 36 ​​performs the linking processing as a linking processing step (S15). Specifically, the linking processing unit 36 ​​assigns the page numbers of the drawing data group of the old version to the page numbers of the drawing data group of the new version, and links the pages of the drawing data group of the old version with the pages of the drawing data group of the new version. After the linking processing is completed, the linking processing unit 36 ​​immediately transitions to a screen that displays the linking results. Here, before the linking processing is completed, the linking processing unit 36 ​​displays during the linking processing that the screen will immediately transition to a screen that displays the linking results.

[0040] The linking processor 36 also uses character data in a selected area in the drawing data as the drawing data name and performs the linking process based on the degree of match between the drawing data names in the same selected area of ​​each drawing data. The linking processor 36 also reads and recognizes the image in the selected area using OCR to determine the degree of match between the drawing data names. The linking processor 36 can also manually correct the results of the linking process. After the linking process by the linking processor 36 is completed, in this embodiment, the output control unit 40 displays the linking results (S16). That is, the output control unit 40 controls the display of the linking results that link pages of the drawing data group of the old version with pages of the drawing data group of the new version. In this embodiment, the output control unit 40 controls the display of the linking results in association with page numbers.

[0041] FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the display screen 17 during the linking process in the linking processing unit 36. Referring also to FIG. 7, the display screen 17 displays drawing data 51, and a selection area 52 surrounded by a dashed line is shown below the drawing data 51. The selection area 52 is an area enclosed by the user, and the text data within the selection area 52 is used as the drawing data name. After completing the selection of the selection area 52, the user clicks a "Select Area Complete" button 53 to finalize the selection of the selection area 52. The linking process is then performed based on the degree of match between the drawing data names within the same selection area of ​​each drawing data. Also, in FIG. 7, a message is displayed in the center of the drawing data 51 indicating that the screen will immediately transition to a screen displaying the linking results once the linking process is complete. Specifically, a message 54 displays the message "Pages are being automatically linked." After the linking process is complete, the screen transitions to the next screen.

[0042] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the display screen 17 when displaying the linking results of linking pages of a drawing data group of the old version with pages of a drawing data group of the new version. Also referring to FIG. 8, the display screen 17 is divided into two sections, upper and lower. The upper section 61a displays a list of drawings, and the lower section 61b displays selected pages side by side. The upper section 61a is further divided into two sections, upper and lower. The upper first section 62a displays the drawing data group of the old version in order of page number 63a. The lower second section 62b displays the drawing data group of the new version in order of page number 63a. That is, the page numbers of the drawing data group of the old version are assigned to the page numbers of the drawing data group of the new version and displayed in the upper section 61a. The lower section 61b displays enlarged drawing data 65a of one piece of drawing data 64a selected from the drawing data group of the old version in the drawing list in the upper section 61a, and enlarged drawing data 65b of one piece of drawing data 64b selected from the drawing data group of the new version. In this embodiment, the drawing data 65a and the drawing data 65b are arranged side by side in the left-right direction. By visually checking such a display screen 17, the result of the linking can be easily grasped.

[0043] The output control unit 40 controls the display of the new version drawing data group alongside the old version drawing data group as a result of the linking process performed by the linking processing unit 36, arranging them in page number order, and also controls the display of a button for inserting a blank page image between the old version drawing data group or the new version drawing data group upon detecting its depression. FIG. 9 shows an example of the display screen 17 when a blank page image 67a or a blank page image 67b is inserted. With reference to FIG. 9 as well, specifically, a button 66a is displayed on both sides of the drawing data 64a. A button 66b is displayed on both sides of the drawing data 64b. Upon detecting the depression of the button 66a, such as by clicking the mouse, the blank page image 67a is inserted on the side closest to the pressed button 66a. Upon detecting the depression of the button 66b, the blank page image 67b is inserted on the side closest to the pressed button 66b.

[0044] By doing this, it is possible to easily determine whether there are corresponding page numbers between the drawing data set of the old version and the drawing data set of the new version. This makes it easy to recognize whether pages have been deleted or added to the drawing data set of the new version. Therefore, it is easy to determine whether the number of pages in the drawing data set of the new version is increased or decreased compared to the number of pages in the drawing data set of the old version.

[0045] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the output control unit 40 controls the display of the linking results so that they are aligned in correspondence with the page numbers. This allows the linking results corresponding to the page numbers to be recognized at a glance. This further improves convenience.

[0046] After the linking process by the linking processor 36 is completed, the difference extractor 37 extracts differences in a difference extraction step (S17). Specifically, the difference extractor 37 extracts differences including additions or deletions in content and increases or decreases in the number of pages between the pages of the drawing data group of the new version corresponding to the pages of the drawing data group of the old version that have been linked. In this embodiment, the number of pixels that indicates the criterion for determining differences in the difference extractor 37 is between 1 pixel and 3 pixels.

[0047] Here, an example of a process flow for extracting differences will be described. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing typical steps in the process for extracting differences. Referring to FIG. 10, first, a target for which differences are to be extracted is selected (S21). That is, a group of drawing data of an old version whose differences are to be viewed or confirmed and a group of drawing data of a corresponding new version are selected. Then, lines (including text) in the drawing data of the new version corresponding to the drawing data in the drawing data of the old version are dilated (S22). In this case, the dilation is performed by, for example, two pixels. Then, differences between the drawing data of the new version containing the dilated lines and the drawing data of the old version are extracted (S23). Specifically, for example, the drawing data of the new version containing the dilated lines are superimposed on the drawing data of the old version, and non-overlapping portions are extracted. Note that this difference corresponds to the difference that has been added or changed relative to the drawing data of the old version. Then, the drawing data of the old version and the drawing data of the new version are swapped, and the same process is performed. That is, lines (including text) in the drawing data of the old version corresponding to the drawing data in the drawing data of the new version are dilated (S24). Then, the differences between the old version drawing data including the expanded lines and the new version drawing data are extracted (S25). Note that these differences correspond to the differences that have been deleted or changed from the old version drawing data. This is repeated until there are no more page images (S26). Note that while the above extracts differences within the corresponding pages, differences are also extracted when pages are added or deleted.

[0048] Thereafter, the difference data extracted by the difference extraction unit 37 is generated by the difference data generation unit 38 (S18). Then, the storage control unit 39 controls the storage of the difference data generated by the difference data generation unit 38 on the server hard disk together with the file names of the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group (S19). Furthermore, the output control unit 40 controls the output so that the difference data generated by the difference data generation unit 38 is output (S20). In this case, the output control unit 40 controls the output in accordance with a user request. For example, the output control unit 40 controls the display so that the color used to display the difference data is different between the old version drawing data and the new version drawing data. Specifically, the output control unit 40 controls the display so that the color of the changed portions, including additions and deletions, in the difference data is different from the color of the unchanged portions.

[0049] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen 17 in which the colors used to display differential data differ between the old version of drawing data and the new version of drawing data. Referring to FIG. 11, differential data 72 and differential data 73 are displayed in drawing data 71 displayed on the display screen 17. In FIG. 11, differential data 72 is indicated by a dashed line, and differential data 73 is indicated by a two-dot dashed line. The differential data 72 represents a difference that was not present in the old version of drawing data, i.e., a difference that has been added to the new version of drawing data, and is shown in blue, for example. The differential data 73 represents a difference that was present in the old version of drawing data but not in the new version of drawing data, i.e., a difference that has been deleted from the new version of drawing data, and is shown in red, for example. Unchanged portions are displayed in black. In FIG. 11, the output control unit 40 controls the display of changed portions of the differential data, including additions and deletions, in a different color from unchanged portions. The color of the unchanged parts may be displayed by changing the brightness from black to, for example, gray, or by changing the saturation, or by changing both the brightness and saturation.

[0050] Furthermore, if the output control unit 40 detects an area enclosed in the drawing data as a designated area, it controls to enlarge the designated area and display the drawing data of the new version alongside the drawing data of the old version as differential data. Fig. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen 17 in which the designated area is enlarged and the drawing data of the new version is displayed alongside the drawing data of the old version as differential data. Fig. 12 shows the display screen 17 in which the designated area 74 indicated by the dashed line in Fig. 11 is enlarged. Referring to Fig. 12, the display screen 17 enlarges the area designated by the designated area 74 and displays the drawing data 75 of the old version alongside the drawing data 76 of the new version as differential data. In this manner, differential data is displayed.

[0051] The drawing difference extraction system 10 accepts the selection of project data including multiple versions of drawing data. When the system accepts the selection of the old version drawing data and the new version drawing data, it performs a linking process using the linking processing unit 36 ​​to compare the old version drawing data and the new version drawing data, extracting differences, including additions and deletions of content and increases or decreases in the number of pages. The system then generates and outputs difference data from the extracted differences. This extracts differences between each page of the new version drawing data corresponding to each page of the old version drawing data, eliminating the need for a user to link pages to identify the differences. Furthermore, the difference data is output by the output control unit 40, allowing the user to easily identify the differences from the output results. Therefore, the drawing difference extraction system 10 configured as described above allows the user to easily identify the differences between the old version drawing data and the new version drawing data.

[0052] In this embodiment, the linking processor 36 may use character data within a selected area in the drawing data as the drawing data name, and perform the linking process based on the degree of agreement between the drawing data names within the same selected area of ​​each drawing data. By doing so, if drawing data with different names within the same selected area are included in the drawing data group, the linking process can be easily performed by excluding the drawing data. Therefore, the linking process can be performed with higher accuracy.

[0053] In this embodiment, when the output control unit 40 detects an area enclosed in the drawing data as the designated area 74, it controls the display to enlarge the designated area 74 and display the new version drawing data 76 alongside the old version drawing data 75 as difference data. This makes it easy for the user to visually recognize the differences extracted for the designated area 74 when they are output. This allows the user to easily grasp the differences visually.

[0054] In this embodiment, the output control unit 40 controls the display so that the color of the changed portions of the difference data, including additions or deletions, is different from the color of the unchanged portions. Therefore, the changed portions of the difference data, including additions or deletions, can be more easily visually recognized by the difference in color. Therefore, the differences can be more easily grasped visually.

[0055] In this embodiment, the linking processor 36 reads the image in the selected area using OCR, recognizes it as characters, and determines the degree of match with the drawing data name. Therefore, by reading the image in the selected area, recognizing it as characters, and identifying the characters to determine the degree of match with the drawing data, the degree of match can be determined more appropriately. Therefore, the linking process can be performed more appropriately.

[0056] In this embodiment, the number of pixels that indicates the criterion for determining differences in the difference extraction unit 37 is between 1 pixel and 3 pixels. Therefore, the criterion for determining differences can be changed depending on the target drawing data, etc. Therefore, it is possible to perform difference extraction that better meets the user's needs.

[0057] In this embodiment, the drawing difference extraction system 10 includes a server hard disk 23 as a storage unit that stores data of drawing data files including drawing data groups of multiple versions. Therefore, drawing data groups can be selected and differences can be extracted based on the drawing data files stored on the server hard disk 23. Therefore, differences between drawing data groups of old versions and drawing data groups of new versions can be easily grasped without requiring external data input, etc.

[0058] In this embodiment, the output control unit 40 controls the display of drawing data sets of the new version alongside drawing data sets of the old version as the linking processing results of the linking processing unit 36, arranging them in page number order, and also controls the display of a button that, when pressed, inserts a blank page between drawing data sets of the old version or between drawing data sets of the new version. This makes it easy to visually compare the linking processing results, and even if the number of pages has increased or decreased, pressing the button to insert a blank page allows the corresponding page numbers to be displayed side by side. This makes it easy to compare corresponding pages and to understand where the number of pages has increased or decreased.

[0059] In this embodiment, the drawing difference extraction system 10 includes a storage control unit 39 that controls the storage of the difference data generated by the difference data generation unit 38 in the storage unit together with the file names of the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group. The output control unit 40 controls the display of the difference data controlled to be stored by the storage control unit 39 together with the file names of the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group. Therefore, even if multiple pieces of difference data generated by the difference data generation unit 38 are stored, the difference data is displayed together with the file names of the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group, making it easy to identify which difference data is involved. This makes the drawing difference extraction system more user-friendly.

[0060] In this embodiment, when listing new version drawing data alongside old version drawing data as difference data, the output control unit 40 controls the display of both the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group, and also controls the display of the old version drawing data listed alongside the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data listed alongside the new version drawing data group to be displayed differently from the other drawing data. This makes it easy to recognize the old version drawing data listed alongside the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data listed alongside the new version drawing data group. This results in a more user-friendly drawing difference extraction system.

[0061] In this embodiment, the orientation in which the new version of the drawing data is displayed alongside the old version of the drawing data may be selectable. This allows the difference data to be displayed alongside the old version of the drawing data in the orientation that is desired by the user. This allows for output that better meets the user's needs.

[0062] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the output control unit 40 may control the display of the linking results so that if there is no corresponding page in the linking results, the corresponding page is displayed as a blank. This makes it easy to determine whether there are corresponding page numbers between the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group. This makes it easy to recognize whether pages have been deleted or added to the new version drawing data group. Therefore, it is easy to determine whether the number of pages in the new version drawing data group has increased or decreased compared to the old version drawing data group.

[0063] In the above embodiment, the results of the linking process performed by the linking processing unit 36 ​​may be manually correctable. This allows the user to manually correct the linking results while viewing them. This allows the results of the linking process to be closer to what the user desires. Therefore, the linking process can be performed more accurately.

[0064] (Other embodiments) In the above embodiment, the server hard disk stores the data of the drawing data file including the drawing data group of multiple versions, but this is not limiting, and the terminal device hard disk may store the data of the drawing data file including the drawing data group of multiple versions. Furthermore, for example, another storage device connected to the network may store the data of the drawing data file including the drawing data group of multiple versions.

[0065] In the above embodiment, the orientation in which the new version of the drawing data is displayed alongside the old version of the drawing data may be selectable. This allows the difference data to be displayed alongside the old version of the drawing data in the orientation that is desired by the user. This allows for output that better meets the user's needs.

[0066] It should be understood that the embodiments disclosed herein are illustrative in all respects and are not limiting in any respect. The scope of the present invention is defined not by the above description but by the claims, and it is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope of the claims. [Explanation of symbols]

[0067] 10 Drawing difference extraction system, 11 Terminal device, 12 Network, 13 Server, 14 Display, 15 Keyboard, 16 Mouse, 17 Display screen, 21 Server network interface unit, 22 Server control unit, 23 Server hard disk, 31 Terminal device network interface unit, 32 Terminal device control unit, 33 Terminal device hard disk, 34 First reception unit, 35 Second reception unit, 36 Linking processing unit, 37 Difference extraction unit, 38 Difference data generation unit, 39 Storage control unit, 40 Output control unit, 41a, 41b List screen, 42a, 42b, 42c, 42d, 42e Items, 43a, 43b, 43c, 45a, 45b, 47a Data, 44a, 44b Check box, 44c Number, 44d File name, 44e Uploader, 44f Upload date, 51, 64a, 64b, 65a, 65b, 71, 75, 76 Drawing data, 52 Selection area, 53 Button, 54 Area, 61a, 61c Upper row, 61b Lower row, 62a, 62c First area, 62b, 62d Second area, 63a Page number, 66a, 66b Blank, 72, 73 Difference data, 74 Specified area.

Claims

1. A drawing difference extraction system that extracts differences between a drawing data group of an old version and a drawing data group of a new version, a first receiving unit that receives a selection of project data including a group of drawing data of a plurality of versions; a second receiving unit that, when the first receiving unit receives a selection of the project data, receives a selection of the old version drawing data group and a selection of the new version drawing data group from the selected project data; a linking processing unit that, when the second receiving unit receives the selection of the drawing data group of the old version and the selection of the drawing data group of the new version, performs a linking process of assigning page numbers of the drawing data group of the old version to page numbers of the drawing data group of the new version to link the pages of the drawing data group of the old version with the pages of the drawing data group of the new version; a difference extraction unit that extracts differences, including additions or deletions of contents and increases or decreases in the number of pages, between the pages of the drawing data group of the new version and the pages of the drawing data group of the old version that correspond to the pages of the drawing data group of the old version that have been linked by the linking processing unit; a difference data generation unit that generates data of the difference extracted by the difference extraction unit; an output control unit that controls the difference data generated by the difference data generation unit to be output;

2. The drawing difference extraction system of claim 1, wherein the linking processing unit uses character data within a selected area in the drawing data as the drawing data name, and performs the linking processing based on the degree of similarity of the drawing data names within the same selected area of ​​each of the drawing data.

3. The drawing difference extraction system of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein when the output control unit detects an area enclosed on the drawing data as a designated area, it controls to enlarge the designated area and display the new version of the drawing data alongside the old version of the drawing data as the difference data.

4. 3. The drawing difference extraction system according to claim 1, wherein the output control unit controls the display of the difference data so that the color of the changed parts, including additions or deletions, is different from the color of the unchanged parts.

5. 3. The drawing difference extraction system according to claim 1, wherein the output control unit controls to display a linking result linking pages of the drawing data group of the old version with pages of the drawing data group of the new version.

6. The drawing difference extraction system according to claim 5 , wherein the output control unit controls the display of the linking results in a row corresponding to page numbers.

7. The drawing difference extraction system according to claim 5 , wherein the output control unit controls the display of the linking result so that, if there is no corresponding page in the linking result, the linking result is displayed with a blank field.

8. 3. The drawing difference extraction system according to claim 2, wherein the linking processor reads an image in the selected area by optical character recognition (OCR) and recognizes the image as characters, and determines a degree of coincidence between the drawing data names.

9. 3. The drawing difference extraction system according to claim 1, wherein the result of the linking process performed by the linking processing unit can be manually corrected.

10. 3. The drawing difference extraction system according to claim 1, wherein the number of pixels indicating the criterion for determining the difference in said difference extraction unit is between one and three pixels.

11. 3. The drawing difference extraction system according to claim 1, further comprising a storage unit that stores data of a drawing data file including said plurality of versions of drawing data.

12. The output control unit controls the display of the new version drawing data group alongside the old version drawing data group as a result of the linking processing in the linking processing unit, and arranges them in page number order, and also controls the display of a button that, when pressed, inserts a blank page between the old version drawing data group or the new version drawing data group.A drawing difference extraction system as described in claim 1 or claim 2.

13. a storage control unit that controls the storage of the difference data generated by the difference data generation unit together with the file names of the drawing data group of the old version and the drawing data group of the new version, The drawing difference extraction system described in claim 11, wherein the output control unit controls the difference data controlled to be stored by the memory control unit to be displayed together with the file names of the drawing data group of the old version and the drawing data group of the new version.

14. The drawing difference extraction system described in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the output control unit, when listing the new version drawing data alongside the old version drawing data as the difference data, displays the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data group together, and controls the display of the old version drawing data listed alongside from the old version drawing data group and the new version drawing data listed alongside from the new version drawing data group to be displayed differently from the display of other drawing data.

15. A drawing difference extraction method for extracting differences between a drawing data group of an old version and a drawing data group of a new version, comprising: a first receiving step of receiving a selection of project data including a group of drawing data of a plurality of versions; a second receiving step of receiving, upon receiving a selection of the project data, a selection of the old version drawing data group and a selection of the new version drawing data group from the selected project data; a step of performing a linking process, when the selection of the drawing data group of the old version and the selection of the drawing data group of the new version are received, by assigning page numbers of the drawing data group of the old version to page numbers of the drawing data group of the new version, thereby linking the pages of the drawing data group of the old version with the pages of the drawing data group of the new version; extracting differences, including additions or deletions of contents and increases or decreases in the number of pages, between the pages of the drawing data group of the new version and the pages of the drawing data group of the old version that correspond to the linked pages of the drawing data group of the old version; generating the extracted difference data; and a step of controlling to output the generated difference data.

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