JPH0525329B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] Regarding an optimization processing method for line segment character data for drawing characters on an XY plotter, etc., creating line segment character data that reduces the amount of data and increases the drawing speed. When generating line segment character data consisting of coordinate values for drawing a character from input data indicating line segments that constitute a character, the input data is searched using a predetermined coordinate as the first starting point. Find the end point of the line segment closest to the starting point, output the coordinates of this end point as positioning coordinates, output the end point coordinates of the line segment starting from this end point as the coordinates of the line segment, and output the coordinates of the end point that is the same as the end point. Search for a line segment with the coordinates of , and if the line segment is found, return to processing using the end point as the end point; if the line segment is not found, output using the end point as the starting point and return to processing. The coordinate values of the character are configured to be line segment character data of the character.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a processing method for optimizing line segment character data for drawing characters using an XY plotter or the like.

When drawing characters along with the line drawings in the drawing using an XY plotter, etc., the characters should be represented as a collection of line segments, and each character should be
It is necessary to prepare line segment character data consisting of line segments constituting the character and coordinate data indicating the point at which the necessary drawing head is positioned.

[Problems to be solved by conventional technology and invention]

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating line segment character data using an example of the kanji character "ma".

Line segment character data, for example, assumes a coordinate system where the origin is the lower left vertex of a square area surrounding the character in the center and the two sides are the coordinate axes, as shown in the figure.
Line segments for composing characters are represented by the coordinate values, and are constructed by the line segment data and coordinate values for positioning.

Here, line segment data is the coordinate values of both ends of each line segment, and indicates, for example, the section in which the drawing head of an XY plotter is moved while drawing a line, but when the line segments are continuous, that is, they are In this case, the end point of the previous line segment and the start point of the next line segment are shared by one coordinate, and the data is obtained by arranging the coordinates of each vertex in order. Positioning coordinate values are data for instructing the destination to move the drawing head from the current position of the drawing head without drawing a line. When moving, it is necessary to specify the starting point coordinates of the next line segment as the positioning coordinate values.

Under these conditions, when collecting line segment character data of a certain character, for example, follow the stroke order in normal handwriting, or scan the starting point of the line segment from the upper left to the lower right, and sequentially obtain the necessary coordinates. If values are determined, line segment character data is created in this way because it is less likely to cause omissions.

FIG. 3 shows the content represented by the data obtained as described above, with the black circles at the ends of the lines representing the positioning coordinates and the arrows representing the starting points of the line segments.

According to the example in Figure 3, as is clear from the figure,
There are 12 positioning coordinates, and the number of coordinates indicating the end point of the line segment (the number of arrows in the figure), that is, the number of line segments, starting from the positioning coordinate point or the end point of continuous line segments, is 16.
Therefore, this character consists of a total of 28 coordinate values. For example, if one coordinate value is expressed in 2 bytes, it becomes 56 bytes of line segment character data.

There are generally several thousand types of characters available, so
It is desirable to reduce the amount of data for each character as much as possible.

Further, since the movement of the drawing head solely for positioning, as shown by the broken line in FIG. 3, adds extra time to the drawing process, it is desirable to minimize this movement as much as possible.

Based on such considerations, the present invention aims at a processing method for optimizing line segment character data so as to minimize the number of positioning coordinates.

[Means for solving problems]

FIG. 1 is a process flowchart showing the principle configuration of the present invention.

The figure shows the flow of line segment character data optimization processing.
1 to 6 are processing steps.

[Effect]

Optimization of line segment character data is performed by using the line segment character data collected for one required character as input data, using predetermined coordinates as the coordinates of the starting point in processing step 1, and determining the end point of the line segment of the input data in processing step 2. , scan the nearest endpoint.

In processing step 3, the coordinate values of the end points are outputted as positioning coordinates, and in processing step 4, the end point coordinates of the line segment are outputted.

In processing step 5, it is determined whether there is a continuous line segment at the end point, and if so, the process returns to processing step 4.

If there is no continuous line segment, the coordinates of the last end point are set as a new starting point in processing step 6, and processing is performed in processing step 2.
Return to and repeat the above process to process all line segments of the input data.

With the above processing method, the number of positions can be reduced, and as a result, the amount of data can be reduced and the drawing time can be shortened.

〔Example〕

Optimization of line segment character data uses line segment character data consisting of coordinate values collected by an appropriate method such as the above-mentioned stroke order method for each required character as input data, and processes each character as follows. .

First, in processing step 1, predetermined coordinates are set as the coordinates of the starting point. For example, if the coordinate system of the input data has its origin at the lower left vertex of an appropriate square area surrounding a character in the center as described above, the origin coordinates are used as the starting point.

In processing step 2, the end point closest to the starting point is found among the end points of the line segment of the input data. Here, as endpoints, the connecting points of the two line segments that make up the polygonal line are selected later in the selection order, and the endpoints at the so-called open ends of the line segments are selected first, and if there are no open endpoints, , it is best to select other endpoints only when all of them have been processed.

In processing step 3, the coordinate values of the end points are output as positioning coordinates, and in processing step 4, the coordinates of the end point of a line segment starting from that point are output as coordinates for determining one line segment.

In processing step 5, it is determined whether there is a line segment that continues the end point.

If there is a continuous line segment, the process returns to step 4, and the coordinates of the end point of the continuous line segment are output. That is, by this loop of processing steps 4 and 5, when a polygonal line is constructed, the entire polygonal line is continuously drawn.

If there is no continuous line segment at the end point, the coordinates of the last end point are used as the new starting point in step 6 in order to process the new line segment from the end point closest to the last position of the drawing head. Returning to processing step 2, the endpoint scanning described above is resumed.

The optimization of this character data is completed when there are no more endpoints to be selected in processing step 2 by repeating the above processing.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the result of optimizing the data for the same kanji character "ma" as in FIG. 3. As is clear from the figure, the number of positioning coordinate points indicated by black circles is now 6, which is decreased from 12 in FIG. 3, as before.

As a result, the amount of data decreases by 12 bytes, and can be reduced to 44 bytes, compared to 56 bytes in the above example. or,
As can be seen by comparing the figures, the number of times the head moves for positioning as shown by the broken line is reduced, and the moving distance is also significantly reduced, so faster drawing can be expected.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, line segment character data consisting of coordinate values for drawing line segment characters is optimized, the amount of data is reduced, and the drawing process is speeded up. It has significant industrial effects.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a process flowchart showing the principle configuration of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram explaining an example of optimized data of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram explaining an example of data before optimization. In the figure, 1 to 6 indicate processing steps.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Preparing for drawing a required character set;
Line segment character data for each character in the character set is generated by positioning the drawing head for each broken line consisting of one or more consecutive line segments based on input data indicating the line segments that constitute each character. positioning coordinates indicating the starting point for drawing the broken line;
It has a group of broken line coordinate values consisting of the positioning coordinates as the starting point and coordinate values sequentially indicating the coordinates of the end points of each line segment constituting the broken line, and the group of broken line coordinate values are arranged in the drawing order of the broken line. To generate the character, set the specified coordinates as the first starting point 1, search the input data, and use the coordinate values output by the following processing as the line segment character data of the character. Features a line segment character data optimization processing method. Find the end point of the line segment closest to the starting point 2, output the coordinates of the end point as the positioning coordinates 3, output the end point coordinates of the line segment with the end point as the starting point as the coordinates of the line segment 4, and A line segment having the same coordinates is searched 5, and if the line segment exists, the process returns to the end point using the end point, and if there is no such line segment, the process returns to the process using the end point as the starting point 6.