Patent ID: 7877729

Claim:
An apparatus for editing and viewing a device-layout, the apparatus comprising: a display unit that displays various data; a receiving unit that receives, from a device-layout managing apparatus connected to a network, a device icon of an input/output device connected to the network and device layout data including positional information of the device icon; a viewing unit that displays a device layout diagram including a device list area in which the device icon is displayed in correspondence with information specific to the input/output device and a map area indicating an installation area of the input/output device on the display unit, based on the received device icon and the received device layout data; an input unit that receives a shift operation of the device icon on the device layout diagram from a user; an editing unit that edits the device layout diagram by specifying a position of the device icon based on the received shift operation, and generates the device layout data including the positional information of the device icon after a shift from the edited device layout diagram; and a transmitting unit that transmits the generated device layout data to the device-layout managing apparatus, wherein the editing unit is configured to perform an editing process for editing the device icon on the map area into a balloon shape that extends from an actual position of the device icon, and the viewing unit displays the balloon shaped device icon on the map area, wherein when a plurality of device icons overlap each other at their actual positions, the editing unit edits the plurality of device icons into the balloon shape and the viewing unit displays each of the plurality of balloon shaped device icons such that the plurality of balloon shaped device icons do not overlap each other.