Patent ID: 8274511

Claim:
An apparatus for displaying a plan wiring diagram of parts and wirings in association with a three-dimensional layout of a device incorporating the parts and wirings, the apparatus comprising: a first storage for storing an underlying drawing of the plan wiring diagram which illustrates parts and wirings; a second storage for storing an underlying drawing of the three-dimensional layout of a device which incorporates the parts and the wirings; a third storage for storing intermediate images of the shapes of respective pieces of wirings in the plan wiring diagram with a starting image of each piece of wiring being a shape corresponding to the wiring in the plan wiring diagram and with an ending image of each piece of wiring being a shape corresponding to the wiring in the three-dimensional layout, said intermediate images showing transition of the shape of a corresponding piece of the wiring; and a processor adapted to display images on a display screen, the processor being configured to: display the plan wiring diagram in the form of said underlying drawing on the display screen by retrieving the plan wiring diagram from the first storage responsive to a user's selection, responsive to selection of a piece of wiring by a user from the displayed plan wiring diagram, sequentially retrieve intermediate images of the shape corresponding to the selected piece of wiring from the third storage to display transition of the shape of the piece of wiring until the shape transforms into the shape that may be superimposed to a layer of the underlying drawing of the three dimensional layout.