Patent ID: 7884818

Claim:
An article design support system for displaying on a display device images representing basic structural members of a plurality of types, each basic structural member constituting a frame of an article, and images representing parts of a plurality of types, each part being combined with the basic structural member, and combining a basic structural member selected from among the displayed structural members of the plurality of types and a part selected from among the displayed parts of the plurality of types, thereby displaying an article constructed by combining the basic structural member and the part, said system comprising: first storage means for storing, with regard to each part of the plurality of types, three-dimensional part space data specifying relatively position and dimensions of a three-dimensional part space comprising the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped, using as a reference a three-dimensional cell space comprising the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped, defined by said basic structural member; second storage means for storing, with regard to each part of the plurality of types, three-dimensional part data specifying relatively position and dimensions of the part using as a reference the three-dimensional part space defined by said three-dimensional part space data; cell space/part space correlating means for correlating, on a one-to-one basis, a three-dimensional cell space defined by a selected basic structural member and a three-dimensional part space regarding a selected part; and display control means for displaying a part image in a three-dimensional cell space with which a three-dimensional part space has been correlated by said cell space/part space correlating means, the part image being displayed at a position decided by three-dimensional part space data, which concerns a selected part, stored in said first storage means, and three-dimensional part data, which concerns the selected part, stored in said second storage means, the part image having dimensions decided by said three-dimensional part space data and said three-dimensional part data.