Patent ID: 7200537

Claim:
A computer implemented wire harness design supporting method for transforming three-dimensional data of a wire harness to a two-dimensional representation of the wire harness, the method comprising: a wire harness data inputting step of inputting wire harness data of a wire harness to be routed in a desired object into a computer via predetermined data inputting means, the data including coordinate information three-dimensionally designed to a state adapted to said object of routing; a development plane setting step of setting a development plane used to two-dimensionally develop said wire harness data, said development plane being preset in correspondence with an attachment region of said wire harness in the object of routing, and said computer determining the attachment region in the object of routing of each said wire harness on the basis of coordinate information of said wire harness data and determining said development plane in accordance with the attachment region; a two-dimensional transformation step of dividing said wire harness data into a plurality of segments at predetermined division points and developing said wire harness data on a segment unit basis so that all of the segments are included in said development plane, wherein all of the segments on all of paths are sequentially developed into said development plane on the segment unit basis from a desired start point of a preset reference trunk line toward a termination point of the reference trunk line, the start point defining a first end of the reference trunk line and the termination point defining a second, opposite end of the reference trunk line; and a two-dimensional representation outputting step of outputting said two-dimensional transformed data to a display or as a drawing.