Patent ID: 7383162

Claim:
A harness design supporting apparatus, made to support an arrangement design of a harness in an apparatus incorporating said harness which is an object of design, comprising: a component information preserving unit for preserving three-dimensional model data on a component other than said harness in said design object apparatus; a harness information setting unit for setting information on said harness as harness information; a characteristic information setting unit for setting information on a physical characteristic of said harness as characteristic information; a three-dimensional model constructing unit for constructing a three-dimensional model of each of said harness and said component on the basis of said harness information set in said harness information setting unit, said three-dimensional model data on said component in said component information preserving unit and said characteristic information set in said characteristic information setting unit; and a display control unit for displaying said three-dimensional model, constructed in said three-dimensional model constructing unit, on a display unit, wherein: said three-dimensional model constructing unit includes: a harness position/configuration calculating unit for calculating a position of said harness and a configuration thereof on the basis of a position of said component, said harness information set in said harness information setting unit and said characteristic information set in said characteristic information setting unit, and a three-dimensional image producing unit for producing a three-dimensional image of each of said component and said harness on the basis of said position of said harness and said configuration thereof, calculated in said harness position/configuration calculating unit, said harness information set in said harness information setting unit and said three-dimensional model data on said component, and further for outputting said three-dimensional image; said display control unit is made to display said three-dimensional image from said three-dimensional image producing unit on said display unit; said harness position/configuration calculating unit calculates said position of said harness and the configuration through approximation using a Bezier curve on the basis of one or more transit positions of said harness and information on a posture at each of said transit positions, included in said harness information, and said characteristic information set in said characteristic information setting unit.