Cutting line positioning apparatus and method that determine and place cutting line at optimal location on sheet to be cut

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a cutting line positioning computer program, the computer program being operable to allow a computer to execute a cutting line positioning method for deciding a location of a cutting line on a sheet, the sheet including a base sheet and a top sheet affixed with an adhesive material to a surface of the base sheet and having a target object located thereon, the cutting line serving as a reference line when a cut is made on the top sheet, the top sheet being cut along an outline of the target object on the top sheet by a cutting apparatus, wherein the top sheet includes an effective region that is a region of the top sheet to be left on the base sheet, and a non-effective region that is a region of the top sheet to be removed from the base sheet, the method comprising:

• a candidate point selection step including selecting a plurality of vertices on the outline obtained when the outline is represented as a polyline, the vertices each being selected as a candidate point that serves as an endpoint of the cutting line;
• a search point selection step including selecting, from the candidate points, a reference search point to be used to search for a point that serves as an endpoint of the cutting line;
• a reference line setting step including setting a reference line connecting the search point with a reference point defined in advance on the top sheet;
• a candidate line setting step including setting candidate lines including a plurality of lines each connecting the search point with an associated one of the candidate points other than the search point;
• a candidate line selection step including selecting, as a selected candidate line, the candidate line located only within the non-effective region, and selecting, as the selected candidate line, the candidate line on the outline when none of the candidate lines is located only within the non-effective region;
• an angle calculation step including calculating an angle between the reference line and the selected candidate line;
• and
• a cutting line setting step including setting the cutting line connecting the search point with the candidate point of the selected candidate line defining an angle with the reference line that is a smallest angle calculated in the angle calculation step.

A cutting line positioning method for deciding a location of a cutting line on a sheet, the sheet including a base sheet and a top sheet affixed with an adhesive material to a surface of the base sheet and having a target object located thereon, the cutting line serving as a reference line when a cut is made on the top sheet, the top sheet being cut along an outline of the target object on the top sheet by a cutting apparatus, wherein the top sheet includes an effective region that is a region of the top sheet to be left on the base sheet, and a non-effective region that is a region of the top sheet to be removed from the base sheet, the method comprising:

• a candidate point selection step including selecting a plurality of vertices on the outline obtained when the outline is represented as a polyline, the vertices each being selected as a candidate point that serves as an endpoint of the cutting line;
• a search point selection step including selecting, from the candidate points, a reference search point to be used to search for a point that serves as an endpoint of the cutting line;
• a reference line setting step including setting a reference line connecting the search point with a reference point defined in advance on the top sheet;
• a candidate line setting step including setting candidate lines including a plurality of lines each connecting the search point with an associated one of the candidate points other than the search point;
• a candidate line selection step including selecting, as a selected candidate line, the candidate line located only within the non-effective region, and selecting, as the selected candidate line, the candidate line on the outline when none of the candidate lines is located only within the non-effective region;
• an angle calculation step including calculating an angle between the reference line and the selected candidate line;
• and
• a cutting line setting step including setting the cutting line connecting the search point with the candidate point of the selected candidate line defining an angle with the reference line that is a smallest angle calculated in the angle calculation step.