Embroidery data producing apparatus

An embroidery data producing apparatus, comprising:

• storage means for storing contour data, the contour data defining a plurality of embroidery regions;
• detection means for detecting, for each one of the plurality of embroidery regions, whether at least one other embroidery region of the plurality of embroidery regions is at least partially contained within the embroidery-containing region of the plurality of embroidery regions;
• discrimination means for determining, for each detected embroidery-containing region, a shape for each at least one detected contained-embroidery region;
• determining means for determining whether, for each detected embroidery-containing region and each detected contained-embroidery region, a portion corresponding to one of the at least one detected contained-embroidery region should be removed from the detected embroidery-containing region, based on the determined shape of the corresponding detected contained-embroidery region;
• and
• embroidery data generating means for generating embroidery data based on the stored contour data and the removed portions of the embroidery-containing regions.

A method for generating embroidery data from contour data defining a plurality of embroidery regions comprising the steps of:

• determining, for each one of the plurality of embroidery regions, whether at least one other embroidery region of the plurality of embroidery regions is contained within the one of the plurality of embroidery regions;
• determining, for each one of the plurality of embroidery regions containing other ones of the plurality of embroidery regions, shapes of the contained-embroidery regions;
• determining, based on the determined shape for each contained-embroidery region, whether a corresponding portion of the corresponding embroidery-containing region should be removed from the corresponding embroidery-containing region;
• and
• generating embroidery data from the contour data and the removed portions of the embroidery-containing regions.