US 7,680,558 B2Granted

Embroidery data creation apparatus and embroidery data creation program recorded in computer-readable recording medium

AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorKenji Yamada

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Abstract

The process searches a block that contains a current line segment for any other line segments and, if they are found, calculates a distance between an endpoint of the current line segment and endpoint nodes of all the line segments found in the block. The process sequentially searches for the line segments in the block in accordance with search order determined on the basis of a search ranking table if a search range is not crossed over and calculates the distances between the endpoint of the current line segment and the endpoint nodes of the found line segments. Then, the process compares the distance from the endpoint node of the already line segment found and the distance from the newly found endpoint node and outputs the smaller one as the next line segment.

Claims24

Dependent claims

An embroidery data creation apparatus, comprising:

a line segment data creation device that creates, from an image, a plurality of line segment data pieces having an arbitrary angle component;
an embroidery data creation device that creates embroidery data by connecting endpoint nodes of line segments to each other in such a manner that stitches are formed sequentially along a plurality of line segments specified by the plurality of line segment data pieces created by the line segment data creation device;
a search device that preferentially searches a vicinity of a specific line segment when searching for such a line segment that is to be connected next to the specific line segment;
an inter-endpoint node distance calculation device that calculates a distance between an endpoint node of the line segment found as a result of a search by the search device and an endpoint node of the specific line segment;
a search range setting device that sets a search range to be searched by the search device;
a selection device that selects the line segments that are closer to the specific line segment based on a result of calculations by the inter-endpoint node distance calculation device;
a search termination device that terminates the search by the search device when all of the line segments in the search range set by the search range setting device have been searched for;
and
a connection device that sequentially connects the line segments selected by the selection device to each other.

6 more elements

An embroidery data creation apparatus, comprising a controller that:

creates, from an image, a plurality of line segment data pieces having an arbitrary angle component;
creates embroidery data by connecting endpoint nodes of line segments to each other in such a manner that stitches are formed sequentially along a plurality of line segments specified by the created plurality of line segment data pieces;
preferentially searches a vicinity of a specific line segment when searching for such a line segment that is to be connected next to the specific line segment;
calculates a distance between an endpoint node of the line segment found as a result of a search and an endpoint node of the specific line segment;
sets a search range in which the line segment that is to be connected next to the specific line segment is searched for;
selects the line segments that are closer to the specific line segment based on a result of a calculation of the distance between the endpoint node of the line segment found as a result of the search and the endpoint node of the specific line segment;
terminates the search when all of the line segments in the set search range have been searched for;
and
sequentially connects the selected line segments to each other.

6 more elements

A storage medium storing a set of program instructions executable on a data processing device and usable for creating embroidery data, the set of program instructions comprising:

a line segment data creation step of creating, from an image, a plurality of line segment data pieces having an arbitrary angle component;
an embroidery data creation step of creating embroidery data by connecting endpoint nodes of line segments to each other in such a manner that stitches are formed sequentially along a plurality of line segments specified by the plurality of line segment data pieces created by the line segment data creation step;
a search step of preferentially searching a vicinity of a specific line segment when searching for such a line segment that is to be connected next to the specific line segment;
an inter-endpoint node distance calculation step of calculating a distance between an endpoint node of the line segment found as a result of a search by the search step and an endpoint node of the specific line segment;
a search range setting step of setting a search range to be searched by the search step;
a selection step of selecting the line segments that are closer to the specific line segment based on a result of calculations by the inter-endpoint node distance calculation step;
a search termination step of terminating the search by the search step when all of the line segments in the search range set by the search range setting step have been searched for;
and
a connection step of sequentially connecting the line segments selected by the selection step to each other.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.