JPH0596073A - Embroidery block data processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the embrodery block data processor capable of surely preventing the thread breakage of an embroidery thread and the deterioration of thread tension, and also, preparing the stitch data for a nice-looking embroi dery pattern, at the time of sewing the embroidery pattern by enlarging or reducing it. CONSTITUTION:After block data of a desired embroidery pattern is enlarged or reduced, a needle location position is calculated in order of sewing, based on the block data and thread density data (S35). A distance between adjacent needle location positions is calculated (S40), and when its value L becomes shorter than a prescribed reference value (for instance 1mm), needle location position data is converted to feed data and stored in a memory so that a needle is not located in its needle location position (S43), and when its value L is longer than the prescribed reference value, its needle location position is stored in the memory as it is (S42).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an embroidery block data processing device, and in particular, among a plurality of needle drop points obtained based on block data and thread density data, a stitch length between needle drop points is below a reference value. This is related to the one that omits the stitch that becomes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, the applicant of the present invention has proposed, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-
No. 42740, an embroidery pattern such as characters and figures is divided into a plurality of embroidery regions (blocks), and block data indicating a plurality of contour line elements for defining the contours of these blocks and embroidery threads are used to embed each block in a block. The embroidery area data including the number of stitches to be formed (thread density) is stored, the needle drop point position data for each block is obtained based on these block data and thread density data, and the needle drop position An embroidery pattern storage / reproduction device was proposed in which an embroidery pattern is sewn using data.

When creating embroidery area data using the embroidery pattern storage / reproduction device, the embroidery pattern is generally divided into a plurality of rectangular blocks so that a beautiful embroidery stitch can be formed. I have to. For example, in FIG.
In order to create the embroidery area data of the Chinese character “Ding” as shown in FIG. 3, the embroidery pattern is divided into, for example, 10 rectangular blocks (B1 to B10), and the block data of these 10 blocks is stored. The embroidery area data is created with the thread density data. Furthermore, in this embroidery pattern "Ding", especially with respect to the block B10 corresponding to the "flue" H, the stitch length is very short (for example, about 1 mm or less) at the time of sewing the sharp-edged tip portion.
As a result, the sewing needle sews at substantially the same location, preventing the sewing needle from moving up and down and cutting the embroidery thread, and preventing the thread tension from deteriorating due to the stitch length being too short. The tip portion is cut from above to be transformed into a substantially quadrangular shape, and the transformed quadrangle is used as a block B10 to create block data.

Further, when the embroidery pattern is sewn using the embroidery area data, it is possible to reduce or enlarge the desired embroidery pattern to a size corresponding to the embroidery location of the work cloth. In this case, the created embroidery area data is changed using the reduction rate or the enlargement rate.

[0005]

As described above, for example, in order to reduce the size of the embroidery pattern "Ding" and sew, the created embroidery area data is changed using the reduction ratio, and the reduced embroidery is changed. When the needle drop position is obtained from the area data and the embroidery sewing is performed, the above-mentioned “spline” H portion is also reduced in the same manner, so that the stitch length at the tip portion of this “spread” H is very large depending on the reduction rate. When it becomes short (for example, about 1 mm or less), in the "Hane" H part, cut the embroidery thread with the needle that moves up and down as described above,
Further, there is a problem that the thread tension is deteriorated.

On the other hand, in order to enlarge and sew the embroidery pattern "Ding", the created embroidery area data is changed using the enlargement ratio, and the needle drop position is obtained from the enlarged and changed embroidery area data to embroider. In the case of sewing, since the above-mentioned “splash” H portion is also enlarged, the embroidery thread is not cut and the thread tension does not deteriorate, but this “splash” H portion is cut off at its tip. It will be sewn in the state of embroidery,
There is a problem that the appearance of the embroidery pattern is very poor.

An object of the present invention is to create stitch data for an embroidery pattern which can surely prevent the thread breakage of the embroidery thread and the deterioration of the thread condition when the embroidery pattern is enlarged or reduced for sewing. An object of the present invention is to provide an embroidery block data processing device that can be used.

[0008]

As shown in the functional block diagram of FIG. 1, an embroidery block data processing apparatus according to the present invention has a cloth moving means whose position is independently controlled in the X and Y directions of an embroidery sewing machine. Stitch data indicating a needle drop point of embroidery sewing based on block data indicating a pair of contour line elements facing each other of the block to be embroidered and thread density data indicating the thread density of the block. In the embroidery block data processing device for calculating, the calculation means calculates the positions of the needle drop points in the embroidery sewing order based on the block data and the thread density data, and the position data of the needle drop points obtained by the calculation means. The stitch length calculation means calculates the stitch length from the needle drop point to the subsequent needle drop point, and the stitch length calculation means calculates from the position data of the needle drop point obtained by the calculation means. Stitch length is that a stitch data selecting means for obtaining the position data obtained by removing the position data of the subsequent needle drop point equal to or less than a predetermined reference value as a stitch data.

[0009]

In the embroidery block data processing apparatus according to the present invention, the position of the needle drop point is determined based on the block data indicating a pair of contour line elements facing each other of the block to be embroidered and the thread density data of the block. It is calculated by the calculating means in the sewing order. On the other hand, using the position data of the plurality of needle drop points, the stitch length from each needle drop point to the subsequent needle drop point is calculated by the stitch length calculation means, and is calculated by the stitch length calculation means. The position data of the subsequent needle drop point at which the obtained stitch length becomes equal to or less than the predetermined reference value is removed from the position data of the needle drop point obtained by the calculating unit by the stitch data selecting unit.
As a result, the cloth moving means is drive-controlled based on the stitch data after the selection, and the embroidery pattern is formed on the work cloth.

Therefore, as the shape of the block to be embroidered,
It is also possible to use a triangular shape corresponding to a “shade” portion, etc., and further, remove the data of the subsequent needle drop position where the stitch length is less than or equal to the reference value at the acute-angled tip of the triangle, for example, “1 mm” or less Since the stitch relating to the needle drop position is not formed, the embroidery thread is not cut by the sewing needle and the thread tension is not deteriorated even when the block data is reduced and changed. Further, when the block data is enlarged, the triangular block data is also enlarged and changed, so that it is possible to prevent the embroidery thread from being cut with the sewing needle and the thread tension from being deteriorated, and a good-looking embroidery pattern is formed. ..

[0011]

According to the embroidery block data processing apparatus of the present invention, as described in the section [Operation], the calculation means, the stitch length calculation means, and the stitch data selection means are provided and the calculation is performed. Since the position data of the succeeding needle drop points where the stitch length from each needle drop point to the subsequent needle drop point is less than the predetermined reference value is removed from the position data of the plurality of needle drop points, the sewing needle that moves up and down It is possible to surely prevent the embroidery thread from being cut and the thread tension from being deteriorated, and it is possible to create the stitch data for a good-looking embroidery pattern.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, stitch data (needle drop position data) for stitching an embroidery area (block) is created, and an embroidery sewing machine 1 that forms an embroidery pattern on a work cloth using the stitch data is created. This is a case where the present invention is applied. First, the embroidery device 2 for forming an embroidery pattern will be described with reference to FIG. 2. On the sewing machine table 10, the embroidery sewing machine M and a work cloth (not shown) are independently moved in the X and Y directions. The moving mechanism 3 is provided. Explaining the embroidery sewing machine M, a pedestal portion 14 is erected from a bed portion 12 provided on the sewing machine table 10, and an arm portion 16 is cantilevered from an upper end portion of the pedestal portion 14 to an upper side of the bed portion 12. It has been extended. Arm part 1
A needle bar vertical drive mechanism (not shown) driven by a sewing machine motor 66 is provided in the sewing machine 6, and a needle bar 18 having a sewing needle 20 attached to its lower end is vertically reciprocated by this needle bar vertical drive mechanism. The opening formed in the upper surface of the bed portion 12 is closed by the needle plate 22, and the sewing needle 20 is inserted through the needle hole formed in the needle plate 22, and the thread catcher ( (Not shown) to form a seam.

Next, the work cloth moving mechanism 3 will be described. On the sewing machine table 10, an embroidery frame 34 including an annular outer frame 30 and an inner frame 32 fitted inside the outer frame 30 is provided. The slide portion 36 formed integrally with the embroidery frame 34 is slidably supported in the Y direction by a pair of guide pipes 38 arranged on the sewing machine table 10 in the Y direction. The front ends of these guide pipes 38 are fixed to a support base 40, and the rear ends thereof are fixed to a support base 42. The support base 42 is screwed into an X-direction feed screw 46 arranged in the X-direction, and also has a rotation transmission shaft 48.
The X-direction feed screw 46 is driven to rotate normally or reversely by an X-axis feed motor 67 (see FIG. 3). Therefore, the rotation of the X-direction feed screw 46 by the drive of the X-axis feed motor 67 causes both the support bases 40 and 42 to rotate.
The embroidery frame 34 is moved and driven in the X direction via the guide pipe 38 and the guide pipe 38.

On the other hand, an annular wire 50 is stretched over both the supports 40 and 42, and is fixed to the slide portion 36 in the middle of the wire 50. The wire 50 is rotated by the rotation transmission shaft 48. Be moved. Further, a Y-axis feed motor 68 is connected to one end of the rotation transmission shaft 48. Therefore, the rotation of the rotation transmission shaft 48 by the drive of the Y-axis feed motor 68 drives the slide portion 36 to move in the Y direction via the wire 50. As a result, by driving the X-axis feed motor 67 and the Y-axis feed motor 68,
Since the embroidery frame 30 is moved to an arbitrary position on the sewing table 10 on the XY plane, an embroidery pattern is formed on the work cloth sandwiched between the frames 30 and 32 in cooperation with the embroidery sewing machine M. Here, the embroidery device 2 includes a CRT display 52,
A control box 5 to which an external storage device 56 including a keyboard 54 and a hard disk device is basically connected
8 is connected. The X-axis feed motor 67 and the Y-axis feed motor 68 are stepping motors.

Next, the control system of the embroidery sewing machine 1 is constructed as shown in the block diagram of FIG. A keyboard 54 and an external storage device 56 are connected to the input interface 60 of the control device C, and a drive circuit 69 for the sewing machine motor 66 is connected to the output interface 65.
A drive circuit 70 for the X-axis feed motor 67, a drive circuit 71 for the Y-axis feed motor 68, and a CRT display 52.
And a display drive circuit 72 for that purpose are respectively connected.

The keyboard 54 is for inputting an embroidery pattern to be applied to the work cloth, stitch density, etc., and is necessary for inputting keys and data for instructing an embroidery pattern such as alphabets, numbers and symbols. Various keys are provided. Further, the external storage device 56 stores embroidery area data (pattern outline data) relating to a plurality of types of embroidery patterns such as characters and figures in association with embroidery pattern numbers. Here, when the embroidery pattern is composed of a plurality of blocks (embroidery regions) of, for example, a triangle or a quadrangle as the embroidery region data, in order to define the thread density data and the contour of the block for each of the plurality of blocks. For each of the plurality of contour line elements, the start point position, the end point position, data indicating the type of these line elements (straight line or curved line), and the like are included.

For example, as the embroidery area data of the embroidery pattern of the Chinese character "Ding", as shown in FIG. 4, in addition to the thread density data, the coordinate data of the block B1 (embroidery area data),
Block B2 coordinate data, block B3 coordinate data, block B5 coordinate data, feed data (F), block B6 coordinate data, ... Block B
Ten coordinate data are sequentially stored. By the way, as the block coordinate data, for example, in the case of the block B1 shown in FIG. 5, a start point position and an end point position are set for each of the four contour line elements L1 to L4 for defining the contour of a quadrangle (block). Four defined points b11 and b1 to be defined
The coordinate data of 2, b13 and b14 are included. Here, these defined points b11, b12, b13, b14 are stored in a predetermined order, and according to the storage order of the defined points,
The needle drop positions are obtained on the two contour line elements (main sides) L1 and L2 facing each other in the sewing order.

The controller C has a CPU 61, an input interface 60, an output interface 65, and a ROM which are connected to the CPU 61 via a bus 64 such as a data bus.
62 and RAM 63. This ROM
A drive control program for driving the motors 66 to 68, a control program for controlling stitch data creation processing peculiar to the present invention, which will be described later, and the like are stored in 62. The RAM 63 includes an embroidery data memory for storing the embroidery area data read from the external storage device 56, a thread density memory, a working memory, various memories for temporarily storing the calculation result calculated by the CPU 61, a counter, a pointer, and the like. Memory is provided. The embroidery block data processing device
It is composed of a control device C, a keyboard 54, an external storage device 56, a display drive circuit 72 and a CRT display device 52.

Next, a stitch data creation processing control routine executed by the embroidery block data processing device will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the figure, reference numeral Si (i = 30, 31, 32, ...) Indicates each step.

When the embroidery pattern to be embroidered is selected on the keyboard 54 and the embroidery pattern displayed on the CRT display 52 is enlarged or reduced to a desired size and a sewing start command is issued, this control is executed. First, various counters N. P. I. Each M is cleared (S2
9) The embroidery area data of the selected embroidery pattern is read from the external storage device 56, the thread density data of the expanded or reduced embroidery area data is stored in the thread density memory, and a plurality of block data is further embroidered. It is stored in the data memory (S30). Next, the number of blocks (total number of blocks) is calculated based on these block data (S3
1) The number of blocks is stored in the counter as the count value N (S32). However, the feed data is also treated as one block number.

Next, "1" is set to the block counter P to specify one block data (S3).
3) If the data designated by the block counter P is block data instead of feed data (S34:
No), based on the yarn density data and this block data, among the plurality of contour line elements that define the contour of the block,
Position data (hereinafter, referred to as needle drop position data) of a plurality of needle drop points on two contour line elements (main sides) facing each other are obtained in the sewing order (S35). Next, the number of stitches (total number of stitches) is calculated based on the plurality of needle drop position data (S36), and the number of stitches is stored as a count value M in the counter (S37).

Next, "1" is set in the stitch counter I to specify one stitch (S38), and the stitch designated by the stitch counter I, that is, needle drop position data is stored in the work memory (S39). , The stitch length L from the needle drop position specified by the stitch counter I to the subsequent needle drop position is calculated (S4).
0). Next, when the stitch length L is longer than the reference value K (for example, a stitch length of about 1 mm) (S41: Ye)
s) Since stitches can be formed, the following needle drop position data is stored in the work memory (S41). However, when the stitch length L is less than or equal to the reference value K (S4
1: No), since stitch formation is impossible, the subsequent needle drop position data is changed to feed data without needle drop and stored in the work memory (S43).

Next, the count value of the stitch counter I is incremented by "1" (S44), and when the count value I is less than the stitch number M (S45: No),
The steps S40 to S45 are repeated, and the needle drop position data is sequentially stored in the work memory while sequentially changing the subsequent needle drop position data having the stitch length L equal to or less than the reference value K to feed data. Then, when the stitch count value I is larger than the stitch number M (S45: Yes), the block counter P is incremented by "1" to designate the next block (S46), and the block count value P becomes the block number N. In the following cases (S47: No),
S34 to S47 are repeated, and the subsequent needle drop position data for which the stitch length L is equal to or less than the reference value K for all block data is sequentially changed to feed data. When the data designated by the block counter P is feed data (S34: Yes), the feed data is stored in the work memory (S43). Next, when the block count value P is larger than the block number N (S4
7: Yes), a plurality of needle drop position data, that is, stitch data, stored in the work memory is transferred to the embroidery device 2, an embroidery pattern is sewn on the work cloth (S48), and this control ends.

As described above, from the obtained position data of a plurality of needle drop points, the stitch length L from each needle drop point to the subsequent needle drop point is a reference value K (for example, a stitch of about 1 mm). Since the position data of the subsequent needle drop point that is less than or equal to (length) is changed to the feed data, as shown in FIG. 7, the sewing needle 20 that moves up and down is reduced in the portion “Hane” H1 of the reduced embroidery pattern “Ding”. It is possible to surely prevent the embroidery thread from being cut and the thread tension from being deteriorated due to. In addition, as shown in FIG. 8, the enlarged "embroidery" of the embroidery pattern "Ding"
In the portion H2, the block data of the triangular block B10 is also enlarged and changed, so that the cutting of the embroidery thread by the sewing needle 20 and the deterioration of the thread tension can be reliably prevented.
It is possible to create stitch data for a good-looking embroidery pattern.

The embroidery device 2 is not limited to the embroidery device of the above embodiment, and various existing mechanisms can be used. The reference value K for changing the needle drop position data into feed data can be changed according to the thickness and thread density of the embroidery thread used. The embroidery area data may be block data of blocks including arcs and curves.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of an embroidery sewing machine.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control system of the embroidery sewing machine.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of an embroidery pattern of a Chinese character “Ding”.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating block data.

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of a stitch data creation control routine.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary view of a reduced embroidery pattern “Ding”.

FIG. 8 is an exemplary view of an enlarged embroidery pattern “Ding”.

FIG. 9 is a view corresponding to FIG. 4 according to a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 Work cloth moving mechanism 56 External storage device 61 CPU 62 ROM 63 RAM

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A block data indicating a pair of contour line elements facing each other of a block to be sewn on embroidery in order to drive a cloth moving means whose position is independently controlled in the X direction and the Y direction in an embroidery sewing machine. In an embroidery block data processing device that calculates stitch data indicating a needle drop point of embroidery sewing based on the thread density data indicating the thread density of the block, the position of the needle drop point based on the block data and the thread density data. And a stitch length calculating means for calculating a stitch length from each needle drop point to a subsequent needle drop point using position data of the needle drop points obtained by the calculating means, The position data obtained by removing the position data of the succeeding needle drop points from which the stitch length calculated by the stitch length calculation means is equal to or less than a predetermined reference value, from the position data of the needle drop points obtained by the means. An embroidery block data processing device comprising: a stitch data selection unit that obtains stitch data as stitch data.