JPH07303776A - Sewing data generator for automatic sewing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To quickly and precisely perform edit work without making worse workability by defining one arbitrary piece of partial sewing data out of displayed data candidates as the start point or end point of edit target sewing data by a sewing data edit means. CONSTITUTION:In an automatic sewing machine sewing data generating means, the sewing data edit means is equipped with an instruction cursor movement control means capable of moving freely in an area displayed on a display means and which controls the movement of an instruction cursor, and a summary display control means which summary-displays all the data candidates when attribute information for the partial sewing data instructed by the instruction cursor out of the sewing data displayed on the display means is considered. The arbitrary one of summary-displayed data candidates is selected, and selected partial sewing data is defined as the start point or end point of the edit target sewing data by a defining means.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic sewing machine sewing data creating apparatus for creating sewing data for controlling an automatic sewing machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a sewing needle that reciprocates up and down in conjunction with a sewing machine motor, a work holder that is provided below the sewing needle to hold a material to be sewn, and the work holder are provided with respect to the sewing needle. A moving mechanism for moving in the dimensional directions (X, Y directions) is provided, and the work holder is sequentially moved based on sewing data stored in advance in a storage medium such as a floppy disk or semiconductor memory, and sewing is performed for each movement. 2. Description of the Related Art An automatic sewing machine has been put into practical use, which automatically sews a material to be sewn in a predetermined sewing pattern by lowering a sewing needle onto the material to form a stitch.

Sewing data for controlling such an automatic sewing machine includes position information indicating a needle drop position (in other words, a relative position between the sewing needle and the work holder) with respect to the workpiece held by the work holder. , Is formed by registering in the sewing order. On the other hand, a sewing data creation device for creating such sewing data is an input device including a tablet digitizer, a mouse, a keyboard, etc., a display device including a CRT, a liquid crystal display, etc., and reading / writing of sewing data to / from a storage medium for storing sewing data. According to the drive device that performs the operation and the preset control program,
It is composed of a microcomputer that executes various control processes such as input signal input from an input device, image display on a display device, and calculation of sewing data.

Therefore, in order to automatically sew a work cloth with such an automatic sewing machine, it is necessary to create sewing data while adding attribute information such as the sewing order so as to correspond to the sewing pattern. These are composed of a set of a plurality of partial sewing data, and are identified by the sewing order, for example. Then, the edit mode has been set in order to perform editing such as moving, copying or deleting the once created sewing data.

Therefore, conventionally, as a sewing data creating device for creating and editing such sewing data, an input board (tablet digitizer) and an input device such as a mouse for each needle of an automatic sewing machine are used. The sewing data is created by sequentially inputting the coordinates indicating the needle drop position, converting the input coordinates into the above-mentioned needle drop position data, and sequentially storing the data. Further, the created sewing data is displayed on the display means, and the start point and the end point are selected from the partial sewing data using the input device,
Editing is performed by moving, copying or deleting the sewing data (group) to be edited which is determined based on the selected start point and end point.

[0006]

However, in order to determine the object to be edited at the time of editing, when the operator tries to specify the partial sewing data to be the starting point or the ending point with the mouse or digitizer while looking at the displayed figure. In addition, since partial sewing data may be crowded or overlapped at the specified point,
In some cases, the device cannot determine which partial sewing data the operator wants to specify. Since there is a need to determine which of the multiple candidates is selected on the device side, for example, if an algorithm that always selects the earliest sewing order is selected, the data with the later sewing order will be selected. I can not do it.

Therefore, there arises a case where the operator cannot freely select the data to be edited. As a method of eliminating such a problem, for example, it is conceivable not to create a graphic in which partial sewing data are crowded or overlapped. However, in that case, to edit the same figure, for example, divide the figure and create it.
This is a very tedious work of combining them by editing to make the final sewing data, and the workability deteriorates.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and allows the user to freely and surely select the data to be edited without deteriorating the workability, thereby enabling quick and appropriate editing work. An object of the present invention is to provide a sewing data creation device for the automatic sewing machine.

[0009]

That is, the present invention as set forth in claim 1 made in order to achieve the above object is realized by a set of a plurality of partial sewing data as illustrated in the basic configuration diagram of FIG. Sewing data creating means configured to create sewing data for controlling the automatic sewing machine while adding attribute information such as the sewing order of the partial sewing data, and displaying the created sewing data on the display means, A sewing data editing means for selecting a starting point and an ending point from the partial sewing data and moving, copying or deleting the sewing data to be edited which is determined based on the selected starting point and the ending point is provided. In the sewing data creation device of the automatic sewing machine, the sewing data editing means controls the movement of an instruction cursor that can move freely within the area displayed on the display means. A sol movement control means, and a list display control means for displaying a list of all the data candidates in the case of considering the attribute information with respect to the partial sewing data designated by the instruction cursor from the sewing data displayed on the display means. Selecting a desired one of the data candidates displayed in the list and fixing the selected partial sewing data as a start point or an end point of the sewing data to be edited. This is a sewing data creating device for a characteristic automatic sewing machine.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the sewing data creating apparatus for the automatic sewing machine according to the first aspect,
The sewing data editing means displays an instruction marker on the partial sewing data displayed on the display means when any one partial sewing data is initially instructed by the instruction cursor, and thereafter only the sewing data is displayed. The list display control means includes an instruction marker movement control hand for moving in the partial sewing data unit, and displays a list of all the data candidates in the case of considering the attribute information with respect to the partial sewing data instructed by the instruction marker. A sewing data creation device for an automatic sewing machine having the above structure.

Still further, according to the present invention as defined in claim 3, in the sewing data creating apparatus for an automatic sewing machine according to claim 2, the instruction marker movement control means is based on the initially specified partial sewing data. The sewing data creating device for an automatic sewing machine is characterized in that the subsequent movement of the instruction marker is executed by sequentially advancing or retreating in accordance with the sewing order.

[0012]

In the sewing data creating apparatus for an automatic sewing machine according to claim 1 configured as described above, the sewing data creating means is composed of a set of a plurality of partial sewing data, and the sewing order of the partial sewing data. Sewing data for controlling the automatic sewing machine is created while adding attribute information such as, and the sewing data editing means displays the created sewing data on the display means, and the start point and end point are selected from the partial sewing data. Editing is performed by selecting, and moving, copying or deleting the sewing data to be edited which is determined based on the selected start point and end point.

In the editing work by the sewing data editing means, the instruction cursor movement control means freely controls the movement of the instruction cursor within the area displayed on the display means, so that the operator can arbitrarily use the instruction cursor. The partial sewing data of can be instructed. Then, the list display control means displays a list of all the data candidates in the case of considering the attribute information regarding the partial sewing data pointed by the pointing cursor. For example, when the partial sewing data are crowded at the point designated by the pointing cursor or the data overlap each other, all the corresponding data candidates, that is, if there are two, 2
If there are three or more, all of them are displayed in a list.

Then, the confirming means selects any one of the data candidates displayed in the list and confirms the selected partial sewing data as the start point or end point of the sewing data to be edited. In this way, when partial sewing data are crowded or overlapped at the position pointed by the instruction cursor, the algorithm has always been to select, for example, the earliest sewing order. However, according to the present invention, all the relevant data candidates are displayed in a list, and any one of the listed data candidates is displayed. Since, is selected and confirmed, the desired data to be edited can be freely selected.
Therefore, even if the figure is complicated and complicated, desired data can be selected accurately from the figure.

Further, according to the sewing data creating apparatus of the first aspect, for example, not all partial sewing data constituting the sewing data are displayed and selected from them, but an instruction cursor is used for instructing. Since only the data related to the location is displayed as a list, the number of displayed data is not so large. Therefore, it is easy to select from them, and workability is not deteriorated.

Next, in the sewing data creating apparatus for an automatic sewing machine according to a second aspect, in the sewing data creating apparatus for an automatic sewing machine according to the first aspect, the instruction marker movement control means is operated by an instruction cursor when editing. When an arbitrary partial sewing data is initially instructed, an instruction marker is displayed on the partial sewing data displayed on the display means. After that, only the sewing data is moved in units of partial sewing data.

With respect to the movement of the instruction marker, for example, as described in claim 3, the partial sewing data which is initially instructed is used as a base point, and the movement of the instruction marker thereafter is sequentially advanced or sequentially retreated according to the sewing order. It is conceivable to let it be executed by.

With respect to the partial sewing data designated by the designation marker moved in this way, the list display control means displays all the data candidates in consideration of the attribute information. After this list is displayed, it is confirmed by the confirming means as described in claim 1.

Therefore, according to the sewing data creating apparatus of the automatic sewing machine of the second aspect, an arbitrary partial sewing data is designated by the instruction cursor, and thereafter only the sewing data is moved in the partial sewing data unit. Because,
The desired partial sewing data can be selected easily and accurately.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 1 is an external view showing the external appearance of the sewing data creation apparatus of the embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the sewing data creation apparatus of the present embodiment includes a computer main body 2 that executes a prepared sewing data creation program and a keyboard for inputting numerical data and character data to the computer main body 2. 4, an input board 6 and a mouse 8 for inputting a sewing pattern to be formed in the automatic sewing machine,
A display device including a CRT (hereinafter, referred to as CRT) that displays the position of the mouse 8 as a mouse cursor MC and also displays an image image showing a sewing pattern being created, a menu image for selecting various preset functions, and the like. 10).

Next, as shown in the block diagram of FIG. 2, the computer main body 2 includes a CPU 12, a ROM 14, and a RAM.
The external device such as the keyboard 4, the input board 6, and the CRT 10 is composed of a well-known personal computer including an interface circuit 18, a disk drive 20 for a floppy disk, a common bus 22 that connects these parts, and the like. It is connected to the computer main body 2 via the interface circuit 18.

The disk drive 20 is a built-in drive for reading / writing data from / into a floppy disk initialized in a predetermined format.
A floppy disk in which a program and data for creating sewing data are stored is attached here.

In the sewing data creating apparatus of this embodiment having the above-described structure, when the user turns on the power of the computer main body 2 by turning on the power switch (not shown), the computer main body 2 operates as the disk drive 20. The sewing data creation program and various data are read from the inserted floppy disk to create the sewing data.
Enter edit mode where you can edit.

In this edit mode, the CRT 1 is operated by operating the mouse 8 as shown in FIG. 4 (a), for example.
It becomes possible to draw an arbitrary sewing pattern (hereinafter, also referred to as an outline) on the display screen of 0 (a figure in which two legs extend downward from two vertices of a triangle in the figure).

In this edit mode, CRT1
The area where the outline can be displayed at 0 is the center of the display screen, and the line type (straight line, free curve, arc, etc.) for drawing the outline and various functions for editing (copy, move, A selection menu for selecting (Delete, etc.) is displayed. In this edit mode, the outline drawn on the display screen of the CRT 10 by operating the mouse 8 is stored in the RAM 16 as pattern data representing a sewing pattern.

Next, after drawing the outline as described above, when a development command for the entire drawn outline or a desired outline is input, the apparatus enters the development mode and the sewing object is sewn along the outline. A development process for creating sewing data for forming eyes is executed.

When the sewing data for the designated desired outline is created in this expansion processing, the apparatus enters the edit mode again to create a new outline, change the outline, or change the outline. The expansion command can be input to other outlines.

Here, the processing as the sewing data creating means executed for drawing the sewing pattern in the edit mode is substantially the same as the processing conventionally executed for drawing in the microcomputer, and therefore the description will be omitted. A description of the sewing data editing process, which is a feature of the present invention, will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, the CRT 10 displays an image of the created sewing data. To supplement the sewing data, the sewing data is composed of a set of a plurality of partial sewing data, and the partial sewing data is added with attribute information such as a sewing order. The attribute information includes, for example, color and stitch / feed in addition to the sewing order.

After the sewing data is once created in this way, the display of the CRT 10 is returned to the menu image, the cursor is moved to the position where the function name "Editing the sewing data" is displayed, and the mouse 8 is moved to that position. When the confirmation button 8a of 1 is pressed or the return key of the keyboard 4 is pressed, the computer main body 2 starts execution of a sewing data editing process described later. Therefore, the sewing data editing process executed by the computer main body 2 to edit the sewing data to be edited which is determined by the user's instruction will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In the editing of this sewing data, the start point and the end point are determined in the unit of partial sewing data, and the sewing data to be edited which is determined based on the start point and the end point is moved, copied or deleted. Edit it.
In this embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that the sewing data is created as shown in FIG. 4A and the editing is performed based on the sewing data. It should be noted that the numbers 1 to 6 in FIG. 4A indicate the sewing order, and these numbers are not displayed on the actual screen.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the execution of the sewing data edit processing is started, first, at step 110 (hereinafter, step is simply referred to as S), it is determined whether or not the search start position is selected. to decide. FIG. 4 (b) shows a screen before the search. By moving the mouse cursor MC as the instruction cursor in the present invention to an arbitrary position and pressing the confirm button 8a of the mouse 8, the corresponding data is displayed. If there is, it is determined to have been selected. That is, even if the confirm button 8a is pressed in a place where there is no figure or the like, there is no reaction, but it is selected when the mouse cursor MC is moved to the vicinity of the figure (of course, it may be above) and the confirm button 8a is pressed.

Then, at the search start position, the indication marker P
M is displayed (S120). FIG. 4C shows a case where the partial sewing data of the number 4 is selected, and the instruction marker PM is "○" on the partial sewing data of the number 4 (in the present embodiment, near the center of the line segment). It is displayed as a mark. In addition,
This display may be any display that allows the operator to distinguish it from other data, and may be displayed in a different color, for example, so-called highlight display or the like.

Then, the temporarily determined data is initialized (S1
30), a list of search results is displayed (S140). Figure 4
In the case of (c), since the corresponding data of the search result is only one piece of partial sewing data of number 4, the initialization of the provisionally determined data in S130 and the list display of the search results in S140 are both performed with the number 4 Only partial sewing data is applicable.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4 (d), since the partial sewing data of number 2 and the partial sewing data of number 5 are indistinguishable from each other in the figure, both of them correspond to the retrieval result. , S140, the numbers 2 and 5 are displayed in the search result list display. However, in the present embodiment, when there is a plurality of provisionally confirmed data, it is decided to take the one with the smaller number (in this case, the number 2), so the number 2
Is set as a temporary fixed data number and initialized (S13
0), at the time of displaying the list in S140, the number 2 which is the temporarily fixed data number is marked with "○" and displayed as "".

Then, the flow shifts to S150, where it is determined whether or not the list display number is selected. For example, FIG. 4 (d)
If there is a plurality of selection candidates as shown in, and the user wants to select the number 5, the mouse cursor MC is moved to the list display portion and the number 5 is designated (S150). It is set as the confirmed data number (S160), and in the list display, the "○" mark shifts to the temporary confirmed data number 5, and is displayed as "" (S140).

In this way, when there are a plurality of candidates, they are displayed in a list and a desired one can be selected from them. If the number is not selected in the list display in S150, the process proceeds to S170, and it is determined whether the interruption switch is turned on. If the interruption switch is turned on (S170: YES), S2
Then, the processing moves to 00, the indication marker PM and the list display are erased, and this processing is once ended.

If the interruption switch is not turned on in S170 (S170: NO), the process proceeds to S180 to judge whether the confirmation switch is turned on. If the confirmation switch is not turned on, the process returns to S150. However, if the confirmation switch is turned on, the process proceeds to S190, the search result is stored, and then the process proceeds to S200.

The mouse cursor M in this embodiment is
Although it has been described above that C corresponds to the pointing cursor of the present invention, the correspondence between each other means and the constituent elements of this embodiment will also be shown. The computer 4, the keyboard 4, the input board 6, the mouse 8 and the like correspond to the sewing data creating means, the sewing data editing means, and the instruction cursor movement control means. In particular, the processing shown in FIG. This corresponds to execution of processing as an editing means.
Then, S130 and S1 in the flowchart of FIG.
40 corresponds to the execution of the processing as the list display control means,
S150, S160, S180, and S190 correspond to the execution of the processing as the confirmation means. Further, the CRT 10 corresponds to the display means.

As described above, in the sewing data creating apparatus of this embodiment, the mouse cursor MC
Can be used to instruct arbitrary partial sewing data,
With respect to the partial sewing data designated by the mouse cursor MC, a list of all data candidates in the case of considering the attribute information is displayed. For example, as shown in FIG. 4D, when the partial sewing data of the point designated by the mouse cursor MC overlap, all the relevant data candidates, that is, if there are two, both data are If there are three or more, all of them are displayed in a list.

When there are a plurality of data candidates displayed in the list, any one of them is selected, and the selected partial sewing data is confirmed as the start point or the end point of the sewing data to be edited. be able to. As described above, when partial sewing data are overlapped or crowded at the position designated by the mouse cursor MC, conventionally, for example, the algorithm is such that the one having the earliest sewing sequence is always selected. There was an inconvenience that the later data could not be selected. On the other hand, according to the present embodiment, all applicable data candidates are displayed in a list, and any one of the displayed data candidates is selected and confirmed. Can be freely selected. Therefore, even if the figure is complicated and complicated, desired data can be selected accurately from the figure.

Moreover, for example, the partial sewing data (data of numbers 1 to 6 in the example of FIG. 4) forming the sewing data are not all displayed and selected, but the mouse cursor MC is instructed. Since only the data related to the location is displayed as a list, the number of displayed data is not so large. Therefore, it is easy to select from them, and workability is not deteriorated.

In the above embodiment, after the indication marker PM is displayed at the search start position in S120, the position cannot be changed, and if another data is desired to be indicated, it is interrupted in S170. Although it is necessary to start over from the beginning, for example, the indicator marker PM may be configured to be movable. In that case, after any one partial sewing data is initially designated by the mouse cursor MC and the indication marker PM is displayed, it is preferable to move only on the sewing data in units of partial sewing data. The movement of the instruction marker PM may be performed by, for example, sequentially advancing or retreating in accordance with the sewing order. By doing so, any desired partial sewing data can be designated by the mouse cursor MC, and thereafter only the sewing data is moved in the partial sewing data unit, so that the desired partial sewing data can be selected easily and accurately. can do.

[0044]

As described in detail above, according to the sewing data creating apparatus of the automatic sewing machine of the present invention, the data to be edited can be freely and surely selected without deteriorating the workability, and the quick and accurate editing can be performed. You can work.

According to the second aspect of the invention, any partial sewing data is designated by the pointing cursor, and thereafter, only the sewing data is moved in the partial sewing data unit, so that the desired sewing can be performed easily and accurately. Partial sewing data of can be selected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view illustrating an external appearance of a sewing data creation device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a computer main body according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a sewing data editing process executed by the computer body of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation during editing.

FIG. 5 is a basic configuration diagram illustrating the basic configuration of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... computer body, 4 ... keyboard,
6 ... Input board, 8 ... Mouse, 8a
… Confirm button, MC… Mouse cursor,
PM: Indicator marker

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kaji Inoue 15-1 Naeiro-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi Brother Industries, Ltd. (72) Takashi Kondo 15-15 Naeji-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi No. 1 in Brother Industries, Ltd. (72) Inventor Yoshihiro Hara No. 15-1, Naeshiro-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A sewing data creating means configured by a set of a plurality of partial sewing data, and creating sewing data for controlling an automatic sewing machine while adding attribute information such as a sewing order of the partial sewing data, The created sewing data is displayed on the display means, the starting point and the ending point are selected from the partial sewing data, and the sewing data to be edited which is determined based on the selected starting point and the ending point is moved, copied or deleted. In the sewing data creating device of the automatic sewing machine, which is provided with a sewing data editing means for performing editing, the sewing data editing means controls movement of an instruction cursor that is freely movable within the area displayed on the display means. The instruction cursor movement control means and the partial sewing data indicated by the instruction cursor from the sewing data displayed on the display means. With regard to the data, the list display control means for displaying a list of all the data candidates in the case of considering the attribute information, and any one of the data candidates displayed in the list are selected, and the selected partial sewing data is displayed. A sewing data creation device for an automatic sewing machine, comprising: a finalizing means for finalizing the starting or ending point of the sewing data to be edited. 2. The sewing data creating apparatus for an automatic sewing machine according to claim 1, wherein the sewing data editing means displays on the display means when any one partial sewing data is initially specified by the instruction cursor. The instruction marker is displayed on the partial sewing data which is displayed, and thereafter, the instruction marker movement control means for moving only the sewing data in the partial sewing data unit is provided, and the list display control means is instructed by the instruction marker. A sewing data creation device for an automatic sewing machine, characterized in that, with respect to partial sewing data, a list of all data candidates in the case of considering the attribute information is displayed. 3. The sewing data creation device for an automatic sewing machine according to claim 2, wherein the instruction marker movement control means uses the initially instructed partial sewing data as a base point, and the subsequent movement of the instruction marker is performed as described above. A sewing data creating device for an automatic sewing machine, characterized in that it is executed by sequentially advancing or retreating in accordance with a sewing order.