Curved line fill stitching in embroidery designs

Details Curved line fill stitching in embroidery designs Curved line fill stitching in embroidery designs

2001-06-15

2003-07-01

Nerbun, Peter (Department: 2121)

Data processing: generic control systems or specific application

Specific application, apparatus or process

Product assembly or manufacturing

C112S475190

Reexamination Certificate

active

06587745

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the generation of an embroidery design in a computer aided design system. Such designs involve stitching instructions that are used by automatic embroidery machines to embroider designs. In particular the invention concerns a method for generating an embroidery designs. In a second aspect the invention is a system for generating an embroidery design. In a third aspect the invention is a series of stitch commands for controlling an automatic embroidery machine so that it is able to perform the method.
DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
Automatic embroidery machines are very well known in the embroidery industry. The primary characteristics of automatic embroidery machines, and the basic manner in which embroidery designs are defined for these prior art machines is described in the book. “Embroidery: Schiffli & Multihead”, by Coleman Schneider, 1978. International Standard Book Number 0-9601662-1-1.
An automatic embroidery machine typically operates by moving a piece of fabric or garment to be embroidered in the X and Y directions, defined according to a standard XY Cartesian coordinate system, under an embroidery needle. As the fabric is moved, the needle reciprocates up and down to penetrate the fabric at pre-defined XY locations on the fabric, forming stitches of thread in a sequence to form the embroidery design. To embroider a particular design, an automatic embroidery machine is given a series of stitch commands that define the sequence of XY movements required to form that design. The series of stitch commands used by automatic embroidery machines are generally referred to as “stitch data format”, since every individual stitch location is explicitly defined.
There are many commercial systems on the market in widespread use for creating and modifying stitch designs for use by automatic embroidery machines. These “Design Systems” are typically referred to in industry as embroidery CAD (Computer Aided Design) systems “Punching Systems” or “Digitizing Systems”. Embroidery Design Systems in common use, typically output designs in “Stitch Data Format” for use on automatic embroidery machines. Most commercial Design Systems also work with “Outline Data Format”, also known as “Condensed Data Format”. This refers to a means of defining an embroidery design in terms of a sequence of geometric shapes to be filled with stitches, where for each shape, the stitching parameters required to calculate stitches of the desired stitch type are defined and stored with the shapes. The geometric shapes are typically defined in the form of geometric polygons, formed by straight line segments, curved line segments, or a mixture. Various forms of mathematical curves are used in industry to define shapes to be stitched, including Bezier curves, various types of spline curves, circular arcs, and the like. The stitching parameters stored with the shapes include the “stitch type”, the stitching calculation method to use, the stitch density or spacing, the stitch lengths, and so on. There are many different methods to fill a shape with stitches, and each has its own specific set of parameters.
In the drawings that follow, a convention has been adopted to represent needle penetration points as dots
1
, and stitches as straight lines
2
that interconnect the dots.
Areas which are parts of embroidery designs are typically defined as geometric outlines
3
, as shown for example in
FIG. 1
a.
Prior art embroidery design systems already have well known and well refined methods whereby areas to be filled with stitches can be described graphically by operators, or from pre-defined artwork such as clipart. There are existing methods for calculating curves and straight lines for these shapes, displaying them graphically or numerically, editing the shape of the areas, calculating the various stitch types, and displaying stitches and areas together or separately.
Areas are sometimes stitched “along the outline of their shape”, as in the case of “running stitch” shown in
FIG. 1
b.
In other cases, areas are “filled” with stitches “inside” the outlines of a closed shape or polygon. If the area is small enough (typically less than 127 mm across), it is typically filled with a back and forth motion across the shapes with a single stitch, referred to as “satin stitch” as shown in
FIG. 1
c:
note the alternate vertical and sloping stitches.
When the areas are larger, such that it is not possible or practical for a single stitch movement to cover the distance from one side of the area to the other, or when certain artistic effects are desired inside the area, various techniques are used to calculate multiple intermediate stitch points, across the area. The most common method of this is referred to as ‘tatami’ stitching, or “geflecht”, or “step stitch” and this is illustrated in
FIG. 1
d.
Using this technique, the intermediate stitch points going across an area are carefully calculated relative to each other so that the needle points are staggered, or offset from those on adjacent lines of stitching going across the area, to minimize the visibility of the intermediate stitch points. In this case the stitch points extend in diagonals, indicated at
4
, across the lines of stitches.
Another common practice is to have the intermediate stitch points form desired visible shapes or patterns inside the area, usually for artistic reasons, see for example
FIG. 1
e.
This example shows stitch points arranged in circular patterns
5
which are repeated across the area. The intermediate needle penetrations across the area form very visible lines, because the penetrations on adjacent lines of stitching are close together. This effect is often referred to in industry as “program split” stitch type.
The pattern of intermediate needle penetrations in the finished embroidery is visible to the human eye in all cases, whether it is the designers intention to minimize their visibility, or to maximize the visibility. Therefore it is important to calculate the intermediate points so that there are no visual discontinuities in the visual patterns created by the intermediate stitch points.
As seen in
FIGS. 1
c,
1
d
and
1
e,
it is common practice is to fill areas with stitches with straight stitch lines which are parallel to each other. The lines may be vertical, but other angles are also used. For instance, the areas may be filled with straight lines of stitches where the angle of the straight lines varies smoothly across the area so that they fan out as shown in
FIG. 1
f.
In all of the “fill” examples given above, the basic method of filling is to calculate a series of straight lines which go back and forth across the area, and then use these straight lines as either individual stitches (eg satin stitch), or to calculate intermediate stitch points along these straight lines. In all cases, careful control of the placement of the stitch lines is needed to ensure consistent density of stitch lines in the shape, and consistent visual effect of the intermediate stitches.
A typical complication for filling areas with straight line fills is illustrated in
FIG. 1
g
and in FIG.
2
. In this situation, the area has an internal and external boundary, and it is required to fill the area between the two boundaries, leaving the “hole”
6
unstitched. The technique for doing this is referred to in the industry as “Complex Fill”. It is characterized by the fact that the straight stitch lines which cross the area intersect the boundary more than twice in some places (eg when thee cross the hole).
The automatic filling method for Complex Fill will be described with reference to FIG.
2
. The complex shaped area
10
has a diamond shaped hole
11
in it. The shape
10
is complex because it is not possible to fill it with an uninterrudted series of straight lines of stitching. The method breaks the whole area
10
into sub-areas which are bounded by the intersection of stitch lines with the holes or with the outside boundaries. The horizontal lines
12
,
13
and
14
indicate the boundarie

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Curved line fill stitching in embroidery designs does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Curved line fill stitching in embroidery designs, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Curved line fill stitching in embroidery designs will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3037772