Patent ID: 8738172

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a processor; and a memory configured to store computer-readable instructions that instruct the apparatus to execute steps comprising: acquiring pattern data, the pattern data being data representing a position of a point on a pattern line in a case where cuts are formed in a work cloth along the pattern line, which is a line indicating a shape of a pattern; identifying, as a plurality of cutting needle drop points, a plurality of points on the pattern line, each of the plurality of cutting needle drop points being a position at which a cutting needle is to be inserted into the work cloth in order to form a cut; identifying, as a corresponding cutting needle, one of a plurality of cutting needles configured to be attachable to a plurality of needle bars of a multi-needle sewing machine in a state in which directions of cutting edges of the plurality of cutting needles are different from each other, the identifying being performed for each of the plurality of cutting needle drop points, based on a direction in which the pattern line extends at each of the plurality of cutting needle drop points; storing cutting needle drop point data and cutting needle data in association with each other in the memory, the cutting needle drop point data being data indicating each of the plurality of cutting needle drop points, and the cutting needle data being data indicating the cutting needle identified corresponding to each of the plurality of cutting needle drop points; identifying an extending direction of fibers that form the work cloth; replacing the cutting needle data that is included in the cutting needle data stored in the memory and in which an angle between the extending direction and the direction of the cutting edge of the cutting needle indicated by the cutting needle data does not satisfy a predetermined relationship, with other data indicating another cutting needle which is among the plurality of cutting needles and in which the angle satisfies the predetermined relationship; and generating cut data based on the cutting needle drop point data and the cutting needle data stored in the memory, the cut data being data for the multi-needle sewing machine to insert the corresponding cutting needle at each of the plurality of cutting needle drop points along the pattern line.