Patent ID: 6868303

Claim:
A method of automatically laying out pieces to be cut out from remnants of a flexible material having non-uniform characteristics, and to be used for making articles, said method comprising: establishing, for a given type of remnant, at least one generic mask generically applicable to the given type of remnant and whose area is subdivided into zones which correspond to different value levels of a characteristic of the given type of remnant; assigning a set of constraints to at least some of said pieces wherein the set of constraints includes at least one value constraint for a characteristic of the given type of remnant; defining links between at least some of the pieces, wherein the links have different levels as a function of relationships imposed between constraints assigned to the pieces; digitizing an individual remnant of the given type in order to obtain an image of the individual remnant; applying the at least one generic mask to the image by performing dimension matching so as to subdivide the image of the individual remnant into zones having uniform characteristics; and laying out the pieces automatically by disposing the pieces in the zones as a function of any constraints assigned to the pieces, and in compliance with the links defined between the pieces.