Patent ID: 7835815

Claim:
A method of preparing a program for a punch press, wherein the punch press includes: a punch supporting member that supports a plurality of punches and a die supporting member that supports a plurality of dies corresponding to the punches, identification media for identifying each tool attached respectively on each of the punches and on each of the dies, and a punch identification medium reader for reading out a punch identification information from a punch identification medium attached to the punch and a die identification medium reader for reading out a die identification information from a die identification medium attached to the die; the program preparing method comprising: feeding a plurality of punch identification information and a plurality of die identification information from the respective identification medium readers to an automatic programming apparatus; and allotting a plurality of punches present on the punch supporting member and a plurality of dies present on the die supporting member to a workplace region to be processed such that a total time for replacing punches in the punch supporting member and dies in the die supporting member is minimized.