Embroider a VectorCraft design

Draw the design in VectorCraft, and say how each object sews with the StitchCraft plug-ins, which show its stitches as you work. Then write the machine file with VectorCraft’s File › Export › Export As, from VectorCraft 0.14, or with stitch export from the saved document. Both write the same file.

Choose each object’s stitches

With the plug-ins installed, select an object and choose Effect › Plug-ins › StitchCraft Fill, StitchCraft Stroke or StitchCraft Satin. The dialog holds Ink/Stitch’s settings for that kind of stitch, and the object shows its stitches in place of its art. The thread is the colour of the object’s fill for a fill, and of its stroke for a stroke or a satin column.

From VectorCraft 0.14 each setting has a label and its unit, in the sections of the parameter reference. Rest the pointer on a label for its help, or press the button after the field for its page in the reference. A setting shows only when it applies: a satin’s staggers show for staggered splits. VectorCraft before 0.14 lists every setting, each under its Ink/Stitch name.

An object without a StitchCraft effect sews as Ink/Stitch sews a shape of an SVG file. Its fills are filled, and its strokes are sewn as running stitch. With stitch export --auto, StitchCraft chooses its stitches by width instead, as for a picture traced into shapes.

A line up to 1 mm wide runs, or up to the narrowest satin stroke the document keeps (below). From 0.5 mm wide it is a triple run, each stitch sewn 3 times.
A line up to 7 mm wide is a satin column as wide as drawn, its round or square caps included.
A wider line, or a fill, is a tatami fill. A part of a fill no wider than the narrowest satin stroke anywhere runs along its middle, as so narrow a line does.

Objects are sewn in the order they are drawn, the bottom one first. Satin columns and presets in VectorCraft shows how to draw a column with 2 rails, and how to keep settings in graphic styles.

Leave out what isn’t to be sewn

Name an object or a layer stitch:ignore, by double-clicking its name in the Layers panel, and it is left out with everything in it. Placement lines, notes and pictures to trace stay in the drawing this way. A note can follow the name after a space, as in stitch:ignore placement line. Upper and lower case are read alike. A hidden object is left out too.

VectorCraft’s preview can’t see names. An object named stitch:ignore that a StitchCraft effect sews, its own or its group’s, still shows its stitches there, and stitch export leaves it out.

Write the machine file

With the exporters installed, choose File › Export › Export As, and PES embroidery (StitchCraft) or DST embroidery (StitchCraft) as the format. Once the file is picked, a dialog shows 2 options:

Digitize automatically, which chooses the stitches of the objects without a StitchCraft effect by their width, as stitch export --auto does.
Machine, the machine and hoop the design is planned for: document, the one the document keeps (below), or brother-pe800-5x7 when it keeps none, unless another is chosen. stitch profiles lists them.

The design takes the file’s name, which machines show. What stitch export would say about the design shows with the export’s warnings, one line for each message. When one of them is an error, nothing is written, and VectorCraft says the first. VectorCraft lets an export run for a while, and stops one that needs more: stitch export writes it.

Or save the document, and run stitch export on it. This patch has a fill, a satin border, a curve of running stitch and 2 squares in a group that a graphic style’s fill effect sews. Its placement line is named stitch:ignore placement line:

$ stitch export patch.vectorcraft -o patch.pes --preview patch.png
patch.vectorcraft
  file      patch.pes (PES v1, 6656 bytes)
  sha256    6236ce2cb1bc9db739830a38a457cff67689195f86e1200e79b846240d943457
  profile   brother-pe800-5x7 (Brother PE800 with its 5 × 7 in hoop)
  size      50.0 × 54.0 mm
  stitches  2466 stitches, 5 jumps, 4 trims, 3 colour changes, 0 stops
  threads   1. unnamed (#bf0000), shown as Brother PEC 5 "Red"
            2. unnamed (#0033b3), shown as Brother PEC 21 "Ultramarine"
            3. unnamed (#008033), shown as Brother PEC 56 "Moss Green"
            4. unnamed (#e6b31a), shown as Brother PEC 11 "Deep Gold"
  preview   patch.png (432 × 464 pixels)
info SC-I0811 (vc:10): The object "stitch:ignore placement line" is named stitch:ignore, and is left out with everything in it.
  hint: Rename it to stitch it.
warning SC-W0807 (vc:4): The object "stitch:start" marks where the shape grouped with it starts, and is not stitched. StitchCraft doesn't yet start a shape at a marker: it chooses where.
warning SC-W0807 (vc:7): A group "Dots" has fills or strokes of its own, which VectorCraft paints what it holds with. They are not stitched as shapes of their own, and give their thread and stroke to the StitchCraft effects they paint.
  hint: Make objects of them with Object › Expand Appearance.

The patch as it will sew. A red fill with rows at 45 degrees has a blue satin band and a green curve of running stitch under it. Under them, 2 gold squares with upright rows have the loose thread of the jump between them. The placement line and the start marker are not sewn.

stitch export writes the file for the machine --profile names, or else the one the document keeps, or else brother-pe800-5x7, and --preview adds a picture. It is stitch plan by another name, which reads an SVG file the same way and takes the same options.

StitchCraft reads documents of up to 64 MiB. Pictures embedded to trace from can make one larger: place them with Link checked in VectorCraft’s Place dialog, and VectorCraft saves a small preview of each in the document instead.

Keep the design’s settings and machine with it

From VectorCraft 0.16, a document can keep the machine it is for, and the 3 settings Ink/Stitch keeps with a design for all of its objects. With the plug-ins installed, choose Object › Plug-ins › StitchCraft Design Settings, set them, and press OK:

Machine, the machine and hoop the design is planned for, brother-pe800-5x7 by default.
Shortest jump, Shortest stitch and Narrowest satin stroke, in millimetres. Rest the pointer on a label for what each does.

The document saves them. The exporters and stitch export plan the design for the machine it keeps, unless the export’s Machine option or --profile names another. They use its settings as they use an SVG file’s design settings. Whatever is selected, the filter leaves every object as it is.

VectorCraft opens the dialog at the defaults each time, not at what the document keeps, so set all 4 when you run it again. A live effect isn’t given what the document keeps. The stitches shown as you work are planned for brother-pe800-5x7 with the default settings, and a longer shortest stitch shows only in the machine file and in stitch export --preview. A setting that StitchCraft can’t read keeps its default, and stitch export says so (SC-W0812).

Draw a test sheet

The test sheets drawn as designs, TS-02B to TS-09, can start from VectorCraft 0.16 and later. With the plug-ins installed, choose Object › Plug-ins › StitchCraft Test Sheet, pick the sheet, and press OK. Rest the pointer on Sheet for what each one tests. The sheet is drawn in the middle of the artboard, each shape with its StitchCraft effect and settings, and shows its stitches. Write it as any design, with File › Export › Export As. Selected objects stay as they are, and the sheet goes above them, in their group or layer.

The sheet sews as stitch testsheet writes it, moved. A fill’s rows lie where the document’s origin puts them, so they may fall a little elsewhere across a shape, and look the same. The threads keep their colours but not their names in the Brother palette, and the machine file is the same. StitchCraft Stroke, Satin and Fill must be installed: VectorCraft gives a new object only the effects of installed plug-ins. TS-01, TS-02 and TS-10A to TS-10C are drawn stitch by stitch, and come from stitch testsheet alone.

Read what it says

Each line under the summary names an object by its id in the document, such as vc:10, and says what was done with it. In the patch, the placement line is left out, as its name asks (SC-I0811). The start marker isn’t applied yet (below). The group’s own gold fill, which the graphic style put on it, isn’t sewn as a shape of its own, and gives the squares their thread. Other messages name what isn’t sewn as it is drawn, with the VectorCraft command that makes it sewable, such as Type › Create Outlines for text (SC-W0807). The diagnostic codes page explains each code, as stitch explain SC-W0807 does.

Start and end markers

A small path named stitch:start or stitch:end, grouped with a fill or a satin column, marks where the fill or the column is to start or end, as Ink/Stitch’s starting and ending positions do. A marker is never sewn, and a group or a layer is never a marker. StitchCraft doesn’t start or end a shape at one yet, and chooses where, as the patch’s start marker shows.

When it sews wrong

stitch bug-report design.vectorcraft --says "what is wrong" writes a bundle that includes the document. Report a bug says what to do with it.

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