Images_Digital_Edition_September_2019

KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES www.images-magazine.com 32 images SEPTEMBER 2019 E ven those with a basic understanding of embroidery know that machines require a file to stitch a design. However, there are different types of files and not everybody has a clear understanding of what they are and what they do. In this month’s column I’ll be taking a look at the files generated by the digitising process and why those file types matter to your embroidery operation. What’s in a file? There are two main types of digitising file – the ‘working file’ and the ‘stitch file’. Working files These are, unsurprisingly, the files in which a digitiser works. These entirely proprietary, software-specific files contain any imported art, shapes a digitiser draws, and the stitch types, angles, density, and other settings used to fill those shapes with stitches. They can be edited and resized, with the software using the parameters set by the digitiser on each vector-like embroidery object to generate the actual stitches in the file that’s output for the embroidery machine. Embroidery machines do not read working files. Stitch files These files are exported from the working file and are the most Erich Campbell tells you everything you need to know about digitising file types common type of file purchased as stock designs or delivered by digitisers. The working file’s shapes and settings are interpreted into a set of individual stitch coordinates and machine commands and exported into a format that a specific embroidery machine can read. Proprietary stitch file types exist, but the most used format – .DST – is readable by any machine. Most stitch files can be converted from one format to another in basic software without significant alteration. Output stitch files can’t be easily edited or resized – generally, they contain Understanding file types Here we see the finished ‘Regulators’ patch set stacked up to be packaged