Freehand Tool

This is a special way to create an embroidery design by simply drawing, rather than the common node-by-node digitizing. It is much faster; the Freehand tool allows you to create sketch drawings with a mouse or digitizing tablet within a few minutes.

It works like a painting tool. The result, however, is an embroidery design that can include various embroidery styles such as fills, columns, sfumato objects, and outlines, as well as some new stitch styles like pressure-sensitive columns.

Unlike the other Studio tools, which are based on the precise manual placement of nodes, curves, and lines, the Freehand tool allows you to draw most of the Studio objects freehand. Strokes are automatically converted to the chosen embroidery style. After conversion, strokes can be edited like other vector objects in Studio (node-by-node). When creating an embroidery design, the Freehand tool can be combined with any other tools in Studio.

Like other creation tools in Studio, the Freehand tool can be used with various display modes (Normal, Vector, 3D, Flat...).

The Freehand tool can work with any Microsoft Windows-compatible mouse or digitizing tablet*. Its use is not restricted to any specific brand of tablet.

*Tablet pen pressure can be used in Studio only if the tablet uses a Wintab32.dll driver, and this driver must be located in the Windows\System32 folder.

Freehand Styles

Before you start drawing with the Freehand tool, you should choose the embroidery style you want to use. Make a long click (about 1 second) with the mouse button or the corresponding tablet pen button on the Freehand icon (in the Tool Box).

A panel with freehand styles will appear.

Pop-up Panel with Freehand Styles

Each style is represented by its icon. Click the icon of the desired style, and the freehand tool will be activated with the selected style. You can also change the active style later, between drawing the freehand strokes, by using the combo box in the main control panel.

The styles used in the example above are:

1. The Fill. The leaves also have Carving texture lines, but they are visible only in the 3D view mode.
2. Column with simulated pressure-sensitive width.
3. Sketch Outline.
4. Manual Stitches.

Options

When the Freehand tool is active, specific parameters for the respective style are displayed on the main control panel on the side of the Studio window. Some parameters, like the color of objects being drawn and the After Stroke options, are common to all styles.

Common Options

Color is a parameter that is used by all styles. It defines the color of objects created by drawing the freehand strokes.

The After Stroke options allow you to choose how the Freehand tool behaves after each stroke. It is possible to define whether to generate stitches for each stroke immediately or not, whether to finish freehand mode after a single stroke or reactivate the tool, and whether to create a connection to the previous stroke or allow jumps between strokes.

The meaning of the After Stroke options is as follows:

• Finish Object - converts the stroke into nodes and finishes creation/editing immediately.
• Generate Stitches - same as Finish Object, but it also generates stitches for the stroke object.
• Another stroke - converts the stroke into nodes and allows you to add more strokes. When finished, a single vector object contains several strokes.

Only one of the above options can be active at once.

The pop-up menu accessible via the button in the splitter panel contains the Connect to previous object option. When this setting is turned ON, each new object (stroke) is connected to the previous one with a connection object.

Style-Specific Options

Manual Stitches

Manual Stitches are used to create realistic fur, shading, or other textures. The parameters that are adjustable during the use of the Freehand tool are: Minimum Length of Stitch and Maximum Length of Stitch.

There are several ways to change the value of the stitch length controls. They are used in the same way as those in the Parameters window.

Outlines and Connection

Outline-type styles include: Outline, Sketch Outline, and Connection.

The parameters that are adjustable during the use of the Freehand tool are: Minimum Length of Stitch, Maximum Length of Stitch, Width of the Outline (not available for Connection), and Sample (not available for Sketch Outline and Connection).

Columns

Column-type styles include: Column and Pressure-sensitive width column.

The parameters that are adjustable during the use of the Freehand tool are: Minimum Width of Column, Maximum Width of Column, the Tablet pressure option to switch on/off the tablet, and the Simulated Width combo box.

If a tablet is present, the width of the pressure-sensitive column varies from the minimum to the maximum column width value, according to the real pen pressure. The Simulated Width combo box is disabled.

If a tablet is not present (a mouse is used for drawing) or if tablet pen pressure is disabled by unchecking the Tablet pressure option, the width of the pressure-sensitive column is defined by the selected stroke sample from the Simulated Width combo box.

Example of a column with a simulated pressure effect on its width.

Fill Object and Sfumato

Fill-type styles include: Fill, Mesh, Sfumato, and Opening. There is also a Carving style, which is created like an outline, but it serves to add texture lines to the fill, mesh or sfumato objects. Both opening and carving objects must follow after the fill, mesh or sfumato objects. They are not stand-alone objects.

The only parameter of Fill that is adjustable during the use of the Freehand tool is Angle. The rest of the parameters can be accessed only after finishing the freehand mode, using the Parameters window.

Note: When freehand drawing is finished, strokes are no longer available as 'freehand objects'. They are automatically converted into respective vector objects like manual stitches, fill, or column, and their parameters are accessible via respective tabs in the Parameters window.