Custom Fill Motifs

Motifs are used to create fancy fill. They are aligned in a continuous formation so that they allow seamless, continuous sewing.

Two motifs used as a fancy fill.

There is a number of pre-defined motifs included with Studio, but user can also create up to five custom fill motifs that are saved with the design. Studio contains built-in editor of fill motifs that facilitates this task.

Motif Editor

Use main menu > Gadgets > Fragment Editors command to open window with available editors. Switch to Motif Editor .

The meaning of controls in this window is following:

Editor list. Motif editor is one of the custom editors available in Studio.

Buttons Reset , Cancel or Apply changes made to the motif

Combo box to select any of 5 custom motifs for editing

Work Area . Draw your custom motif here.

Motif Parameters : Width , Height , Shift

Information Area : Cursor coordinates, warning messages, etc.

Name of the Motif

Pop-Up Menu Button . Click this button to access pop-up menu with additional commands: Open and Save Motif, Undo / Redo Changes, Import backgroung image , Clear Motif , Show / Hide background image , Snap to Grid , Flip Vertically , Start / Stop simulation of motif stitches

List Splitter

Splitter with Tools : Undo or Redo changes, Zoom-in and Zoom-out buttons, Insert Node and Delete Node buttons

Splitter

Controls

While meaning of many controls in editor window is self-explanatory, some require further clarification:

Start Simulation . Use this command from pop-up menu to run slow simulation of how motif stitches will be sewn.

Save Motif . Use this command from pop-up menu to store motif to the disc in order to transfer it to other design.

Open Motif . Use this command from pop-up menu to load motif saved previously from other design.

Clear . Use this command from pop-up menu to reset selected custom motif to a single stitch.

Import Background Image . Use this command from pop-up menu to open an image and use it as the template when drawing the motif.

How to Draw New Motif

Motifs are small formations of stitches. They are made from single stitch by inserting nodes (needle points) between the first and last point and moving them on the work area.

To examine predefined Studio motifs Open motif from PATTERNS folder.

To make a new motif, use combo box (C) to select some custom motif to edit. Initial form of custom motif is a single stitch.

Preserving position of the first (S) and last (E) points ensures seamless connection of samples.

Let's create a new star-shaped motif:

New motif - initial stitch.

Insert 4 new nodes between the start (S) and end (E) point.

Four new nodes 1,2,3 and 4.

Move these nodes as depicted on below picture.

Custom Motif - Nodes moved in the work area

Nodes 1,2,3 and 4 moved in the work area.

Insert another 4 new nodes (X),(Y),(Z) and (W).

New nodes (X),(Y),(Z) and (W).

Move nodes (X),(Y),(Z) and (W) as shown on below picture.

Final layout of nodes.

Move overlap area node down.

Finished motif with overlap area.

Overlapped motif rows

Parameters

Motifs are applied by Studio so that they are projected into virtual cells windows inside the fill object. Proportion of these windows is defined by Width and Height parameters.

Adjustable gray area on top and bottom of work area allows to define how much rows of motifs overlap each other.

Shift defines the mutual shift of motif rows when projected to a fill.

Motif rows with shift equal to half of the motif width