Double-click to Stitch in Editor

Embird Embroidery Software Tutorial

Embird Editor 2018 allows you to quickly create a brand new design with several double-clicks on an imported image. It can recognize the contours of solid colors in the underlying image and allows you to fill in those contours. No other Embird plug-in registration is required for this operation.

Note: This feature does not replace Embird Studio, which offers true digitizing capabilities. It gives acceptable results only for certain types of images—preferably .BMP, .SVG, .WMX, .EMF, .CMX, or others that use lossless compression. .JPG and .PNG files are not suitable for this purpose. Also, the quality of automatically recognized contours and their fills might vary from image to image, and their usability is not guaranteed.

1 - Run Embird and click the "Editor" menu to switch to the Editor window (Picture No. 1).

1. Switch to Editor window

2 - Open the image by selecting the "Image > Open" menu (Picture No. 2).

2. Open the image

3 - The imported image will appear on the work area. If necessary, change the image size using the "Image > Set Size" menu (Picture No. 3). The size of the design being created depends on the size of the image.

3. Change image size

4 - Double-click the color in the image to recognize its contours (brown in this tutorial). Hold down the "Shift" key on your keyboard to recognize contours of all areas that have the same color (Picture No. 4).

4. Double-click the chosen color

5 - Once the recognition of contours is finished, a dialog box inquiring about stitch length will appear (Picture No. 5). If you want to fill contours with stitches, select the "Cancel" button. This means that the contour will be as precise as possible, but you should delete it afterwards—this contour is not usable for sewing because of the very small stitch length. If you want to use only contours (without fills), please specify the stitch length for the contours and select the "OK" button.

5. Stitch length of recognized contours

6 - Contours of the double-clicked color will appear as a new selected object on the work area with a black rectangle around it (Picture No. 6). A dialog box inquiring about filling the contours will pop up. Select the "Yes" button.

6. Fill contours inquiry

7 - Choose a fill type, e.g., Motif (Picture No. 7).

7. Motif fill type

8 - The fill of the double-clicked color will appear as a new object on the work area (Picture No. 8).

8. Fill of double-clicked color

9 - Repeat steps 4 to 7 for other colors in the image. Depress the "Shift" key on your keyboard and double-click the blue color (Picture No. 9).

9. Fill of second double-clicked color

10 - Select the contour objects (which were created only for the purpose of filling their interior) and delete them (Picture No. 10).

10. Delete temporary contours

11 - Remove the image from the work area to see the new stitches. Select the "Image > None" menu (Picture No. 11).

11. Remove image

12 - Check the new design (Picture No. 12).

12. New design created with several double-clicks

13 - Zoom in on the work area (by selecting the "View > Zoom > In" menu) to see the chosen fill pattern (Picture No. 13).

13. Check the fill pattern

14 - It is possible to convert the whole image at once to contours. Use the "Image > Convert to Contours" menu (Picture No. 14). If you decide to also fill these contours, you will be asked about the fill pattern for the whole design.

14. Convert whole image to contours

15 - Select the "File > Save As" menu to save the new design to your hard disk in the chosen embroidery format.

Tip: See also the Insert Effect and Fill Closed Contours tutorials to find out how to perform other various operations with recognized contours.

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