Mesh Fill

Embird Embroidery Software Tutorial

This tutorial explains how to fill an empty area with a Mesh fill pattern. It is also possible to fill color areas of a converted background image.

Note: See also Double-click to Fill Empty Area in Editor, Quilt Fill, Fractal Fill, Create Emoji Design and Surprise Me! - Create a new design with only a few clicks.

1 - Run Embird and click the "Editor" menu to switch to the Editor window.

2 - Open a design using the "File > Open" menu; for example, open the free design "squirrel".

3 - Double-click an empty area to fill it with stitches (Picture No. 1).

1. Double-click an empty area to fill it with stitches

4 - Select the "Mesh" type of filling (Picture No. 2).

2. Select Mesh fill type

5 - A dialog with "Mesh" fill settings will appear (Picture No. 3). Select a pattern, change parameters, and click the "OK" button to fill the clicked empty area.

3. Mesh fill settings

There are various parameters available, allowing you to create many combinations:

Tip: Change a parameter and after a short while watch the Preview box to see how it affects the final result. In some cases, these previews are interactive - they allow you to change the focus of the applied fill pattern modification with a click in the Preview box to move the red focus cross - e.g., for "Fish Eye" transformation. In other cases (e.g., for "Star"), there are four direction arrows shown around the hoop in the Preview box, allowing you to move the pattern.

Type - Choose a mesh fill pattern. Switch ON the Two colors checkbox and specify the rotation angle of this optional second color. Click the ... button to select a fill pattern from the grid, which also allows you to search by name.

Offset - Specify the offset from the outside boundary (i.e., offset from hoop edges in this example) which is not filled. Switch ON the small checkbox at the right side to include the boundary curve in the fill.

Bounce - Specify the bounce from cavities (i.e., offset from "squirrel" in this example, because this is a cavity in the filled area). Switch ON the small checkbox at the right side to include the cavity curve in the fill.

Distance - Specify the distance between mesh elements.

Angle - Specify the angle of fill pattern rotation; 360 deg means a random angle.

Deflection - Specify the deflection for the waves fill pattern, or a parameter which modifies the current pattern in some way (if enabled, check the impact in the Preview).

Period - Specify the period of the waves fill pattern, or a parameter which modifies the current pattern in some way (if enabled, check the impact in the Preview).

Stitch Length - Specify the stitch length.

Layers - Specify the layers (strands of thread) for stitching.

Star, Effect, Inlay, Gradient - Various effects, transformations, and modifications are available for many types of fill, mostly for "tiles".

Decoration - Apply a chosen decoration element.

Transform - Apply a chosen transformation (Scale, Fish Eye, Skew, 3D).

Check the pictures below showing various fills:

4. Mesh fill pattern "Contours Maze 1", bounce 2 mm

5. Mesh fill pattern "Waves 1", bounce 8 mm

6. Mesh fill pattern "Hexagons 1", bounce 8 mm

7. Mesh fill pattern "Plant 1", distance 12 mm

8. Mesh fill pattern "Tiles 4.8.8e", distance 6 mm, Star applied

9. Mesh fill pattern "Random 30", distance 6 mm, Inlay "heart" applied

10. Mesh fill pattern "Labyrinth 1", distance 5 mm

11. Mesh fill pattern "Random 1", distance 2 mm, period 2

12. Mesh fill pattern "Tetrominoes 1", distance 4 mm

13. Mesh fill pattern "Floral 1", distance 12 mm

14. Mesh fill pattern "Leaves 1", distance 12 mm

15. Mesh fill pattern "(Star 5) and (Heart 2)", distance 2 mm, Packing ON, Plus ON

6 - It is possible to add custom patterns for filling (valid per one session) either from Cross Stitch patterns, from Font Engine, or load from an .SVG file. Click button no. 1 in Picture No. 16.

16. Custom patterns are available

7 - Select a fill pattern from patterns available in the Cross Stitch plug-in (Picture No. 17). It is possible to create brand new fill patterns in the Cross Stitch plug-in.

17. Select fill pattern from patterns available in Cross Stitch plug-in

18. Mesh fill pattern based on Cross Stitch fill pattern

8 - It is possible to convert color areas in a background image to stitches and fill them with Mesh patterns (Picture No. 19, 20, and 21).

Note: See also Surprise Me! - Create a new design with only a few clicks.

19. Convert background image to stitches

20. Image converted to stitches, filled with Mesh "Contours Maze 1" (offset and bounce is 0 mm)

21. Image converted to stitches, filled with Mesh "Waves 1" (offset and bounce is 0 mm)

22. Emoji image converted to stitches, filled with Mesh "Labyrinth 1"

23. Using Tube option for Mesh fill

24. Using Mask > NOT option for Mesh fill

25. Using Mask > AND option for Mesh fill

Back to Embird Tutorial Contents