Split Before/After Color, Separate Color

Embird Embroidery Software Tutorial

Embroidery design splitting is a technique used to break down large embroidery patterns into smaller, more manageable pieces. This is done so the design can be stitched out on machines with smaller hoop sizes or to better accommodate the fabric or item being embroidered. It is commonly used when the design is too big to fit in a single hoop or needs to be applied across different parts of a garment.

This tutorial explains how to split a design into two parts using the "split before color" or "split after color" functions and how to split a design into three parts using the "separate color" function.

Note: Other ways of splitting are explained in the following tutorials:

Interactive Free-Hand Splitting, Using Initial and Ending Stitch Boxes, Auto-Split, Auto-Split Along Hoop Boundaries and Saving and Sewing of Split Designs.

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

2 - Select the "File > Open" menu to open the design that you want to split.

3 - Choose the color before which you want to split the design. Move the mouse pointer to the box containing this color in the "Objects Order Bar" at the right side of the screen (Picture No. 1). After a short while, a yellow box with a hint will appear on the screen.

1. Choose color

4 - Click the right mouse button for the popup menu and select the "Split Before Color" command from this menu (Picture No. 2). Embird will split the design before the chosen color (i.e., before color 6 in this example), and after a while, you will see that there are 2 objects at the right side of the screen ("the dog" and "the blue barrier").

2. Right click chosen color box

5 - To save a separated object into a file on your hard disk, or to move it in the Work Area, click the left mouse button on this object in the Work Area (Picture No. 3). A black rectangle will be drawn around the object, which indicates that this object is now selected.

3. Select separated object

6 - Click the "File > Save Selected As" menu to save the selected object to a file on your hard disk (Picture No. 4).

4. Save selected part

7 - Specify the format in the dialog box that appears on the screen (Picture No. 5). Check the manual of your embroidery machine to find out which format is accepted by your machine. Click the "OK" button to continue.

5. Choose target file format

8 - Choose the folder and the name of the file into which the stitches of the selected object will be saved. Click the "Save" button to continue (Picture No. 6).

6. Choose drive, folder and file name of design

9 - Repeat steps 5 to 8 if you want to save the second part of the design to a file on your hard disk.

10 - The "Split After Color" command will split the design after the chosen color. Choose the color after which you want to split the design. Move the mouse pointer to the box containing this color in the "Objects Order Bar" at the right side of the screen (Picture No. 7). After a short while, a yellow box with a hint will appear on the screen.

7. Choose color

11 - Click the right mouse button for the popup menu and select the "Split After Color" command from this menu (Picture No. 8).

8. Right click chosen color box

12 - Embird will split the design after the chosen color (i.e., after color 5 in this example), and after a while, you will see that there are 2 objects at the right side of the screen ("the dog" and "the blue barrier"). Each part is now an independent object, and it can be selected, moved, or saved separately (Picture No. 9), as explained in steps 5 through 8.

9. Separated objects

13 - The "Separate Color" command will split the design into three parts. Choose the color that you want to separate. Move the mouse pointer to the box containing this color in the "Objects Order Bar" at the right side of the screen (Picture No. 10). After a short while, a yellow box with a hint will appear on the screen.

10. Select color to separate

14 - Click the right mouse button for the popup menu and select the "Separate Color" command from this menu (Picture No. 11).

11. Right click chosen color box

15 - Embird will split the design into 3 parts (Picture No. 12): The first part contains all colors which are stored in the original design before the chosen color (i.e., colors 1 through 5 in this example), the second part is the chosen color (color 6), and the third part contains all colors which are stored in the original design after the chosen color (colors 7 and 8). Each part is now an independent object, and it can be selected, moved, or saved separately, as explained in steps 5 through 8.

12. Separated objects

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