Draw lines and curves
Draw lines and curves with the Pen, by hand with the Pencil, go on from a line's end, and draw a satin column by its two sides.
Updated October 30, 2026
Two tools in the dock on the left draw lines: the Pen / Path (B) places points where you click, and the Pencil (N) follows your hand. A line you draw is sewn as a running stitch; a shape you close is filled. Choose another stitch type under Type once it is drawn — Satin column, for instance, makes a column along the line.
The Pen: corners, curves and smooth curves
Click to place points: each click is a corner, and the line runs straight from one to the next. Press and drag to pull out a curve at the point you place. Click the first point to close the line into a shape, or press Enter or double-click to finish it open. Backspace takes the last point back, and Esc drops the whole line.
Switch on Smooth in the bar above the canvas, or press S while the Pen is the tool, and every click places a smooth point instead: the line becomes a curve through the points you click, as PE-DESIGN's curve tools draw it. Press S again for a corner where you need one; the points already placed stay as they are. Smooth is off until you switch it on, and your browser remembers it for the next time. The curve is the one Smooth node gives in the node editor, so a curve drawn with Smooth and one made smooth afterwards are the same.
The Pencil: drawing by hand
Pick the Pencil (N), press and draw. Let go near where you began and the line closes into a shape, which is filled; let go anywhere else and it stays an open line. A hand-drawn line has far more points than it needs and a little shake in it, so the Pencil evens it out: it keeps the corners you drew and turns the stretches between them into smooth curves. Smooth in the bar sets how much — 0 % keeps the line as you drew it, 100 % gives long, smooth curves. It starts at 50 %, and your browser remembers what you set. The Pencil stays the tool, so you can draw one line after another.
Going on from a line's end
Lines you drew earlier can go on. With the Pen, move the pointer onto the open end of a line: a plus appears beside the pointer and the hint says Click to go on drawing this line. Click it, and the points you place next continue that line. Finish with Enter, or click the line's other end to close it. The line stays the object it was — the same thread, the same stitch settings, the same place in the sewing order — and one undo takes the whole continuation back.
To connect two lines, hold Alt (⌥ on a Mac) and drag one line's end onto another's: they become one line. The line you dragged from keeps its thread and settings, and the other is taken into it. Dragging a line's end onto its own other end closes it.
Only lines of your own go on and connect: not a locked line, not a letter of a text, not part of a catalogue design or a machine file, and not a satin drawn as two rails.
Shift, Ctrl and Alt
| While you… | Shift | Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) | Alt (⌥ on a Mac) |
|---|---|---|---|
| draw with the Pen or the Polygon tool | the segment, or a handle you drag out, in 15° steps | — | the point exactly where the pointer is, snapping or not |
| drag a rectangle, an ellipse or a shape | a square or a circle | — | drawn from the centre |
| move a shape | it stays on the line it started on — across, or up and down | — | drags a copy |
| resize with a handle | proportions kept or freed (the chain in the bar decides) | — | resized about the centre |
| turn with the rotate handle | 15° steps | — | — |
| edit nodes | a dragged node stays on its line; Shift-click adds or drops a node | Ctrl-click (⌘-click) adds or drops a node | a dragged node exactly where the pointer is |
A move held with Shift goes the way you have moved further: across when you have moved more across than down, and the other way round. Snapping still works along that line.
Cusp, Split, Open and Close
Double-click a line to edit its nodes (Editing nodes). Beside the node types, the tool bar has two more for Brother users:
Cusp node (keeps the curve) — Brother's To Cusp. The node's handles stop moving together, and the curve stays as it is: drag one handle and the other stays where it was. Corner node instead pulls both handles in to a sharp point. A cusp you leave as it is is a smooth node again the next time you edit the nodes, since nothing in the line has changed.
Split into objects at nodes — Brother's Split at Point. The line breaks at the selected nodes, as Break path at nodes does, and every piece becomes an object of its own, with the same thread and settings.
Outside node editing, right-click a line or a shape: Close path joins its end to its start, and Open path takes that closing segment out again.
A satin column by its two sides
A satin column is usually a line along its middle and a width (Satin column settings). For a column that tapers unevenly, draw it by its two sides, as with Brother's Manual Punch or Wilcom's Column A/B: pick the Pen, choose Satin column in the bar, click along one side, press Enter, click along the other side and press Enter again. The second side may be drawn either way round. NextStitch makes one satin of the two sides with a short cross line, a rung, across each end, so the whole column is sewn; Backspace on the second side before its first point takes you back to the first.
Two sides without a rung are sewn point by point, so whatever one side has beyond the other's last point is left out. Problems warns about such a satin; give it a rung across, or draw it again as above.