Drawing and editing

Use the tool dock on the left to add shapes or text. Select an element to move, resize and rotate it, or type its position and size in millimetres into X, Y, W and H in the bar above the canvas. Snapping and rulers help you align elements to the hoop and to each other.

Groups and layers

Group related elements so they move together. Layers decide what lies on top, but not the sewing order: NextStitch sews by thread colour and takes the nearest shape next, wherever the picture stays the same, so where shapes of different colours overlap, the one on top is still sewn last. To have the machine sew in the layers' order, switch on Sew in layer order in File ▸ Properties… — in the Sewing order panel the same switch is Sew in this order. See Arranging and stitch order.

Editing nodes

Double-click a path, polygon or line to edit its nodes. Click a node to select it, Shift-click to add more, or drag a frame around them on empty canvas. Drag a selected node and every selected node moves with it; Delete removes them.

While you edit nodes, the tool bar shows the node operations, and the right-click menu offers those that apply to the selected nodes:

• Break path at nodes (Shift+B): a closed outline opens at the selected node, an open line splits there in two.

• Join nodes (Shift+J): two selected end nodes become one, joining two lines or closing one.

• Join with segment: the two end nodes are joined by a new straight segment.

• Delete segment: the segment between two neighbouring selected nodes goes.

• Close path: an open line is closed.

Cutting shapes with the knife

The Knife (K) cuts filled shapes along a line. Click to place points, or press and drag for a freehand line, then press Enter or double-click to cut; Esc cancels. It cuts the selected shapes, or with nothing selected every shape the line crosses completely. A shape the line only reaches into stays as it is.

Each piece becomes a shape of its own with the original's stitch settings, in the original's place in the sewing order, and a hole stays with the piece it is in. Cut width in the tool bar leaves a gap of that width between the pieces — clearance, for example between an ear and a head sewn in different directions. At 0 the pieces meet along the line. The curves are kept: only the cut itself is straight.

Building shapes from overlapping ones

The Shape Builder (X) works on two or more selected shapes, or on one path that crosses itself, and shows every region their outlines enclose:

• click a region to make it a shape of its own;

• drag across regions to merge them into one;

• hold Alt and click or drag to remove regions.

Press Enter (or Apply) to apply, Esc (or Discard) to start again. A region you did not touch stays with the shape it belongs to — where shapes overlap, with the one on top. A new shape takes the stitch settings of the topmost shape it came from.