Drawing and editing

Use the tool dock on the left to add shapes or text; the Pen and the Pencil draw lines and curves (Draw lines and curves). Select an element to move, resize and rotate it, or type its position and size 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.

A single selected shape shows a dot, at its centre unless you move it: the shape turns about that dot — on the canvas, in the angle field and with the Object menu's rotate commands — and snaps to the grid by it. Drag the dot to turn the shape about another point, a corner for instance; double-click it to put it back in the middle.

Positions, sizes and units

X and Y count from the hoop's centre, as the rulers and the status bar do, with y growing downwards: a design centred in the hoop reads 0 and 0. They show the centre of the selection, and W and H resize it about its centre. The small button before X chooses another fixed point — a corner or the middle of an edge — which X and Y then show and which stays where it is when W or H changes.

Type a length in any unit: 30 mm, 3 cm, 1 1/2 in, 3/4″ or 2,5; a bare number is in the unit the field shows. W and H also take a percentage of the size they had (80%) and sums (50+12). The bar's fields apply what you typed when you press Enter or leave them. In any number field, ArrowUp and ArrowDown change the value a step, with Shift ten steps.

Sizes and positions are shown in millimetres, or in inches where the browser asks for US English; Settings ▸ Units switches between them. Stitch values — stitch length, spacing, pull compensation — stay in millimetres either way, as machines and thread charts give them, and still take a typed unit.

The grid, the rulers and the hoop template

The rulers count from the hoop's centre too, and their marks follow the zoom; in inches they read as a tape measure does, in halves, quarters and eighths. The grid is laid out from the centre, so a line always runs through the middle of the hoop. View ▸ Grid settings sets its spacing — the larger dots or lines every so far, the smaller ones in between, which snapping uses (below) — and draws it as dots or as lines. Until you set it, the grid is 10 mm with 1 mm between, or ½ in with ⅛ in between when sizes are shown in inches. The spacing you set is saved with the design; dots or lines are your browser's. For cross stitch, Match the cross grid in the same menu lays the grid on the crosses' cells, one cell and ten (Cross stitch).

View ▸ Hoop template lays the plastic template that comes with a hoop over the design: a cross through the centre with a tick every 5 mm (every quarter inch in inches), so you place a design on screen as you will on the fabric.

Guides and snapping

Pull a guide out of a ruler: press on the top ruler and drag down for a horizontal guide, or on the left ruler and drag right for a vertical one. With the Select tool, drag a guide to move it, and drag it back onto its ruler to remove it. Guides are kept with the design, so they are there again when you open it; they are never sewn and never exported.

Switch on View ▸ Snap to grid, guides and hoop centre to have points click into place. The points you draw with the pen, polygon, rectangle, ellipse and shape tools, the nodes you drag, the ends of a measurement and a guide you place then snap to the grid, the guides and the hoop's centre lines, whichever is nearest. A shape you move also lines up with the hoop's edges and with the other shapes. Snapping is off until you switch it on, and the design keeps the setting.

• Shift keeps lines and turns at neat angles: pen and polygon segments, the rotate handle and the Measure line go in 15° steps. With the rectangle and ellipse tools it makes a square or a circle. A shape you move, or a node you drag, stays on the line it started on — across, or up and down, whichever way you have moved further.

• Alt (⌥ on a Mac) draws a rectangle, an ellipse or a shape from the centre, outward from where you pressed. With Shift as well, it is a square or a circle about that point. Held while you drag a selection's corner or side handle, it resizes the selection about its centre.

• While snapping is on, hold Alt to put a pen or polygon point, a node you drag, a guide or the end of a measurement exactly where the pointer is. The rectangle, ellipse and shape tools keep Alt for drawing from the centre.

Measuring

The Measure tool (M) reads a line's length, its angle and how far it runs across and down, in the unit sizes are shown in. A measured line is a reference line, too: with shapes selected, the buttons under the reading use it.

• Scale to length makes the selection, in proportion, as long as the line in the line's direction — measure across the space on a pocket, and the design fits it.

• Turn to angle turns the selection by the line's angle: what lay level then runs along the line, so a text can follow a slanted edge.

• Mirror across mirrors the selection across the line.

Each is one step to undo; locked shapes and catalogue designs stay as they are.

Selecting, copying and locking

• Edit ▸ Select same ▸ Thread selects everything sewn in the selection's thread, as a body or an outline; Stitch type everything sewn as the selection's type — Satin column and Satin (area) count as different types. Both are on the right-click menu too.

• Alt-click (⌥-click on a Mac) reaches what lies under other shapes: each Alt-click selects the next object under the pointer, from the top down, and back to the top after the last. Alt+Shift-click adds the next one to the selection.

• Alt-drag a shape to drag a copy of it; the shape stays where it was.

• Ctrl+D (⌘D on a Mac) duplicates the selection. Move or turn the copy, and Ctrl+D again makes the next copy with the same step — a row of motifs, or, with a turn, a ring of them round a point.

• Lock a shape from the right-click menu or with Ctrl+Shift+L (⌘⇧L): it can no longer be picked or moved on the canvas. Right-click a locked shape to unlock it; Ctrl+Shift+L unlocks a selection that is all locked, and Object ▸ Unlock all unlocks every shape. Ctrl+Alt+L (⌥⌘L) does the same as Ctrl+Shift+L — use it in Safari, which opens its sidebar for ⌘⇧L.

• Shift on a side handle slants a path, a polygon or a line. Rectangles, ellipses, texts and catalogue designs could not keep a slant, so on them Shift resizes as ever. A star or another built-in shape keeps its turn when you change its points.

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.

In the Layers panel, Shift-click selects the rows from the one you clicked last, and Ctrl-click (⌘-click) adds or drops one. Drag one of the selected rows and the others come along, to the place and the layer you drop them on.

Editing nodes

Double-click a path, polygon or line to edit its nodes. A rectangle or an ellipse becomes a path when you double-click it — the notice line says so, and one undo turns it back. Its angle goes into its points, as in Inkscape's Object to Path; its stitch settings, colours and place in the sewing order stay. Object ▸ Convert to path does the same for every selected shape at once. Click a node to select it, Shift-click or Ctrl-click (⌘-click on a Mac) to add more or drop one, or drag a frame around them on empty canvas. Drag a selected node and every selected node moves with it; Delete removes them. The arrow keys move the selected nodes 0.5 mm, 5 mm with Shift, and Tab and Shift+Tab step to the next or the previous node.

While you edit nodes, the tool bar shows the node operations, the right-click menu offers those that apply to the selected nodes, and Path ▸ Nodes lists them all (greyed while no nodes are edited):

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

• Split into objects at nodes: breaks the path in the same way, and each piece becomes an object of its own, with the same thread and settings — Brother's Split at Point.

• 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.

Outside node editing, the right-click menu of a line or a shape offers Close path and Open path, which takes the closing segment out again.

A machine file's stitches, and stitches you converted, have needle points instead of nodes: a double-click shows them as dots, a drag on empty canvas draws a lasso round them, and the bar offers what applies to stitches — Touch up a machine file.

Each node is a corner, a smooth or a symmetric node: a corner is drawn as a diamond, the other two as a square. Drag one handle of a smooth node and the other stays in line with it; of a symmetric node, the other mirrors it; a corner's handles move each on its own. The tool bar's buttons, the right-click menu and the keys Shift+C, Shift+S and Shift+Y — Inkscape's, and only while you edit nodes — set the type of the selected nodes. A corner pulls its handles in to a sharp point; pull new ones out to curve it again. Cusp node (keeps the curve), Brother's To Cusp, frees a smooth node's handles without moving them: drag one, and the other stays where it was. Smooth and symmetric put the handles in line, and make them from the neighbouring nodes where the node has none. NextStitch reads the type from the handles, so a smooth node whose handles are of one length is symmetric too.

Cutting shapes with the knife

The Knife (K, also Path ▸ Knife) cuts filled shapes and lines 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 and lines, or with nothing selected every shape the line crosses completely and every line it crosses. 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 takes a band of that width along the whole line out: between the pieces it leaves a gap — clearance, for example between an ear and a head sewn in different directions — and drawn along an edge it takes a strip off that edge. A line that only reaches into a shape then cuts a notch. At 0 the pieces meet along the line. Below 0 they overlap by that much instead: the pieces are sewn largest first, and each reaches across the line under the ones sewn after it, which cover it and keep their edge on the line, so no fabric shows along the cut. The curves are kept: only the cut itself is straight. Shapes drawn with arcs, as imported logos often are, are cut like any other.

A running stitch, a bean, zigzag or manual line and a satin drawn as a centre line are cut where the line crosses them, each piece a line of its own; with a cut width, the stretch inside the band goes. A satin column made of two rails is not cut: the knife leaves it as it is and says so.

Building shapes from overlapping ones

The Shape Builder (X, also Path ▸ Shape Builder) 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. Where a cut runs through a shape, the piece sewn earlier reaches Overlap (0.3 mm unless you change it in the tool bar) under the one sewn after it, as Remove overlaps does.

Arrange, cut out and combine puts the Knife, the Shape Builder and the Path menu's commands side by side with Combine, Break apart and the commands that turn lines and outlines into satin.

Offset, simplify and holes

The Path menu has four more commands for the selected shapes. Each is one step to undo, and catalogue designs and text are left as they are.

• Offset… adds parallel copies at a Distance, as many Copies as you ask for, Inside, Outside or Both — an echo line round a motif, a border at a distance, a placement line. The corners are round, since a sharp offset corner sews as a spike. Your shape stays as it is; each copy is an outline with its fill off, sewn with the shape's own Outline or, without one, a thin automatic outline that sews a running stitch in the shape's thread. They are sewn right after the shape, from the innermost to the outermost, and are selected afterwards, so one change in the Stitch bar restyles them all. A line has no inside: it gets a parallel line on each side, sewn as the line is. The dialog keeps your values until you reload the page.

• Simplify… thins out a lumpy outline — a trace, an import that came as hundreds of short lines — so it sews smoothly. Corners stay where they are, and the stretches between them become smooth curves. Precision is how far the new outline may stray from the old one, 0.2 mm to begin with; the dialog shows how many points the selection has now and after, as you type.

• Remove holes fills a shape in: its holes are dropped, and so is anything inside them.

• Fill holes puts a patch of its own in each hole, with the shape's stitch settings, sewn right after it. Each patch reaches the Path menu's Kept overlap (0.3 mm unless you change it) under the hole's edge, so no fabric shows at the seam. The shape keeps its holes: filled in, it would be sewn across them and the patch on top of that again. Delete the patches and the holes are back.

Object ▸ Add outline draws a new outline round the selection — overlapping shapes as one, a whole text with its counters — with no fill and an Outline outside it, sewn last; Stitch settings opens on its Outline tab. It follows what it goes round: change the text or move a shape and the outline is drawn again. Under Rings it takes up to three rings, a Spacing apart, for a double or triple outline. Each ring is drawn with a fine seam along its edges, as it reads sewn: the first lies right on what it goes round, in the same thread, and still shows as a ring of its own. Object ▸ Break apart makes it a fixed shape, and so does editing the outline itself.

Object ▸ Add frame… lays a frame round the selection instead — a circle, a shield, a rounded rectangle and more, as a satin line with no fill — that stays where it is when the selection moves (Add a frame round a selection). Object ▸ Envelope… bends the selected shapes into an arch, a wave, a fan or a flag, as text can be bent (Bend shapes in an envelope).

Converting text, shapes and stitches

Object ▸ Convert changes what an object is, each in one step to undo:

• Text to shapes makes a text, a lettering or a monogram ordinary shapes where its letters stand, in their colours and with their stitch settings, so you can edit their nodes, cut them with the knife or combine them. The words are final then: they can no longer be edited, and neither can a fit to a length, letters you adjusted by hand or a names list the text had — the line below the canvas names what went. See Convert text and stitches.

• To stitches freezes the selected shapes or text as stitches, exactly as the design sews them now: with its fabric applied, in its sewing order, with the ties, trims and stops. A text or a group is converted whole, and an object sewn in two colours becomes one stitch object per colour. What it costs: a frozen object can no longer be restyled. It has no stitch type or settings any more, only its stitches, which are sewn as they are — like a machine file's, they move, turn, mirror and take another thread, and single stitches can be moved, added or deleted (Touch up a machine file), but resizing one by more than 10 % is flagged, since its stitch count stays the same. Convert at the end, when the shapes are as you want them.

• Stitches to shapes… traces stitches — a machine file's, or ones you froze — back into shapes you can restyle: Change a machine file.

Zooming

The zoom bar at the bottom right of the canvas and the View menu zoom in and out, to the selection, to the whole design, to the hoop and to 100 %. Settings ▸ Calibrate screen… makes 100 % true size: hold a bank card against the screen, drag the box until it is as wide as the card, and save. At 100 % the design on screen is then as large as it will sew. The calibration belongs to that screen and browser; on another screen, calibrate again. The keys are Inkscape's:

They work while the canvas has the keys — not while you type in a field or a dialog is open.

Click the percentage in the zoom bar to type a zoom: 250 and Enter zooms to 250 % about the middle of the view. Hold Z and drag a box to zoom to it; a click with Z held zooms in one step there. Let go of Z and the tool you had is still the tool.

Showing only the selection

View ▸ Show only selection (Shift+S — except while you edit nodes, where it makes them smooth — also in the canvas's right-click menu) dims everything else on the canvas, out of reach of a click, and the Simulator sews the selection alone — in the order the whole design sews it. Nothing in the design changes: it is a view, and it is not saved. Show all at the bottom left of the canvas, Esc or Shift+S again bring the rest back.