What is a VP3 file?

Getting it onto the machine

USB stick, root folder. Series: Designer, Epic.

How the file is built

VP3 writes the length of each block before the block itself, so nothing can be written until it is finished. Our writer builds every block in memory and then measures it – a length that is off by one byte makes the whole file unreadable.

Colours

Each colour block carries its own name and count, so the machine can tell you «thread 2 of 5» while it runs.

What goes wrong with a VP3 file

• VP3 is boxes inside boxes, and each box carries its own length in front of it – in big-endian, unlike every other machine format here. A length that is off by one byte makes the whole file unreadable, not slightly wrong.
• The text inside is UTF-16BE, two bytes a letter. A name with an accent written as one byte shifts every length after it.
• VP3 has no jump. The machine simply travels to the next stitch, so a jump is written as a trim, and the travel sits in the length of the stitch after it. Write a jump as an ordinary stitch and the machine sews a thread straight across the mark.

If your machine is not listed

Use DST. Every commercial machine reads it, and most home machines will too – it is the format the trade falls back on. The stitches are identical in all seven; only the wrapper differs, so «which format?» is a question about your machine and never about quality.

Why make it here

• You see the whole mark before you pay – every stitch, at the size you asked for. If it is not right, do not buy it.
• Nobody touches the file afterwards. What is on screen is what the machine gets, and it is worked out in seconds, not in a day.
• The same stitches come out in all seven formats. Change your machine and you do not start over – you pick another format.
• From $0.40 a file on a yearly plan. Studio’s first month is $9 for 20 files, then $29 a month – cancel any time.

Drop a logo, look at it closely, and take the VP3 only if it is right.

What you can send in