What is a XXX file?

Getting it onto the machine

USB stick, root folder. Futura series.

How the file is built

The header counts records, not stitches: a jump and a colour change each count as one, the same as a stitch. Count only the stitches and the file opens with the design cut short.

Colours

The palette is written into the header, so the machine shows the thread order up front.

What goes wrong with a XXX file

• The header counts RECORDS, not stitches: jumps and colour changes are counted too. A file that says 8,000 may be 7,400 stitches and 600 moves.
• y is written inverted. A file built with the wrong sign comes out mirrored top to bottom, and it looks perfectly plausible until it is sewn.
• The header is 256 bytes and almost all of it is zero. Only the record count, the thread count and the frame are actually filled in.

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 XXX only if it is right.

What you can send in