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Understanding Embroidery FilesWhen I first started doing machine embroidery, I wasn’t sure what embroidery files were. I didn’t understand the difference between them. Let’s see if I can make your learning process a little easier than mine was. Each embroidery machine has a certain format that it can read. It’s much like any other computer program you use every day. The embroidery files have to be organized in a way that your machine can understand. The file extension says that particular file has been written for a particular style, brand or model of machine. Some of the Most Common Embroidery File Types
This is just a basic list of machine brands and some of the common file types. Some brands are listed multiple times because one of their machine models use that type of file. Just because your machine brand is by a file type, doesn’t necessarily mean your model uses that type. Read your paperwork that came with your machine, or do some research on the internet to be sure. When you get your embroidery machine, the paperwork or instructional disk that comes with it should tell you which types of files it can read. Most embroidery machines only understand one certain format, while other machines can read many different types. If your machine doesn’t have any information with it (or you put it in that “I won't forget where this is” place), research your brand and model on the internet. This will usually turn up a quick answer to which format to choose. There are many different types of conversion software to convert your embroidery files from one format to the other. Some are better than others. Some are free, and some can be fairly expensive. My particular design software is a “whole package” deal. It lets me organize, re-size, convert and digitize my files, all within the same program. (I use Designer Studio 3D from Viking.) I have tried a couple of free file conversion and re-sizing programs I found on a free designs site that screamed “Use Me!” I haven’t been very satisfied with them. Most of the time I get an error, or end up downloading corrupt files that I can’t use. (Which is SO frustrating!) I’ve ended up just downloading whatever file format the design is offered in, and converting it later if it turns out my machine can’t read them. Sometimes when you download embroidery designs from the internet, they come in a zip file. The zip file can contain a bunch of different files. They are usually just different machine formats of the same design file. Once you know which type of embroidery file your machine uses, you can ignore all the other ones and only open or download your desired type. When possible, only choose the particular file type for your machine, it really cuts down on useless duplicate designs. And trust me, once you start collecting them, you won’t be able to stop!! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Want to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Return to Embroidered Gifts
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