
Ink/stitch: an Inkscape extension for machine embroidery design - buovjaga
http://inkstitch.org/
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MBCook
Fantastic. There aren’t many programs, they tend to be Windows only, and
they’re VERY expensive.

I remember Linus writing a blog post about this exact problem. Seems it was in
2010.

[http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2010/01/embroidery-
gaah....](http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2010/01/embroidery-
gaah.html?m=1)

~~~
reacweb
Linus's software is installed on all the computers of my house so that preview
of .pes files works everywhere. It is not as pretty as commercial software's
preview. Does someone have an improved fork ? How commercial software achieve
to give volume feeling to their embroidery previews ?

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UncleEntity
Finally...someone took the time to do something I'm much too lazy to do
myself. Mom's all into embroidery and I want the GD dancing bears on the back
of one of my hats but all the free software kind of sucks/is abandoned.

I do have some ideas for a fill algorithm based on origami complex fold rule
thingies that I think would be interesting, especially the curved folding
algorithm[0]. I also think the 6(?) folding rules would be a good start for
laying down the fill paths following the outline of complex shapes.

Perhaps someday I'll explore this, depends on how bad I want the dancing bears
I suppose...

[0][http://graphics.stanford.edu/~niloy/research/folding/folding...](http://graphics.stanford.edu/~niloy/research/folding/folding_sig_08.html)

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ZeroGravitas
Some photos of real life output of this process would be a good addition to
the page.

I'm kind of vaguely intrigued by the whole idea, but unlikely to run out and
buy a machine. Some photos that show what's possible could tip me over the
edge.

The manufacturer has some photos on their site where you can buy e.g. Toy
Story patterns, but a) they're not created via this software, b) they don't
actually show you them on a backpack or whatever in real life, just the
design.

~~~
nickthegreek
found some photos:

[https://github.com/lexelby/inkstitch/tree/master/images/patc...](https://github.com/lexelby/inkstitch/tree/master/images/patches)

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V2hLe0ThslzRaV2
Anyone know if this the best "consumer-level" machine for this sort of stuff?

[https://www.amazon.com/Brother-SE400-Combination-
Computerize...](https://www.amazon.com/Brother-SE400-Combination-Computerized-
Sewing/dp/B003AVMZA4)

If so, what would be the next likely step up?

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
The SE400 isn't bad but the hoop size is a bit limiting. Beware that Brother
intentionally slows down its cheaper machines but they are still quite usable.
They also intentionally limit the clearance under the arm of their cheaper
machines which can be frustrating with conventional sewing.

I would recommend picking up an "obsolete" home embroidery machine. Models
that were top of the line 10+ years ago can be had for a steal and most have
seen little use. That will require sacrificing USB connectivity but you can
get a more capable machine in the end.

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vages
Page rendering peculiarity in IOS Firefox: The content shrinks about 5%
whenever my finger touches the screen.

~~~
MBCook
I found that really odd and distracting too.

(Safari on iOS, so same rendering engine)

~~~
0xabe
I came to read the comments because I was sure the page rendering on iOS would
be just as big a topic as the topic itself. If not bigger.

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throwaway2016a
This is awesome. I wrote come basic view / transform embroider software back
in the 90s but nowhere near this.

Mostly just used to flip designs upside down and stuff like that.

I remember the commercial software my employer was using was something like
$5k per computer per year.

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rambojazz
Does this tool work with some embroidery machine? In other words, can we think
of "shareable" designs that people can exchange and embroider their own
clothes from a local machine, only by using Inkscape?

~~~
MBCook
It seems it uses Embroidermodder under the hood. That supports 45 different
formats, which are listen on the Wikipedia page.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embroidermodder#Embroidermod...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embroidermodder#Embroidermodder_2_Features)

~~~
yourapostasy
lexelby addresses the question, "why not just use Embroidermodder?":

"In theory, this project was going to be exactly what I wanted. In practice,
it never got funded on Kickstarter and it’s largely incomplete."

lexelby also describes what exactly was used from the Embroidermodder2
project:

"...it contains a really awesome core library that knows pretty much every
machine embroidery format and how to convert between them. I use it to convert
the CSV files that ink/stitch outputs into the PES files..."

This is tangentially interesting for me, because in one of my pursuits, I want
to fabricate a little over a hundred, uniquely-worded "Remove Before
Flight"-style-streamers [1], and would continue to create them at a constant,
reduced frequency after the initial run. The custom embroidery industry
doesn't seem to cater to that kind of use case; all the vendors I visited
online want multiple orders per design, and have high setup costs per design.

That made it expensive enough that it is worth it to me to purchase an entry-
level embroidery machine like the Brother SE400 and have at it myself with the
built-in fonts. But ink/stitch seems ideal if I ever extend my use case (which
is just crank out some sans serif text with blaze orange orange thread onto
some thick black fabric) in the future to include some simple graphics.
Learning to re-hoop (since most of my streamers will be a foot or longer)
seems tricky, though.

[1]
[http://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages/ps/coversaircraft_remove...](http://www.aircraftspruce.com/pages/ps/coversaircraft_remove/nelsonproducts2.php)

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dh-g
Is there a embroidery equivalent to 3d printings
[https://www.thingiverse.com/](https://www.thingiverse.com/) ?

~~~
WorldMaker
Etsy has a large market of embroidery patterns. That's often the first place I
search when looking for something.

Also, a subtle quibble, but embroidery is the original 3D printing. Should
just call the newer stuff plastic embroidery. ;)

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unhammer
related: [http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/embroidery-
design-o...](http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/embroidery-design-on-
linux-now-possible-with-thred)

~~~
buovjaga
The code was uploaded to GitHub later:
[https://github.com/thinkuped/thred](https://github.com/thinkuped/thred)

