Vectors vs. stitches

This is the central idea in Boldbobbin: you edit outlines, and Boldbobbin works out the stitches. Read this page to know when to keep a shape editable and when to freeze its stitches.

• A vector object is an editable outline: a rectangle, a pen path, a satin column, text. You can move its anchors, change its size, and change how it's filled.
• Stitches are what the machine actually sews. Boldbobbin generates stitches from a vector based on its fill type and parameters.

Vector outline

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Generated stitches

The same shape as an editable outline and as the stitches Boldbobbin generates from it. A teaching diagram, not the app renderer.

While an object stays a vector, you can keep editing it and the stitches regenerate to match. Switch the render mode to Stitch to preview the generated result at any time.

For example, make a tatami fill twice as wide and Boldbobbin fills the new area at the same density, with more stitches. Stretch a frozen stitch block the same way and its existing stitches spread apart instead.

A line-art drawing goes one step further: when you edit or resize it, not only the stitches but the thread's whole route along the lines is planned again.

Freezing stitches: convert to a block

When you select a single vector, the floating action bar offers Convert to…. The usual choices are:

• Stitch block: freezes the current stitches into a block. The toast confirms "Stitches frozen into a block." A block no longer regenerates; you edit individual stitches instead (double-click it to enter stitch-edit). Use this when you want exact, final stitches. Because a block's stitches are fixed, scaling it more than about ±20% from its original size is flagged in the Properties panel ("Scaled beyond the recommended range"): the baked stitches stretch or crowd instead of regenerating, which can reduce quality.
• Curve: for a shape with its own knobs (a rectangle, a star), keeps the outline as a plain path you can node-edit freely, without those knobs. The toast reads "Parametric metadata removed."
• Satin column: converts the shape into a satin column ("Converted to satin column.").

Text offers Geometry instead of Curve, and some objects offer other choices. The full list is in Tools.

Editing stitches directly

Double-click a stitch block to enter stitch-edit mode: select, move, insert, and delete individual stitch vertices, and change a vertex's type between Stitch, Jump, and Trim. Double-click a vector instead to enter node-edit mode and move its anchors and handles. Commit with Enter or cancel with Esc.