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Settings

Settings is where you tell Boldbobbin about your machines, hoops, threads and screen, and choose the defaults new designs and new objects start from. Look here when something behaves the same way in every design and you want to change it once.

Open with Settings → Preferences… (Ctrl/Cmd+,). The dialog has eight tabs: Appearance & Units, Parameters, Machine & Hoops, Calibrate Display, Threads, Keyboard Shortcuts, Graphics, and Privacy (new in v1.3.3). Most changes apply when you click Save; a few (language, machines) apply immediately. Reset to defaults restores the form to defaults.

Appearance & Units​

  • Theme: a grid of theme swatches under Light and Dark, plus your Custom themes. Customize… / Edit theme… opens the theme editor. See Customize the theme. Default: Boldbobbin.
  • Unit system: Metric (mm) or Imperial (in). Default: Metric.
  • Language: Deutsch, English, Español, Français, Italiano, 日本語 (Japanese), Português (Brasil) (Brazilian Portuguese), 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese), and 繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese). Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese are new in v1.4.0. The choice applies live so you can judge a translation before committing to it, and Cancel puts it back. On a fresh install Boldbobbin starts in your system's language if it has one. See Languages.
  • Fabric preset: Cotton, Polyester, Denim, Knit / Jersey, Organza / Sheer, Felt, or Vinyl / Faux Leather (new in v1.3.0). Sets the default new projects start with; each project remembers its own fabric preset from then on (change it per-project from the header's Fabric list, next to Machine and Hoop, which also shows what each preset assumes and offers Calibrate for my setup…). Default: Cotton. For example, if you mostly sew T-shirts and polos, pick Knit / Jersey here so every new project starts with stretch-fabric settings. See Stitch types.

Parameters​

The sections appear in this order.

  • Connection: how Boldbobbin treats the gap between consecutive same-color stitch blocks, and how a connected gap is actually stitched.

    • Auto-connect below (mm): default 3. Gaps this short are bridged with real running stitches.
    • Auto-trim below (mm): default 10. Gaps between the two thresholds become jumps; anything longer is trimmed.
    • Running stitch length (mm): default 2, minimum 0.1. The stitch length used for those bridges. Lower it to split each bridge into more, shorter stitches; a very short gap is always one straight stitch. The bridges are real stitches in your exported machine file.

    For example, with the defaults, a 2 mm gap between two letters of the same color is sewn as a short run, a 6 mm gap becomes a jump, and a 15 mm gap is trimmed. If your machine leaves long jump threads you have to snip by hand, lower Auto-trim below so more of those gaps are trimmed instead.

  • Boolean cleanup → Weld tolerance (mm): when a Union or Intersection (see Tools) leaves a hairline sliver where shapes shared a border, borders and slivers narrower than this are dissolved automatically. Default 0.1 mm (below stitch resolution, so visible geometry doesn't change), maximum 5. Set to 0 to disable the cleanup, or raise it if a border that should merge still leaves a gap.

  • Autosave → Interval (seconds): default 30, range 5–600.

  • Stitch cache → Memory budget (MB): keeps generated stitches in memory so undo, redo, and reopening a design don't have to regenerate them every time, trading a little RAM for a snappier history. Default 32, up to 1024. Larger values remember more of your edit history; set to 0 to turn the cache off.

  • Ties on new objects: ties are the small back-and-forth stitches that anchor the thread so it can't pull out. Every object carries its own tie settings; what you set here is only the value a newly drawn object starts with, and changing it never touches an object you already made. Edit an existing object's ties in its Properties panel or from the essentials bar. See Ties.

  • Snapping: aligns objects you draw or drag to other objects, the grid, and the hoop. Default: off. Hold Ctrl or Cmd during a gesture to flip it for that one action.

    • When on, choose which targets it aligns to: Align to grid, Align to hoop, Align to other objects (each independent, all on by default).
    • Show alignment guides: draw the guide lines and × markers that show what you lined up with. Turn it off to keep snapping active but hide the overlay. Default: on.

Machine & Hoops​

Changes on this tab and on Keyboard Shortcuts save immediately, and Reset to defaults leaves them (along with display calibration, custom themes, and the panel layout) alone.

Add the machines and hoops you own, so the header's Hoop list offers the hoops you actually have. + Add machine offers two ways under How to add the machine:

  • From catalog: pick a Brand and Model, then check the hoops under Hoops you own.
  • Custom machine: name a machine that isn't in the catalog and Create machine.

For either, + Add custom hoop defines a hoop by name, width and height (mm), and shape (Rectangle or Oval). Set a default machine and hoop. See Choose a hoop. Changes here save immediately.

Calibrate Display​

Shows your current display PPI and whether it's Calibrated or Using fallback (96 PPI). Re-calibrate display… opens the calibration dialog. See Calibrate your display.

Threads​

Pick the thread brand charts you own; these are the threads Match automatically uses, and they come first in the color picker's thread list (which can still search every chart). Empty = a generic palette. See Threads and palettes.

Keyboard Shortcuts​

Remap command shortcuts and pick a Preset: Illustrator (default), Affinity Designer, or Inkscape. Click Change on a command and press the keys; Unbind, Reset, and Reset all to defaults manage them. See Customizing shortcuts.

Graphics​

How smooth the canvas looks on this computer. Higher settings look smoother but ask more of your computer; lower settings run faster on older machines. These settings change only what you see on screen, never what is sewn.

  • Quality preset: Low (no anti-aliasing, fastest), Balanced (the default), or High (smoothest). "Custom" appears if your advanced settings match no preset. For example, if panning and zooming feel sluggish on an older laptop, try Low.
  • Advanced
    • Anti-aliasing: None, MSAA, or SSAA. Smooths the jagged edges of stitches on screen; SSAA is the smoothest and the most demanding.
    • Stitch width: 0.6–2.0 px; how wide stitches are drawn on screen. Applies live.

Privacy​

New in v1.3.3. Share anonymous usage data decides whether Boldbobbin reports which features are used and how smoothly the app runs, so the team can keep improving it. It is on by default.

  • What it covers: everything the app reports about its use, including how smoothly it runs. It never includes your designs, your file names, or anything you type.
  • Switch it off and click Save, and no usage data is sent from this device. Turning it off also deletes the random identifier stored on this device.
  • The choice belongs to this device, like the rest of Settings, and Reset to defaults leaves it as you set it, so it never switches reporting back on for you.

For example, if your workshop computer must not send anything beyond what you do on purpose (saving to the cloud, signing in), open Settings → Privacy, untick Share anonymous usage data, and click Save.

Chat settings​

Bobby's chat (new in v1.4.0) keeps its settings in the Chat panel, not in this dialog: how much it asks, your credits, and starting a new conversation. See Design with Bobby.

Languages​

Boldbobbin speaks nine languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese (Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese are new in v1.4.0). On a fresh install it picks yours from your operating system rather than starting everyone in English, and language is the first screen of the setup wizard, above the welcome text. There is also a switcher in the home screen's footer, next to Settings.

The translation reaches the whole app, not just the panels: menus, tooltips, the command palette, the shortcut sheet, and right-click menus all follow the active language. Numbers and dates are written the way your language writes them, so a German, Italian, Spanish or Brazilian Portuguese reader sees 1.234,5 where an English reader sees 1,234.5.

  • Portuguese, any region: a device set to Portuguese, whether from Brazil, Portugal or elsewhere, opens in Português (Brasil) rather than English. As of v1.4.0.
  • Japanese on Windows: Japanese text is drawn with Japanese fonts, so kanji and kana keep their Japanese shapes.

A few things stay in English on purpose:

  • Machine and thread-brand names, and the language names themselves (Deutsch stays Deutsch).
  • Palette color names, because a color's name can travel into an exported machine file as its thread name. A French user's export would otherwise carry French thread names onto someone else's machine.
  • Anything you typed yourself, such as a theme you named.
The newest screens may still be in English

The eight languages besides English cover everything up to v1.3.3, the line-art editor, the magic wand and appliqué included. A few things new in v1.4.0 are in English in every language for now:

  • the Chat panel, Bobby's buttons and labels;
  • the four new How-tos in the Tutorial menu;
  • the Text dialog's new Shape controls, for text on an arc;
  • a few messages in the advanced auto-digitize panels.

They fall back to English where a translation isn't in yet. That is expected, not a bug.

Where settings are stored​

Settings are saved on the computer you are using: in the desktop app, or in this browser on the web. They do not follow your account, so on another computer or browser you set them up again. That suits the device-specific ones anyway: Graphics, display calibration, and fabric calibrations depend on that screen and that setup. Reset to defaults leaves fabric calibrations alone; clear one from its own dialog.