Getting started

The Welcome

When you open the app, a Welcome window asks What would you like to do first? It sits in front of the hoop.

1. Click Create a new design, or click Close.
2. The Welcome closes, and you see the hoop.

The Welcome opens each time you start the app. To stop it, tick Don't show this next time before you close it. The same choices stay under Project → Help. What each card does is in Welcome and Help.

The hoop

The hoop is the page for your design. Everything you add sits on it.

1. Name. Starts as Untitled. The name becomes the file name when you save.
2. Shape. Places a ready-made piece on the hoop.
3. Objects. Lists everything on this hoop. Empty until you add something.
4. Simulator. Plays the stitch path. Unavailable until the hoop has stitches.

A new design uses the 4 in x 4 in hoop and Cotton. The picture shows the same hoop in centimeters, 10 cm x 10 cm. Choose Settings to change hoop size, units, and fabric.

Until you select a piece, the right panel says Tap a shape in the hoop to set its thread and stitches.

If the app closed with a design still open, that design comes back instead of an empty hoop, and the status line says Brought back your last design. See Save a .breeze file.

To start another design, choose Project → New. If the current design has unsaved changes, choose Save, Don't save, or Cancel.

The window

After you add a shape, Objects lists it and the right panel shows its stitches. The picture below uses a hexagon so those areas have something in them.

1. Top bar. Project, Settings, and Library on the left. Tools in the middle: Move, Draw, Shape, Text, Import, Image. Share and Export on the right. When a piece is selected, a second row appears (Edit, Flip horizontal, and so on).
2. Objects. Every piece on the hoop. The bottom of the list sews first. The top sits in front and sews last.
3. Properties. Thread, border, and fill for the selected piece.
4. Simulator. Plays the stitch path.

The Project menu holds Recents, From Library, Font Digitizer, New, Open, Save, Save as, and Help.

Pan, −, +, and Fit (bottom right of the hoop) zoom the view. They do not change the design.

Add a shape

Shape is marked 2 in the picture of the empty hoop.

1. Click Shape. The row under the top bar shows Oval, Polygon, Star, Line, and Curve.
2. Click Oval, Polygon, or Star. The piece appears on the hoop, selected.

Objects lists the piece. The right panel shows its stitches. A new shape uses Fine line for the border and Fill off.

The right panel also says Outline or Centerline. That is covered in Centerline and outline.

Preview stitches

Simulator is marked 4, under the hoop.

1. Click Simulator.
2. Click Play. Stitches appear in the order the machine will sew them.
3. Click Close Simulator.

If Simulator is unavailable, add a shape first.

Save the design

A .breeze file is the design you reopen and keep editing. Export (next) writes a separate file for the machine.

1. Click the name field (1) and type a name, such as Demo.
2. Click the disk next to the name (2), or choose Project → Save.
3. The first save opens in the Embroidery Breeze folder in Documents. Keep it, or pick another folder.

The disk turns teal, with a dot, while there are unsaved changes. Once the design is saved, it shows a small check. After the first save, typing a new name renames the file too.

Project → Save as (⇧⌘S) writes the design to a new .breeze file, and you keep working in the new one. More in Save a .breeze file.

On iPad and Android, there is no folder to pick. The first save goes to the app's own folder.

Save and export need a license after the trial. Choose Settings to see the license on this device.

Export a machine file

Export writes a file your machine can sew. The original .breeze file stays the one you edit.

1. Click the caret next to Export.
2. Under Format, choose the format your machine uses.
3. Under Send to, click File.
4. Click Export and choose where to save the file.
5. Open that file on the machine.

Export remembers the last format. Print Preview in the same menu opens a real-size PDF of the stitches. Print that PDF at 100% (Actual Size) and tape the paper on the garment.

On iPad and iPhone, Print Preview opens the print sheet at true size. Android does not have Print Preview.

Notes

• Image is a tracing picture. It never sews.
• Project → Open opens a .breeze file. Import adds a machine file, an SVG, or another .breeze file to this hoop.
• You edit shapes and stitch settings. You do not edit needle points one by one.

Next: Welcome and Help.