How to Insert and Customize Ready-Made Shapes in eXPerience 8

This guide will walk you through the process of using, customizing, and mastering the ready-made shape tools available in your eXPerience 8 embroidery software.

1. Locating and Selecting Shapes

The first step is to find the shape tools.

1. Navigate to the main Tools Bar.
2. Look for the Shapes section.
   • Useful Tip: The icon displayed in the Shapes section will be the last shape tool you used. This allows for quick one-click access to your most frequently used shape.
3. To see all available options, hover your mouse cursor over the Shapes section icon. A flyout menu will appear.
4. The available ready-made shapes are:
   • Ellipse
   • Pie
   • Rectangle
   • Trapezoid/Parallelogram
   • Polygon
   • Star
   • QR code
5. Click on the tool you wish to use to activate it. The icon on the Tools Bar will update to your current selection.

2. Creating a Basic Shape

Once a shape tool is active, you can draw it on the canvas.

1. Click and hold the left mouse button on the design area where you want the shape to begin.
2. Drag your mouse to define the size and dimensions of the shape. You will see a live preview of the shape’s outline as you drag.
3. Release the mouse button when the shape is the desired size. The shape will be finalized with the currently selected stitch type.
4. The tool remains active, allowing you to continue creating more shapes of the same type.

Exiting the Tool When you are finished creating shapes, you can deactivate the tool in one of two ways:

• Right-click anywhere on the design canvas.
• Click on the Rectangle Selection tool.

3. Customizing Shapes

You have powerful options to customize shapes both before and after you create them.

A. Adjusting Options Before Creation

Before you draw your shape, you can set specific parameters in the Tool Options bar.

• Example: If you select the Pie shape tool, you can define the Start and Stop angle in the Tool Options bar before you click and drag. This will create a pie shape with that exact arc.

B. Applying and Changing Stitch Types

By default, any new shape you create will use the last-used stitch type. However, you can control this.

• Change After Creation: Create your shape, then select it and choose a new stitch type from the available options.
• Select Before Creation: To apply a specific stitch type from the start:
  1. First, select a stitch type from your stitch toolbar (e.g., Step Fill).
  2. Next, select your shape tool (e.g., Polygon) and draw it.
  3. The software will apply the Step Fill and may prompt you for additional information, like the stitch direction. Any subsequent shapes you draw will also use this new stitch type until you change it again.

4. Advanced Creation with Keyboard Shortcuts (Power User Tips)

Use keyboard keys while dragging to create shapes with more precision and control.

• Hold Ctrl for Proportional Sizing: Holding the Ctrl key while you drag diagonally will constrain the shape’s proportions, keeping the width and height the same. This is the easiest way to create a perfect circle (with the Ellipse tool) or a perfect square (with the Rectangle tool).
• Hold Alt for Grid Snapping: Holding the Alt key will temporarily toggle the “Snap to Grid” functionality.
  • If snapping is OFF, holding Alt will temporarily turn it ON.
  • If snapping is ON (enabled via the View menu), holding Alt will temporarily turn it OFF.
• Hold Shift for Center-Out Creation: Holding the Shift key changes the drawing behavior. Instead of drawing from one corner to the other, the shape will be drawn from the center outwards from where you first clicked.
• Combining Keys: You can combine these keys for even more power!
  • Example: Hold Ctrl + Shift while using the Ellipse tool to draw a perfect circle that expands from the center.

That’s it! By mastering these tools and techniques, you can quickly create precise and complex geometric components for your embroidery designs. In following videos, we will explore each of these shapes in greater detail.