How to Preview Your Embroidery Stitch-Out with the Slow Redraw Tool

The Slow Redraw tool provides a realistic simulation of how your design will stitch out, allowing you to preview the entire embroidery process before sending it to your machine. This powerful feature helps you spot potential issues and see the final result of any automatic optimizations, saving you time and materials.

Step 1: Starting Slow Redraw

You can activate the Slow Redraw function in two ways:

• Click on the Slow Redraw icon on your toolbar.
• Use the keyboard shortcut: Shift + F11.

Once activated, you will see a crosshair appear at the starting point of your design.

Step 2: Controlling the Simulation

You have simple playback controls to manage the stitch-out preview:

• Play/Pause: Press the Play button or the Spacebar on your keyboard to start the simulation. The cursor will begin moving and creating the stitches.
• Resume: Press the Play button or Spacebar again to pause. When you resume, the simulation will continue from the exact point where you stopped.

Step 3: Navigating Through the Design

Use the navigation buttons on the Slow Redraw panel to move through the design with precision:

• Go to Start/End: Use the outermost buttons to jump directly to the beginning or the end of the design.
• Navigate by Object: Use the “previous object” and “next object” buttons to quickly skip between entire sections or color blocks of your design.
• Navigate Stitch by Stitch: Use the inner buttons to move forward or backward one stitch at a time for a highly detailed review.

Step 4: Customizing Your View

You can adjust the simulation to suit your preference.

• Enable “Move hoop”: By default, only the needle cursor moves. For a more realistic preview that mimics how an actual embroidery machine operates, check the “Move hoop” option. This will show the hoop moving under a stationary needle.
• Adjust Speed: You can control the simulation speed by typing a new value in the SPM (stitches per minute) field. The default is 600 SPM, but you can increase it for a faster preview or decrease it for a slower, more detailed analysis.

Step 5: Using the Color Track Bar

At the bottom of the Slow Redraw panel, you’ll see a track bar that displays the design’s color sequence.

• A handle on the bar indicates the current needle position.
• You can click and drag this handle to any point in the sequence to instantly jump to that part of the design and preview it.

Why Slow Redraw is Essential (Useful Tip)

While you are creating a design, eXPerience 8 applies several optimizations in the background, such as trimming certain objects. These changes are not always visible in the main design window.

Using Slow Redraw is the best way to see the final, optimized stitch-out exactly as the machine will sew it. This allows you to catch any potential issues, like incorrect sequencing or unwanted trims, and correct them before you ever press “start” on your embroidery machine.