How to Use the Sequence Manager: Manage Object Sequence and Color Grouping

The Sequence Manager is located at the top right edge of your design area. It provides a visual representation of your embroidery design’s stitch order and offers an easy way to organize, edit, and optimize your production workflow.

Below is a comprehensive guide to mastering the Sequence Manager and optimizing your embroidery sequence.

1. Manual Sequencing

By default, eXPerience 8 operates in Manual mode, giving you complete control over the embroidery sequence.

1. Locate the Sequence Manager on the upper right side of your screen.
2. Observe the numeric value next to each icon, which dictates the sewing order. Objects positioned higher in the list will be embroidered first.
3. Click and drag any design icon to your desired position in the list to instantly change the sequence.
4. Scroll through the manager to view different shapes and identify whether an object is a Fill or an Outline.

Useful Tip: When you delete an object, the software automatically selects the next object in the sequence. This keeps your focus on the current position and saves valuable production time!

2. Using the Auto-Sequence Tool

If you prefer the software to intelligently determine the sequence based on built-in optimization strategies, you can use the Auto-Sequence feature.

1. Click the Auto-sequence button located on the top toolbar.
2. Choose your preferred optimization rule in the “Optimization Strategy” section (e.g., selecting “Large to Small” will instruct the software to embroider larger objects first).
3. Apply the Auto-sequence.
4. Switch to Slow redraw to verify the changes. You will see the objects are now grouped by color and stitched according to your chosen strategy.

Useful Tip: If you want to automatically sequence your design WITHOUT permanently trimming overlapping objects, ensure the Auto-trim overlapping objects option is disabled in your Optimizer options before applying Auto-sequence. If left checked, the overlapping parts will be permanently trimmed to achieve the desired result.

Once Auto-sequence is applied, the software automatically reverts to Manual mode so you can make fine adjustments.

3. Selecting Multiple Objects

For complex designs, you will often need to select multiple icons at once.

• Add or Remove Items: Hold the Ctrl key and click on individual sequence icons to add them to your selection or remove them.
• Select a Range: Hold the Shift key, click the first icon you want, scroll to the last object, and click it. All in-between sequence icons will be selected.
• Combine Shortcuts: You can select a series using the Shift key, then hold the Ctrl key to add or remove specific non-sequential icons from that group.
• Selection Menu: Right-click on any selected sequence icon to access quick commands like Select All, Select None, or Inverse Selection.

4. Advanced Moving and Organization

Dragging and dropping can be difficult in designs with hundreds of objects. Use these right-click menu options for easier organization:

1. Select the object(s) you wish to move.
2. Scroll to the destination area in the Sequence Manager.
3. Right-click on the destination sequence icon.
4. Choose Move Before or Move After to instantly drop your selected items precisely where you need them.

You can also use these specialized right-click commands on selected items:

• Join Together: Select multiple non-sequential icons, right-click, and choose this option to instantly group them next to each other.
• Reverse: Select two or more icons, right-click, and choose this to flip their current embroidery order.
• Hide/Show Item: Use this toggle to temporarily hide specific objects. This is highly useful for clearing up your view when working with heavily layered designs.

5. Applying Special Machine Functions

You can instruct your embroidery machine to perform specific actions directly from the Sequence Manager.

1. Right-click on a specific object in the sequence list.
2. Navigate to the Special function menu.
3. Select Trim or Stop.
4. Set the Trim function to Auto, On, or Off depending on your machine’s requirements.

Grouping by Color

To condense your workspace, you can group individual objects by their thread color.

1. Locate the grouping icon at the top of the Sequence Manager (it defaults to showing separate icons).
2. Click the icon once to switch to the palette icon. The design parts will now collapse and group by color.
3. Observe the series of numeric values next to the grouped icon, which indicates the sequence of the items contained within.
4. Click the palette icon again to revert to the fully expanded separate icons view.

Useful Tip: The “Group by color” function will never group Fill shapes and Outline shapes together, even if they share the exact same thread color.

Customizing the Sequence Manager Window

The Sequence Manager is a permanent fixture in your workspace and cannot be completely closed, but it can be adjusted to fit your needs.

• Resize: Hover your mouse over the left edge of the Sequence Manager window until a double arrow appears. Click and drag left or right to make the panel larger or smaller. Note that shrinking it too much will hide the sequence numbers and colors.
• Minimize/Maximize: Click the pointing arrow icon on the panel’s header to minimize the manager out of the way. Click the same arrow (now pointing the opposite direction) to maximize it again.