Editor Toolbar
Tools for selecting, measuring, drawing, viewing, and playback.
Editor Toolbar
The toolbar is perhaps the most important component in the entire editor. It's where all the magic happens and it's what allows you to bring your designs to life. In this page, we'll go over each tool in depth and while there may be some tools you use more often than others, they are all very important.
Now, let's go over each tool from left to right.
Select
Shortcut: S The select tool is how you select different objects and move things around. You simply place your cursor over any visible part of a shape, click your mouse down, and bam it's selected.
Drag select While in select, if you hold your mouse down over any portion of the canvas that isn't already selected and drag your mouse across, you'll see a transparent blue rectangle appear and when you let go of the mouse, it will select anything that falls inside.
Right click You can right click while in select to bring up a contextual menu with a variety of options like copy, cut, paste, transparency, moving layers around, hiding the grid, showing needle points, all sorts of stuff!
Pan
Shortcut: spacebar
Pan is one way of moving around the canvas. It allows you click any point on the canvas and drag the screen around.
Important note: If you click the pan button, the only way to exit it is to click it again, like a toggle. You can also hold spacebar down at anytime to enter pan mode, releasing it ends pan mode
Measure
Shortcut: M
The measure tool will allow you measure any distance on the canvas. You use it by entering measure mode and clicking any point in the canvas and moving your mouse around, you'll see a distance appear in both imperial and metric measurements.
It's very useful for double checking distances, stitch density, or scaling your design.
Open Shape
Shortcut: 1
The open shape tool is how you draw an open shape in Ember. You'll need to plot at least two points and click enter to complete the shape.
Alternatively, you can click on the first point you drew to convert it to a closed shape and complete the shape.
Left click Left clicking will plot "straight" points, which will be made obvious by the tiny blue square that appears on the canvas.
Right click Right clicking will plot "curved" points, allowing you to draw smooth curves across any distance. If you find yourself clicking a bunch of straight points around a curve, try plotting curved points instead.
Closed Shape
Shortcut: 2
The closed shape tool is how you draw an closed shape in Ember. You'll need to plot at least three points and click enter to complete the shape. Completing the shape will automatically draw a segment between your first point and your last.
Alternatively, you can click on the first point you drew to complete the shape.
Left click Left clicking will plot "straight" points, which will be made obvious by the tiny blue square that appears on the canvas.
Right click Right clicking will plot "curved" points, allowing you to draw smooth curves across any distance. If you find yourself clicking a bunch of straight points around a curve, try plotting curved points instead.
Circle
Shortcut: 3
The circle tool allows you to draw perfect circles without going through much hassle. You start by plotting one point, this will be the center of your circle. The next point you plot will define the size of the circle and will also complete it.
Rectangle
Shortcut: 4
The rectangle tool allows you to draw perfect rectangles without going through much hassle. You start by plotting one point, this will be one corner of your rectangle. The next point you plot will be the opposing corner.
Pen
Shortcut: 5
The pen tool allows you to draw any continous line, like a pen, and on mouse up it will complete the shape for you. It will also handle interpolating both straight and curved nodes along the line, allowing easily control and manipulation after drawing.
Satin Blocks
Shortcut: 6
Satin blocks are an extremely important tool if you want to elevate your design to the next level. It allows you to draw satin fills of varying angle and width, it's incredibly powerful and especially useful in lettering.
It works by drawing "strips" that are composed like point, counterpoint, point, counterpoint, and so on.
Stitch Player
Clicking the stitch player button will enter playback mode, where you'll see a simulated stitch out of your design in real time. You can scrub back and forth using the slider, and adjust speed by clicking on the speed multiplier. Clicking the "X" will end playback mode
Realistic View
This button will toggle between realistic and unrealstic view. This will give you an accurate view of where your stitches will land and what the output may look like. Keep in mind though, just because it looks good in realistic view that doesn't guarantee success. Density, fabric, and other factors do not show through on the realistic view, only stitch placement.