Help › Getting started

Installing and running

Stitch Sprint runs on a Mac today. The Windows version is in testing: it has had far less use than the Mac app, and for now it comes as a folder with a set-up step, not an installer.

#What you need

• A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 13 Ventura or later. Stitch Sprint doesn't run on Intel Macs. To see which you have: Apple menu > About This Mac. "Chip: Apple M1" (or M2, M3, M4) is Apple silicon; "Processor: Intel" is not.
• Or, for the Windows test copy, a PC with Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit).
• An embroidery machine that reads DST, PES, JEF, EXP, XXX or U01.
• The internet to sign in. After that it works offline for up to 7 days at a time.

#Installing on a Mac

1. Download Stitch Sprint and open the download (a disk image, Stitch-Sprint-Mac.dmg). A window shows Stitch Sprint beside a shortcut to Applications.
2. Drag Stitch Sprint onto Applications. Then eject the disk image (the "Stitch Sprint" disk in Finder's sidebar); the download can go in the Trash.
3. Open it from Applications (or Launchpad). The first time, macOS may ask you to confirm that you want to open it.
4. Sign in with the email you subscribed with (during the free alpha, any email), then type the six-digit code emailed to you. See Your subscription.

There is nothing else to install. Stitch Sprint carries everything it needs inside the app.

Drag it to the Dock to keep it there.

#Installing the Windows test copy

1. Download the zip. Right-click it and choose Extract All, somewhere you will keep it, such as Documents. Don't run it from inside the zip.
2. Open the new folder and double-click Set up Stitch Sprint. If Windows says it protected your PC, choose More info, then Run anyway.
3. A black window gets Stitch Sprint ready for this PC (about a minute), puts a Stitch Sprint shortcut on your desktop and opens the app.
4. Sign in with your email and the six-digit code emailed to you.
5. From then on, open it from the shortcut on the desktop.

Keep the folder where you unzipped it: the shortcut opens Stitch Sprint from there. To remove Stitch Sprint, delete the folder and the shortcut. Your saved designs are in Documents > Stitch Sprint and stay.

If the window doesn't open, see Troubleshooting, and send us what the black window said with the log file: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Stitch Sprint\Logs\Stitch Sprint.log (paste that into File Explorer's address bar).

#Updating

Stitch Sprint doesn't update itself. When a newer version is ready, the line at the top right of the window says so: Version 0.31.0 is ready: download (the sign-in page says it too). Click it and the download opens in your browser. Hold the pointer over it to read what changed.

• On a Mac: quit Stitch Sprint, open the new download and drag the new Stitch Sprint onto Applications. Choose Replace.
• On Windows: close Stitch Sprint, unzip the new download beside the old folder and double-click Set up Stitch Sprint in the new one. The desktop shortcut then opens the new version. Delete the old folder when you're happy.

Your saved designs, settings and sign-in stay as they are. To learn about new versions the app asks our website when it opens, and a few times a day after that. It sends nothing about you or your designs: only the request itself, which says which version of Stitch Sprint is asking.

#Opening files from Finder (Mac)

• .design files: double-click.
• DST and other stitch files, and artwork: right-click > Open With > Stitch Sprint, or drop them on the Dock icon. A program that is already the default for DST files (StitchBuddy, say) stays the default.

#Menus and keys

On the hoop: arrow keys nudge the selected piece 0.5 mm (Shift 5 mm, Option 0.1 mm), Delete removes it, Space plays or pauses the stitch player, Esc closes the player or a single-layer view.

Quitting asks first when the design has changes that haven't been saved.

#Getting help

• Help in the app's menu bar, or the Help button at the top right of the window, opens this Help center in your browser. It comes with the app, so it works without internet and always matches the version you have.
• The same Help center is on the Stitch Sprint website.
• Something not working? Start with Troubleshooting.

#When something goes wrong

• The window shows what Stitch Sprint printed, with a button to start it again.
• The log opens from Help > Show the Log File (on a Mac it is ~/Library/Logs/Stitch Sprint.log). Attach it when you ask for help.

#Security

The app's window talks only to Stitch Sprint on this computer (address 127.0.0.1) and can't be reached from the network. Each session uses a private key, so other websites open in your browser can't send it commands. Your artwork and designs never leave your computer.