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Known limits

What Stitch Sprint can't do yet, or does with a catch.

#Your machine

• The machine is set up as an SWF with 15 needles and a 300 x 300 mm sewing field. Choosing your own machine (needles, field, hoops) is not in the app yet.
• The thread colours on screen are approximations of the Isacord card.
• Treat every new design as a test sew until you trust it.

#Artwork

• Fine detail under 1 mm² or thinner than 0.4 mm is skipped (the report says how many).
• Pictures placed next to vector shapes are skipped (a file that is only a picture is traced).
• Gradients sew in their average colour; transparency effects aren't converted.
• Stacked duplicate shapes are all sewn.
• A cut out area is a loop drawn by hand, so its edge is only as exact as the drag; where it meets another colour, that colour hides it. A cut is taken out of the art before digitizing: the stitches next to it are planned again, not trimmed. Applique pieces ignore cuts and shapes switched off. Placed DSTs can't be cut (only their stops switched off).
• Picture logos: photos and shaded pictures keep only their main colours; a white outline on a white background isn't sewn.
• EPS: a CID-keyed font stored with Type 1 glyphs isn't drawn; a font an EPS only names is drawn in the same or the closest installed font.

#Stitching

• No stitch editor. To adjust a design, change the art or the settings and digitize again.
• Very small, heavy or unusual letter shapes can fall back to fill.
• Block lettering sews as satin by default; stroke width alone doesn't predict which a digitizer picks.
• Very complex fills (Model UN's globe) can still break where every way on would sit on top of finished rows.
• Where a tucked stroke has to be sewn after the stroke covering it, its end lies on top by about 0.8 mm.
• Each move may leave up to about 1 mm of travel visible; pro files show almost none.
• Trims: match the pro files on Five Star and Weedline, below them on Model UN; Signature (script) keeps 3 more.
• Only fill, satin and run (and bean for small text). Bean, E-stitch, pattern fill, contour fill and 3D puff are on the roadmap (F10), not built.

#Lettering

• Block and varsity fonts: diagonal letters (N, M, W, A, X) and an R's leg still fan at some joins, most in heavy fonts. Rounded serifs (Times-style) sew as patches. Letters and script words keep up to about 3 trims inside them.
• Very heavy fonts at large sizes (Arial Black at 1 in) sew as fill.
• Run text trims between every letter; serif fonts under 0.15 in lose detail.
• Arched script can pick up 1-2 trims inside a word; on an arc, words sew from the lowest row up, not along the arc.
• Names lists: no condensed lettering; every name sews from the piece's middle.

#Designs

• Each piece sews complete before the next; travel isn't routed from one piece into another, so moving between pieces always trims.
• Placed DSTs scaled away from 100% change density.
• Applique: all stops in the border thread; a border over a gap narrower than its width fills the gap.
• Garment mockups are flat drawings for approval, not for measuring.

#Formats

• VP3 is read but not written.

#The app

• A picture logo with a wide outline can take a while to digitize: about 10 seconds on a fast computer, a minute or more on an older one. Changing its size does the work again.
• The Mac app is for Apple silicon (M1 or later) on macOS 13 Ventura or later: it doesn't run on Intel Macs or on macOS 12 and older.
• It doesn't update itself: the window says when a newer version is ready, and you download it and put it in place of the old one (Installing and running). A computer that is offline isn't told.
• The Windows version is a test copy: a folder with a set-up step, not an installer, with no Start menu entry (a desktop shortcut instead) and no files that open on a double-click. It has had far less use than the Mac app. Photos for a Feedback note have to be JPGs there.
• On a Mac, Finder doesn't show pictures of DST files (that needs a Quick Look extension).
• A DST names no colours. The Library takes them from the report or a PES saved beside it; one from elsewhere with neither shows in stand-in colours. Check a DST and a DST placed in a design always start in stand-in colours (a file opened there arrives without the files beside it).
• The waiting screen (a star sewing out and a tip) shows that Stitch Sprint is working, not how far along it is: how long a design takes isn't known ahead. Saving a names list says which name it is on.
• The realistic view hasn't been compared with sew-outs or timed on very large designs.
• Bonus designs are downloaded once on each computer: a deleted pack folder doesn't come back by itself.
• Feedback: a note that was sent can't be changed or taken back, and nothing comes back in the app (a question about a note is sent to the email you signed in with). The list of your notes is kept on each computer, so a second computer doesn't show the first one's. iPhone HEIC photos can be added on a Mac only.