DRAWings PRO XII vs PEmbroider

DRAWings PRO XII is graphics and production software for embroidery, textile and screen printing, computerized quilting, cut and stencil crafting, and fabric painting. It runs on Windows and macOS and imports vector and bitmap graphics, alongside support for many embroidery machine formats. Tools include automatic scaling to fit a design within a hoop, stitch-density adjustment within a 25% range, auto-digitizing, stitch simulation and appliqué. Version XII adds a patent-pending Sketch stitch engine, support for additional embroidery machine models and hoop sizes, and printouts that can include barcodes for compatible machines to load designs with stitch-count and color-change information. The package contains 204 embroidery-ready clipart items, 147 cut vector designs and more than 3,000 embroidery designs. Users can copy and paste designs from CorelDRAW or import CMX files exported from it, but DRAW-Stitch functionality is no longer available in this version. The full downloadable package costs $2,199, paid once. A free trial is available after submitting an evaluation form; review may take up to one business day. Activation and updates require an active internet connection.

PEmbroider is a Java library for generating computational embroidery designs in Processing. Its drawing functions handle lines, shapes, and typography, while shape tools support overlap, cropping, merging, and a range of embroidery fills. Designs can start from SVG files or black-and-white PNG and GIF images. The library generates DST, EXP, JEF, PEC, PES, VP3, and XXX files for consumer CNC embroidery machines. It also exports PDF, SVG, TSV, and GCODE for other 2D output devices, including CNC routers and AxiDraw pen plotters. A modified Traveling Salesperson Problem solver creates shorter paths intended to reduce embroidery time and material use. PEmbroider can visualize files it generates, but cannot load or preview existing embroidery files. It integrates with Processing and can be installed through its Contribution Manager or from a ZIP library. The instructions require Processing 4.0a6 or later, with a separate download for Processing 3 users. It is free under GPLv3 and ACSL 1.4 and was developed during Endless March 2020 at Carnegie Mellon University's Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry.