PXF VS DST. I guess to understand the importance of the PFX or POF and a DST file it’s important to understand the difference. The DST file is a machine format and doesn’t contain the information that was originally inputted to create the design. The DST file is stitches that the computer can read and try to translate into the original file with greater or lesser success. If you have the original file PXF OR POF there is no guess work when trying to change things such as size, the software knows what to do because the information is contained within the file. Why is that so important?

I have a client who for years I have emailed them the POF file and the DST. Initially we started doing that because they had the ambassador software and no editing capabilities. Most of the time they downloaded the DST directly from their email to a disk and the design went to the machine. I knew eventually they would upgrade the software so I provided the file in the digitized format POF, for future use.

This is when the art of reading, understanding what’s been read and making the correct response went from old habit to bad habit. They did upgrade and that’s when my old habit became a bad habit. I continued to send the DST with the now PXF and that’s when their old habit became their bad habit. What happened was they continued to use the DST and when opening the file. The software asked to convert to outline, they said yes. Once they had done that and saved the PXF file, the file I had sent was over written and they were dealing with a translated file, translated from DST to PXF but not a true PXF.  Anyone who has tried to do a re-size on a stock design has probably encountered some limited abilities of resizing from a DST.

I received a call from this client and they said a design they had resized the fill “wasn’t nice” on the left. This design was the letter Y stitched on a filled square with the letter stitched in a satin. The filled square behind the Y was in sections because were separated by the Y and I had stitched each section separately and worked from centre out. The settings were the same for all sections so I was perplexed. I dropped into the shop to do some investigating and was shown the sample. Sure enough there was something funny happening on one section of the fill. I asked the girl responsible for downloading the file from the email to show me what she was doing. Sure enough she was taking the DST file not the PXF. When the system asked to convert to outline she said yes and in doing that they believed they were working with the PXF file. I showed them what would happen if they took the PXF file, to do the enlargement, and “Ta Da” no problem.

The easy solution? I no longer send the DST file. I remember a story my husband tells when he was searching for an English to French translation software. He would give the software the expression “out of sight, out of mind” and the response he would get was “invisible idiot” Which is an accurate translation and also something to remember when translating any DST.

The Embroidery Dinosaur

Beverley Field