Branching & travel routing

Experimental

Branching and travel routing are experimental. What can be branched, the order the members are visited in and the routes the travel stitches take are all still being tuned, so results can change between releases. Check the outcome in Simulation view and test-sew on scrap before you commit a design to it.

What a branch is

A branch groups several objects so they sew as one connected unit. Instead of the machine finishing one object, tying off, jumping and starting the next, a branch routes a continuous path through its members — reducing jump stitches, trims and thread breaks.

To branch, select two or more compatible objects and press Ctrl + B. Pressing Ctrl + B again on a branched group un-branches it back into separate objects.

Branch members need to be close enough to connect — objects that are essentially touching. If a selection can’t be branched (for example the objects are too far apart, or the stitch types aren’t compatible), the branch simply won’t be created.

Some stitch styles hide travel better than others. Running, bean, wide run and zigzag objects have a path the router can approach along, since the stitching is about to cover it. Only running, bean and wide run can be travelled back along after they’ve sewn: their stitches land on the path, so a travel doubling back disappears into stitching that’s already there. (A wide run’s band is sewn over its path; even with an even row count, the two nearest rows are half a row spacing away — thread’s width, not a gap.) A zigzag sits either side of its path, leaving it bare, so back-tracing one would lay visible stitches on top.

A whole branch group sews as one thread, so it is tied by whichever member the thread starts on — an override on any other member isn’t used. See Ties, trims & STOPs.

Line work inside a single object

A branch connects separate objects. To sew the line work within one object as a single continuous thread — a traced drawing, a monogram, a quilting motif — use redwork routing on its running or bean style instead. It walks the lines themselves rather than travelling across the fabric, so there’s nothing to hide.

Travel routing

Once objects are branched, Octostitch works out the order to visit them and lays down travel stitches to connect one member to the next, so the whole group sews as a single continuous run wherever possible. The branch is treated as one unit for stitch counting and colour handling.

Routing around obstacles

A travel stitch only works if it’s hidden — a straight line across open fabric is just a visible stitch. So travel is routed through the region that later stitching will cover, and where a straight line would cut across a hole or a concave notch, Octostitch finds a way around it instead, staying a little clear of the edges so the leg stays buried once the fabric shifts under the remaining passes.

Where no route is short enough to be worth it — a detour several times the direct distance costs more in thread and machine time than a trim does — it jumps instead. The same routing carries the underlay pass between its runs.

Pinning where an object starts and finishes

Routing works with the ends an object already has, so the other lever is to move them. A start or end marker placed with the Meta tool pins where the thread enters or leaves a single object — pin a fill to finish near its neighbour, or a column to start at the end the needle is already at, and a jump and a trim become a short travel stitch.

The markers draw as the same green and red diamonds a branch group uses for its own entry and exit point, because it’s the same idea one level down: the branch says which object the thread reaches next, the markers say where on that object it lands.

Un-branching

Select the branch and press Ctrl + B to split it back into its original objects. Each member returns to sewing independently, with its own tie-ins and tie-offs.