Embroidery format VP3

VP3 format is a Pfaff format. Unlike most other embroidery formats. It's divided into stitchblocks. Conceptually it's typical to think of embroidery rather than the set of low level commands which control the machine but as sets of unbroken stitches in a particular color. While this is quite common at the level of embroidery software, most formats typically consist of large dumps of direct embroidery commands with some various cruft for the machines in question. For example, PEC blocks (in PEC files and PES files) contain 1 bit graphics files.

Header

VP3 consists of: a magic code, some hoop and design information, a number for the number of stitch blocks and stitch blocks.

Type	Bytes	Value	Description
`string`	5	%vsm%	Magic String.
`s8`	1	'\0'	maybe null terminator for the string.
`16be`	2	byte_length	Production String Bytes (N0)
`UTF-16BE`	N0	"Produced by ...."	Production String

020 Location And Data

The 0x0 tags are some of the more recognizable tags as they always denote a location in the file. So I will break at them.

Type	Bytes	Value	Description
`s8`	3	\x00\x02\x00	Tag indicates the following is a location.
`32be`	2	Bytes_To_EOF	bytes the the end of the file.
`16be`	2	byte_length	unknown string, always 00 (N1)
`UTF-16BE`	N1	""	Rumor has it this is a string.

Extends Section

VP3 like most embroidery is y-flipped from common programming languages. Most models put the origin point in the upper-left point programming in quadrant III whereas embroidery is almost always Quadrant I with the origin point in the lower-left. Consequently most overt numbers within embroidery have to be y-flipped.

VP3 however stores all position information as multiplied by 100 as a conversion between the standard units of Embroidery 1/10th mm. This actually gives the units therefore in 1*10^-6 and are micron or (micrometers or micrometres).

Type	Bytes	Description
`s16be`	2	Right * 100
`s16be`	2	-Top * 100
`s16be`	2	Left * 100
`s16be`	2	-Bottom * 100

Thread Count and Unknown

Type	Bytes	Value	Description
`u8`	1	\x00	unknown
`u8`	1	count_threads	the number of expected colorblocks
`u8`	1	\x0C	Unknown
`u8`	1	\x00	Unknown
`u8`	1	\x01	Unknown

030 Location And Hoop.

Type	Bytes	Value	Description
`s8`	3	\x00\x03\x00	Tag indicates the following is a location.
`32be`	2	Bytes_to_EOF	bytes the the end of the file.
`s32be`	4	center_x	Design center. In microns. max_x - half_width * 100
`s32be`	4	-center_y	Design center. In microns. max_y - half_height * -100
`u8`	1	\x00	Unknown
`u8`	1	\x00	Unknown
`u8`	1	\x00	Unknown
`s32be`	4	-half_width	-half_width, If center_x were made zero, this is the extends.
`s32be`	4	half_width	+half_width
`s32be`	4	-half_height	-half_height
`s32be`	4	half_height	+half_height
`16be`	2	byte_length	unknown string, always 00 (N0)
`UTF-16BE`	N0	""	Rumor has it this is a string.
`u8`	1	\x64	'd' maybe "dd", maybe 25700 (the 00 in dec end makes that seem like a position)
`u8`	1	\x64	see above
`s32be`	4	4096	Unknown, b'\x00\x00\x10\x00'
`s32be`	4	0	Unknown, b'\x00\x00\x00\x00'
`s32be`	4	0	Unknown, b'\x00\x00\x00\x00'
`s32be`	4	4096	Unknown, b'\x00\x00\x10\x00'
`string`	4	"xxPP"	Magic String?
`u8`	1	\x01	Unknown
`u8`	1	\x00	Unknown
`16be`	2	byte_length	Production String Bytes (N1)
`UTF-16BE`	N1	"Produced by ...."	Production String

Color Blocks

Each vp3 stitchblock contains:

Description

Type	Description
`u16be`	Color Blocks Expected (N)
Color_Block	N Color Blocks

Color Block

• 050 location to next block.
• \0x00
• start_position_from_center_x
• start_position_from_center_y
• vp3_thread

Thread information. (Brand, Catalog Number, and Description) The position of the end of the block. And stitches.

Also See

https://community.kde.org/Projects/Liberty/File_Formats/Viking_Pfaff http://www.jasonweiler.com/VP3FileFormatInfo.html