Embroidery format U??

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Machine embroidery
Module: Embroidery format
to finalize avanced
2018/07/24
See also

U?? is called FDR internally in some documentations. Barudan stitch information. Usually these are .u01 files, sometimes .u00 the scheme is apparently permitted to go up to .u99.

  • .U01 contains command, stitch triplet data.
  • .U01 contains commands for SLOW, FAST (in both stitched and unstitched forms)

Header

The header comes in two parts.

Part A

Type Bytes Value Description
`char` 128 "0" 0x30 the ascii character 0, 128 times.
  • 128 copies of 0x30 "0" characters for an unknown reason.

Part B

  • Some basic extends information.
  • Stitch Count
  • Some unknown data for machine edited.
  • Some flag and information pointing to teach commands
Type Bytes Value Description
`s16` 2 -X Left
`s16` 2 -Y - Bottom (in y-flipped)
`s16` 2 +X Right
`s16` 2 +Y - Top (in y-flipped)
`u32` 2 0 Unknown only seen (0)
`u32` 2 count_commands Stitch Data Count, (if multiplied by 3 will give the length of body)
`u16` 2 x_final Final X position
`u16` 2 y_final Final Y position (-Y if we're y-flipped)

Many software packages will write nothing else, just pad with zeros. However machine edited formatting will have some additional data.

Type Bytes Value Description
`s16` 2 D0 07 2000 in little endian 16.
`s16` 2 00 00 0
`u16` 2 unknown (01 00) 1 ?
`u16` 2 (2B 00) | (01 00 ) 44, 43, 1? (Several values seen)
`u16` 2 (23 00) | (0B 00) 16, 35, 11 ? (Several values seen)
`u16` 2 unknown (0F 00) 15 ?
`u16` 2 unknown 00 00 Only seen 00 00

The 3rd row is more consistent.

Type Bytes Value Description
`s16` 2 01 FE Dunno
`s16` 2 02 FD Dunno
`u16` 2 04 00 Dunno
`u16` 2 Mod_Count little endian declaration of the number of modification commands.
`u16` 2 position_of_teach_block Gives the position in the file of the commands in the mod_count

Note that in the Teach Block, the same 6 bytes are always repeated a little into the block. And the mod count. The position given by the position_of_teach_block is exactly to the commands within the teach block.


The remainder of the 128 byte section is padded with 0x00 data.

Body

The body starts at position 0x100 (256)

The body consists of encoded stitches. The stitches are in:

Control, X, Y form.

FDR (.u01) Encoding
BYTE 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
1 1 -y -x c c c c c
2 y y y y y y y y
3 x x x x x x x x

The control byte contains an always set value, followed by 2 bits of directional information for the Y, X values (whether they are + or -), then five bytes of control.

Value Command Operation
0 Stitch Normal Stitch
1 Jump Jump Stitch
2 Fast Fast invoke, Normal Stitch
3 Fast, Jump Fast invoke, Jump Stitch
4 Slow Slow invoke, Normal Stitch
5 Slow, Jump Slow invoke, Jump Stitch
6 T1 Top Thread Trim (this is not typically used)
7 T2 Trim This is what most all encodings use for trim.
8 C00 STOP Stop the machine.
9 C01 Needle 1 Use needle 1, color change if necessary
10 C02 Needle 2 Use needle 2, color change if necessary
11 C03 Needle 3 Use needle 3, color change if necessary
12 C04 Needle 4 Use needle 4, color change if necessary
13 C05 Needle 5 Use needle 5, color change if necessary
14 C06 Needle 6 Use needle 6, color change if necessary
15 C07 Needle 7 Use needle 7, color change if necessary
16 C07 Needle 8 Use needle 8, color change if necessary * Not typically used, some machines don't have this.
17 C07 Needle 9 Use needle 9, color change if necessary * Not typically used, some machines don't have this.
18 End This is often the terminal command.
19 Gp1 Group 1
20 Gp2 Group 2
21 Gp3 Group 3
22 Gp4 Group 4
23 Afrm May be Roll-to-Roll Stop. It stops but with the needle penetrated, which was useful for some BEVT machines that used that functionality.
31 Rewind, Stop Unsure what this properly does. But it is known to exist

Teach Block

This section is rare and usually results from editing a file on an embroidery machine. This is always seen when the optional header info isn't zeroed out.

The embroidery machines these files are for have a mode called Teach. Where it allows the machine to reprogram the various specific commands given in the file. Apparently reprogramming the stops. If non-stops are reprogrammed they become stops. These commands clearly include Sequin. It's unclear how this is precisely encoded.

Embroidery Machine dumps of the edited files contain post-file information which apparently through some means edits the data within the body. This is usually called after the stop. It buffers 32 0x2B "+" bytes then has some string of bytes that identically to some in the header that previously was entirely zeros. 0xA0 - 0xA7.

Type Bytes Value Description
`char` 32 "+" 0x2B the ascii character +, 32 times.
`s16` 2 01 00 Number 1 for some reason?
`s16` 2 01 FE Dunno (same as in header)
`s16` 2 02 FD Dunno (same as in header)
`u16` 2 04 00 Dunno (same as in header)
`u16` 2 Mod_Count little endian declaration of the number of modification commands.
`u32` 4 * Mod_Count 02 00 00 00 | 04 00 00 00 usually 1, 2, 4 (these are the same numbers as in the dunno and header), might be a clue.



Unknown Functions

There is some suggestion that the Group commands may be used to encode a lot of additional data setting a great many things on the embroidery machine. However it is not yet known how these are accessed, or if that belief is even warranted. The manuals suggest the following functions exist as functions and thus should be able to be encoded somehow. They can be put into the data but I dunno if that is in .u01 or some other format. There's a clear correlation with regard to known to exist commands. However since we only have 5 bits and 31 is the last possible command, there's nothing really to do here.

It has been confirmed that group commands do not use the subsequent command bytes to encode additional data. They may however use their own Y values in some regard.

The manual has an ambiguous footnote: *1 After G1:Group 1 ~ C15 are the Color Change Function Codes.

Function Codes No. Code Function
0 0 Normal Stitch
1 JP Jump Stitch
2 L Low Speed
3 LJ Low Speed Jump
4 H High Speed
5 HJ High Speed Jump
6 T1 Top Thread Trimming
7 T2 Bobbin Threading
19 G1 Group 1 *footnote
20 G2 Group 2
23 SE Sub End
32 C00 Stop
33 C01 Needle Bar 1
34 C02 Needle Bar 2
35 C03 Needle Bar 3
36 C04 Needle Bar 4
37 C05 Needle Bar 5
38 C06 Needle Bar 6
39 C07 Needle Bar 7
40 C08 Needle Bar 8
41 C09 Needle Bar 9
42 C10 Needle Bar 10
43 C11 Needle Bar 11
44 C12 Needle Bar 12
45 C13 Needle Bar 13
46 C14 Needle Bar 14
47 C15 Needle Bar 15
64 S0 Sequin OFF
65 S1 Sequin ON
67 SJ Sequin Jump
68 CC Chain Stitch
69 CL Loop Stitch
70 PR Presser foot height
71 SPL Normal Embroidery
72 ST1 Taping & Cording Embroidery (R)
73 ST2 Taping & Cording Embroidery (L)
74 SZ1 Zigzag Embroidery (L)
75 SZ2 Zigzag Embroidery (R)
76 SC1 Coiling Embroidery (L)
77 SC2 Coiling Embroidery (R)
78 LN Nipple Movement
79 LZ Zigzag Movement
80 HSP Head Selection Pattern
81 FMP The point of flame moving

It's not clear what after means with regard to G1, these commands exist in the .u01 data and apparently the manual suggests there's an extended list.