Contour Fill

What it is

Contour fill detail

Contour fill covers areas with stitches following the contour of an object.

How to Create

Create a closed path with a fill color.

Set Start and End Point

Set start and end points for autofill objects with Visual commands.

Params

Run Extensions > Ink/Stitch > Params. Set fill method to Contour Fill and tweak the settings to your needs.

Settings		Description
Automatically routed fill stitching	☑	Must be enabled for these settings to take effect.
Fill method	Contour Fill	Contour Fill must be selected to sew spiral lines of the contour
Contour Fill Strategy		Inner to outer (default) is able to fill shapes with bottlenecks Single spiral fills a shape with a single spiral from the outside to the inside Double spiral fills a shape with a double spiral, starts and ends at the outside border of the shape.
Join Style	Round, Mitered, Beveled	Method to handle the edges when the size the contour is reduced for the inner spirals
Avoid self-crossing		Wheter inner to outer is allowed to cross itself or not
Clockwise	☑	Direction to move around the contour
Smoothness		Smooth the stitch path. Smoothness limits how far the smoothed stitch path is allowed to deviate from the original path. Try low numbers like 0.2. Hint: a lower running stitch tolerance may be needed too.
Maximum fill stitch length		The length of each stitch in a row. “Max” is because a shorter stitch may be used at the start or end of a row.
Spacing between rows		Distance between rows of stitches
Running Stitch tolerance		All stitches must be within this distance of the path. A lower tolerance means stitches will be closer together. A higher tolerance means sharp corners may be rounded.
Randomize stitches	☑	Randomize stitch length and phase instead of dividing evenly or staggering. This is recommended for closely-spaced curved fills to avoid Moiré artefacts.
Random stitch length jitter		Amount to vary the length of each stitch by when randomizing.
Random Seed		Rolling the dice or setting a new value will change the random stitches
Minimum stitch length		Overwrite global minimum stitch length setting. Shorter stitches than that will be removed.
Minimum jump stitch length		Overwrite global minimum jump stitch length setting. Shorter distances to the next object will have no lock stitches.
Allow lock stitches		Enables lock stitches in only desired positions
Force lock stitches	☑	Sew lock stitches after sewing this element, even if the distance to the next object is shorter than defined by the collapse length value in the Ink/Stitch preferences.
Tack stitch		Chose your favorite style
Lock stitch		Chose your [favorite style](/docs/stitches/lock-stitches/
Trim After	☑	Trim the thread after sewing this object.
Stop After	☑	Stop the machine after sewing this object. Before stopping it will jump to the stop position (frame out) if defined.