Supported formats

Which files can I open?

StitchMotion opens the most common embroidery machine formats:

Format	Extension	Typical machine	Colors in the file?
DST	.dst	Tajima	No — a default palette is used
PES	.pes	Brother	Yes (newer versions)
JEF	.jef	Janome	Yes (Janome palette)
EXP	.exp	Melco	Only with a matching .inf file
HUS	.hus	Husqvarna Viking	Yes (Viking palette)
SEW	.sew	Janome / Elna	Yes (Janome palette)
VP3	.vp3	Husqvarna / Pfaff	Yes (real RGB colors)
VP4	.vp4	Husqvarna / Pfaff (PREMIER+, mySewnet)	Yes (real RGB colors)
HOOP	.hoop	StitchPencil project (not a machine format)	Yes (with thread names and numbers)

StitchPencil projects (.hoop)

:::note macOS 1.4.1 .hoop support arrived with macOS 1.4.1. Availability on Windows follows its own release schedule. :::

.hoop is the project format of StitchPencil, our embroidery design app. You can drop such a project straight into StitchMotion and animate it, without exporting to a machine format first.

Two things worth knowing:

• A .hoop carries real thread identities (color, catalog, number and name), so the design opens with exactly the colors you picked while designing.
• StitchMotion animates the stitch plan inside the project. StitchPencil writes that plan when you export a .hoop; its internal library saves contain only the editable design. If you open one of those, StitchMotion will tell you that the file has no stitch plan. Export the project again from StitchPencil and it opens.

How colors are read

• DST files carry no color information, so StitchMotion applies a sensible default palette. You can recolor everything afterwards.
• EXP files also have no built-in colors — but if a matching .inf file sits next to the .exp, StitchMotion reads the thread colors from it.
• PES, JEF, HUS, SEW, VP3 and VP4 carry color data, so your design opens with colors close to the original.
• HOOP projects go one better: they store the actual thread catalog, number and name, not just an RGB value.

Whatever the file provides, you can always remap colors to a real thread catalog or pick each color by hand. Your color changes apply to the preview and the export — they are never written back into the original file.

What StitchMotion reads from a file

• the stitches (and from them, the design's width and height in millimeters);
• the thread colors, where the format stores them;
• the design name, for formats that include one.

Saving and reopening

StitchMotion has no project file of its own (it can read StitchPencil's .hoop projects, but it never writes them). The workflow is: open an embroidery file → style it → export a video (or image). Your styling — colors, background, overlays, length — lives in the current session and in your Presets, not in the embroidery file. Reopening the original file starts fresh.