Projects/Liberty/File Formats/Viking Pfaff
Viking/Husqvarna Pfaff/Singer 3 VP3
The VP3 file format appears to be series of nested tagged sections. The files seen so far, start with a header of signature bytes and "Produced by..." string; followed by a tagged embroidery-summary packet. Like Russian dolls, the embroidery-summary packet contains a tagged hoop-centred packet after some information about stitched area, stitching time, etc. The hoop-centred packet expresses a centred stitch extent and contains several tagged thread packets. Each thread packet has colour and weight information, also containing one stitch-run packet.
The file format could logically contain several embroideries, and each embroidery contain more than one hoop, but this has not been seen. If these facilities were used, perhaps to contain a library of patterns, or to split a large design over several hoops.
The tags seen, so far, are,
- 0 2 0 - Embroidery-summary packet
- 0 3 0 - Hoop-centred packet
- 0 5 0 - Thread packet
- 0 1 0 - Stitch-run packet
In the style of Backus–Naur Form,
File = File-header {Embroidery-summary}
Embroidery-summary = Summary-details {Hoop-centred}
Hoop-centred = Hoop-details {Thread}
Thread = Thread-details Stitch-run
File-header
| Offset | Length | Type | Description |
| 0 | 6 | ASCIIZ | Signature = "%vsm%" |
| 6 | N1 | N-WStr | Producer-string 16 bit big-endian length in bytes followed by 16 bit characters |
| 6+N1 |
Embroidery Summary-details
| Offset | Length | Type | Description |
| 0 | 3 | Tag | embroidery-tag 0 2 0 three bytes |
| 3 | 4 | Length | embroidery-len remaining bytes in this packet |
| 7 | N2 | N-WStr | settings-string human readable debugging notes |
| 7+N2 | 4 | MicroM | extent-right right edge of stitching in um starting from 0,0 |
| 11+N2 | 4 | MicroM | extent-top |
| 15+N2 | 4 | MicroM | extent-left |
| 19+N2 | 4 | MicroM | extent-bottom |
| 23+N2 | 4 | Count | stitch-time-count time estimate in stitches |
| 27+N2 | 2 | Count | thread-change-count |
| 29+N2 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 12 |
| 30+N2 | 2 | Count | unknown = 1 may be hoop-count |
Hoop-details
The position of this hoop (of multiple hoop pattern) in relation to the whole design appears to be given in centre-x and centre-y, but what about the angle of this hoop to the whole design, it would probably only need a code for 0°, 90°, 180° and 270°.
| Offset | Length | Type | Description |
| 0 | 3 | Tag | hoop-tag = 0 3 0 |
| 3 | 4 | Length | hoop-len |
| 7 | 4 | MicroM | centre-x of summary extent above |
| 11 | 4 | MicroM | centre-Y |
| 15 | 3 | Bytes | unknown = 00 00 00 may include empty string |
| 18 | 4 | MicroM | hoop-left |
| 22 | 4 | MicroM | hoop-right |
| 26 | 4 | MicroM | hoop-bottom |
| 30 | 4 | MicroM | hoop-top |
| 34 | 4 | MicroM | hoop-width |
| 38 | 4 | MicroM | hoop-height |
| 42 | N3 | N-WStr | settings-2 second copy of settings-string |
| 42+N3 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 100 |
| 43+N3 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 100 |
| 44+N3 | 4 | int | unknown = 4096 |
| 48+N3 | 4 | int | unknown = 0 |
| 52+N3 | 4 | int | unknown = 0 |
| 56+N3 | 4 | int | unknown = 4096 |
| 60+N3 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 120 or 'x' |
| 61+N3 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 120 or 'x' |
| 62+N3 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 80 or 'P' |
| 63+N3 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 80 or 'P' |
| 64+N3 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 1 |
| 65+N3 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 0 |
| 66+N3 | N4 | N-WStr | producer-2 second copy of producer-string |
| 66+N3+N4 | 2 | Count | thread-count |
Thread-details
| Offset | Length | Type | Description |
| 0 | 3 | Tag | thread-tag = 0 5 0 |
| 3 | 4 | Length | thread-len bytes to next thread |
| 7 | 4 | MicroM | start-x move needle |
| 11 | 4 | MicroM | start-y |
| 15 | 1 | Count | colours-per-thread |
| 16 | N5 | Table | colour-table = {colour-detail} |
| 16+N5 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 0 or 10 for multicoloured |
| 17+N5 | 1 | Code | thread-type-tension (5 rayon, 1 metallic) |
| 18+N5 | 1 | Byte | thread-weight (km/kg) |
| 19+N5 | N6 | Record | thread-description human readable thread description |
| 19+N5+N6 | 4 | MicroM | total-displacement-x sum of stitches and jump stitches |
| 23+N5+N6 | 4 | MicroM | total-displacement-y |
| 27+N5+N6 | N7 | Record | stitch-run |
| 27+N5+N6+N7 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 0 |
Colour-detail
| Offset | Length | Type | Description |
| 0 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 0 or 20 for multicoloured |
| 1 | 3 | RRGGBB | colour-RGB |
| 4 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 0 or 10 for multicoloured |
| 5 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 0 |
The boundary of the colour table is uncertain, each colour entry has six bytes, but there is a spare byte either before or after the table. A sample thread of two different colour strands twisted together, starting from the count, has:
2
00 R1 G1 B1 10 00
20 R2 G2 B2 10 00
10
or
2
00
R1 G1 B1 10 00 20
R2 G2 B2 10 00 10
A single colour counterpart has:
1
00 R1 G1 B1 00 00
00
or
1
00
R1 G1 B1 00 00 00
This file-format seems to have the list/table immediate after the count, so until more is known about the unknown values, I will assume the list/table is followed by an unknown byte.
Thread Tension Code
| Code | Description |
| 5 | Rayon |
| 1 | Metallic |
Thread Description
| Offset | Length | Type | Description |
| 0 | N6a | N-Str | Thread-code 16 bit length followed by ASCII characters part-number |
| 0+N6a | N6b | N-Str | Thread-name human readable name of thread |
| 0+N6a+N6b | N6c | N-Str | Thread-manu maker, material and weight |
Stitch-run
| Offset | Length | Type | Description |
| 0 | 3 | Tag | stitch-tag = 00 01 00 |
| 3 | 4 | Length | stitches-len |
| 7 | 1 | Byte | scale-x = 10 |
| 8 | 1 | Byte | scale-y = -10 the y displacement is negative |
| 9 | 1 | Byte | unknown = 0 |
| 10 | N8 | Table | stitch-table |
stitch-table = { Escaped-command | Displacement | disp-x | disp-y }
Escaped-command
| Offset | Length | Type | Description |
| 0 | 1 | Byte | Escape = -128 or 0x80 |
| 1 | 1 | Byte | Command-code |
| Command-code | Description |
| 0 | Deleted or null stitch |
| 1 | Move followed by 16 bit displacement-x and 16 bit displacement-y |
| 2 | End-move preceded by 16 bit displacement-y and 16 bit displacement-x for reverse stitching |
| 3 | Deleted or null stitch |
Displacement
| Offset | Length | Type | Description |
| 0 | 1 | Byte | displacement-x -127 to 127 in 0.1 mm |
| 1 | 1 | Byte | displacement-y -127 to 127 in -0.1 mm |
Move command's disp-x and disp-y are 16 bit displacements used in the move/jump stitch, they are unlikely to be in the range -32768 to -32513 in 0.1 mm or 0x8000 to 0x80FF, so unlikely confused with the escape-command.
Other References
The VP3 File Format external page contains an overview of this format. The page PES2Card utility implies that VP3 files can contain both multiple designs and multiple hoops.