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Machine format · TAP

TAP embroidery files for Happy machines.

TAP is Happy’s embroidery format: DST’s stitches without its header. Make a TAP for your Happy with Qepe, from any logo, checked before it is saved.

See availabilityAll ten formats, side by side

Not released yet. From the first release: 7 days free, then €149 a year.

Launch offer: €99 for the first year, for the first 100 shops.

What is a TAP file?

TAP is the stitch file of Happy embroidery machines: the same stitches as a DST, without its header. A trim is written as jump codes in a row, as many as the machine cuts at. Happy’s own software also writes a MON file beside it; Qepe doesn’t, so if your Happy wants one, export DST.

  • Qepe’s Happy profile follows the HCS3-1201 Voyager: 12 needles, a 29 × 28.4 cm field and a 29 × 6.9 cm cap field.
  • Happy machines read DST as well, and DST is what Qepe writes for them unless you choose TAP.
705 needle points from Qepe’s file of the FC Aurora sample, in 25 mm. A TAP keeps each one, in the order the machine stitches them.

How to make a TAP file from a logo

  1. Open the logo

    PNG, JPEG, WebP, SVG, PDF or AI. Qepe grades the file first: Good file, OK file or Poor file, with the reason.

  2. Pick the machine

    Choose Happy in the machine chip, and Qepe uses its needles and hoops. TAP is the machine’s own file there, or one click away under Export.

  3. Set the size, garment and colours

    Left chest, cap front, sleeve, full back or your own size in millimetres; ten garments, each with its own underlay, density and pull compensation.

  4. Digitize and check

    The Auto Digitizer makes the stitches. Quality scores them against the artwork out of 100, and Fix all corrects what is safe to correct.

  5. Export TAP

    Qepe writes the file, reads it back and compares every needle point with the screen. A file that doesn’t match is never saved, and the old one stays.

Convert DST to TAP

Open the DST file, or one in any of the 40 formats Qepe opens: it opens stitched as the file has it, to recolour, move or add a name to. Export writes the TAP and checks it like any other file. A machine file has no shapes to stitch again, so resizing it by more than 10 % changes its density: for a new size, digitize from the logo.

What Qepe compares before a TAP is saved

  • Every needle point, each within 0.06 mm of the screen
  • Every thread change and needle
  • Every trim and stop
  • The header the machine reads: stitch count, colours, extents and label
  • The thread names, where the format keeps them

Machines Qepe writes TAP for

Questions

What is a TAP file?
Happy’s embroidery format: the stitches of a DST without its header, read by Happy machines.
TAP or DST for my Happy?
Both hold the same stitches. Qepe writes DST for a Happy unless you choose TAP under Export. If the machine expects a MON file beside the TAP, use DST.

The other formats Qepe writes

How to digitize a logo, step by step

Your next logo, ready to embroider.

Turn the next logo your customer sends into a checked, machine-ready file, on your Mac or PC.

See availabilitySee pricing

Not released yet. From the first release: 7 days free, then €149 a year