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. Motifab writes DST for a Happy unless you choose TAP under Export. If the machine expects a MON file beside the TAP, use DST.

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 Motifab, from any logo, checked before it is saved.

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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; Motifab doesn’t, so if your Happy wants one, export DST.

Motifab’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 Motifab writes for them unless you choose TAP.

Macro photo illustration of the FC Aurora sample’s stitches, made from Motifab’s file — 705 needle points from Motifab’s file of the FC Aurora sample, in 25 mm. A TAP keeps each one, in the order the machine stitches them. Photo illustration made from Motifab’s file.

How to make a TAP file from a logo

Open the logo
PNG, JPEG, WebP, SVG, PDF or AI. Motifab grades the file first: Good file, OK file or Poor file, with the reason.
Pick the machine
Choose Happy in the machine chip, and Motifab uses its needles and hoops. TAP is the machine’s own file there, or one click away under Export.
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.
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.
Export TAP
Motifab 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 Motifab 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 Motifab 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 Motifab writes TAP for

HappyHCD3E-1501-40 · HCS3-1201-30 · HCH-701P-30

The models named read TAP, as their makers’ own pages say; the maker pages list more, with sources.

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. Motifab 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 Motifab writes

How to digitize a logo, step by step

Your next TAP file, made and checked in Motifab.

Open a customer’s logo, export the TAP for your Happy and embroider it within the 15 free days, with export included and no card. Every file is read back before it is saved, and every file you make is yours.

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