Dear Lex,

I guess we are trying to solve the same problem, but differently. I wanted to have more control than semi automated fillers provide, so I added 3 LPEs, which are in Inkscape 0.92.2:

1.) A bool LPE to do intersections / unions, ... of areas, so that one can construct the areas to stitch from drawing areas.

2.) A path / path group trimmer LPE, which restricts a set of paths to an area (or oustide of an area. There are already two path interpolation LPEs which allow to create sets of paths with fine control over local direction and density.

3.) An LPE to convert a set of paths into stitches. This includes an almost reasonable traveling salesman problem (TSP) variant solver for ordering groups of stitches to minimize the traveling in between. It can still be improved. It is a bit more complicated than standard TSP solvers, because it looks into groups of parallel stitches which have 4 possible ends.

My approach is as follows

1.) Make a drawing

2.) Use the bool op LPE to create (in a new layer) the areas to fill with each color / stitch style.

3.) Create a set of path to control density and direction using path interpolation LPEs. This allows a great deal of control, e.g. for hair. I don't think any commercial tool allows this amount of control.

4.) Use the path trim/cut LPE to trim the paths created in 3.) to the areas created in 2.)

5.) Use the embroidery stitch LPE to convert the paths to stitches.

Sometimes I use the cut / trim filter also to create intermediate nodes in paths to create special stitching patterns. These nodes are not visible in normal drawing, but after stitching they are visible.

Of cause for simple cases, it would help to extend it with a more automated approach, which is what you appear to be working at.

I am very interested in the import/export library you mentioned.

It would be great to work together on this.

Best regards,

Michael