Preferences: ? All numbers shown in DECIMAL (if not stated otherwise) ? First byte in a file has No: 0000 ? Abbreviations : hex. = hexadecimal, dec. = decimal ? LSB = least significant byte ? MSB = most significant Byte ? NN = value varies Structure of a PCS file: ***** Header ***** Byte (hex) Value (hex) Meaning 0000 32 lead-in char., always hex 32 0001 02 or 03 small hoop = 02 large = 03 0002-0003 10 00 No. of colors ALWAYS 16 0004-0043 NN NN NN NN color definition, 4-Byte per color. 16 colors 0044-0045 NN NN Nr. of stitches in file, LSB first. Max. 65536 Stitch count does NOT (!) include color changes ***** Stitches and color change records ***** ***** each nine bytes long ***** 0046-NNNN ***** stitch record ***** NNNN-NNNN 00 XX XX XX 00 YY YY YY 00 x and y -or- coordinates NNNN-NNNN 00 XX XX XX 00 YY YY YY 02 LSB first ***** color change record ***** NNNN-NNNN 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 First Byte gives the appropriate number of the color, Last Byte = 03 marks record as color change, ***** Bitmap file-name and design description ***** Def.: MMMM = (stitch count + No. of color changes) * 9 0046+MMMM Bitmap filename used as pattern for digitizing (12 characters) 00 terminated Def.: DDDD = MMMM + 13 0046+DDDD File description, 00 terminated This concludes the structure description of a typical PCS file. The Hex dump of a 2-stitch, 1-color change PCS file designed for the 80x80 hoop (small) with the bitmap pattern ‘FEDER.BMP’ and the file description ‘Schnatzka Bubublick’ follows: Hex-dump of a 2-stitch design file: Byte 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 0000 32 02 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 FF 00 0010 00 80 80 00 00 FF FF 00 80 00 80 00 FF 00 FF 00 0020 80 00 00 00 FF 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 FF 00 00 0030 80 80 00 00 FF FF 00 00 80 80 80 00 C0 C0 C0 00 0040 FF FF FF 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 0050 73 00 00 00 27 01 00 00 00 33 01 00 00 81 00 00 0060 00 46 45 44 45 52 2E 42 4D 50 00 00 00 00 53 63 0070 68 6E 61 74 7A 6B 61 20 42 75 62 75 62 6C 69 63 0080 6B 00 Here´s the formatted TEXT dump of the same file: Byte 0123456789ABCDEF 0000 2 ·······Ç···_· 0010 ·ÇÇ··__·Ç·Ç·_·_· 0020 Ç···_····Ç···_·· 0030 ÇÇ··__··ÇÇÇ·+++· 0040 ___· ········· · 0050 s···' ···3 ··ü·· 0060 ·FEDER.BMP····Sc 0070 hnatzka Bubublic 0080 k·