Open the main drafter to build threading, tie-up, treadling, yarn color, and drawdown directly, including pasted numeric patterns, or use the inverse drafter to sketch a target drawdown first and generate draft options from it.
Draft Layout
See how threading, tie-up, and treadling work together as each pick becomes cloth.
Using The Drafter
The main drafter is for composing a weaving draft section by section, adjusting colors and yarn weights, and seeing the drawdown update immediately.
Choose the draft name, then set shafts, treadles, warp ends, and picks from the toolbar. The editor tries to preserve existing work as those counts change.
Click or drag across threading and treadling cells to sketch draft lines. Threading keeps each warp end on a single shaft, while treadling can place multiple treadles on a pick when the structure needs it.
Use the yarn controls to add colors, edit their values, and set yarn thickness. Each yarn has a letter label, so text patterns can pair a draft number with a yarn, such as 1A or 2B.
Open Text to edit threading and treadling in monospace boxes from the bottom panel. Extra numbers extend warp ends or picks automatically, and invalid entries are highlighted in place.
Use the small + and - controls around the grid to insert or remove warp ends and picks while keeping surrounding data in place. Zoom changes the draft cell size without changing the page layout.
Switch between Structure, Color, and Interlacement drawdown views, or open the fabric preview for a larger repeat. Save writes an SVG preview with embedded draft data, usually named .wdd.svg, and the main drafter can also import WIF files.
Using The Inverse Drafter
The inverse drafter lets you sketch the drawdown you want first, then search for draft structures that approximate or exactly reproduce it under chosen constraints.
Paint the target drawdown directly, or open a saved inverse draft SVG, usually named .wdi.svg. You can also open a forward draft SVG and the inverse tool will use that draft’s drawdown as the new target.
Change warp ends and picks from the toolbar, use the target’s insert and delete controls to grow or trim rows and columns, and zoom the target if you need a closer editing view.
The optimizer panel sets the structural limits the solver is allowed to use: engine, max shafts, max treadles, max pressed treadles, float tolerance, and whether tolerance should affect the optimization itself.
Use Show Float Stress to highlight long floats and Show Diff to outline where the current generated draft differs from the target, which helps explain why some options are better than others.
The option buttons between the panels are sorted by the currently selected optimizer settings and engine. Option 1 is always the best current result, and switching engines can change which structure rises to the top.
Save the inverse draft as an SVG preview with embedded target and optimizer state, or use To Drafter to open the currently selected generated draft immediately in a new main-drafter tab. Opening that same inverse SVG in the main drafter also loads the selected generated draft so you can continue coloring and refining it there.
FAQ
A few quick answers for the most common points of confusion when moving between the forward drafter and the inverse drafter.
.wdd.svg, inverse drafter saves are usually named .wdi.svg, and some browsers may show them simply as SVG files. The main drafter can also import WIF files. The tools can hand work across directly with To Inverse and To Drafter, or cross-open saved SVG drafts: opening an inverse SVG in the main drafter loads the selected generated draft, and opening a forward SVG in the inverse drafter uses its drawdown as a target.
Float Stress highlights places where long warp or weft floats make the cloth less balanced. Diff marks where the selected generated draft differs from the target you drew. Together they help explain both match quality and fabric behavior.
Updates
A dated record of major editor changes, summarized from the project history.
Added the bottom text panel for editing threading and treadling as copyable numeric patterns.
Expanded text entry with yarn-letter syntax, automatic warp/pick growth, invalid-entry highlighting, and smoother panel animation.
Added drag-line editing for threading and treadling, plus clearer yarn labels that stay out of the edit controls.
Implemented beta drafting algorithms for generating and evaluating draft structures.
Added benchmark coverage to compare algorithm behavior across repeatable runs.
Fixed save and draft-name handling issues.
Improved fabric behavior, solver engine choices, locality handling, and the general editing workflow.
Refined inverse-drafter behavior so generated structures and target editing were easier to work with.
Improved scrolling around the draft panels.
Sped up random-trial engine tests used to validate draft recovery behavior.
Added an engine test dock for checking generated drafts against random examples.
Added an exact recovery algorithm for reconstructing weaving drafts from drawdown behavior.
Refined loom animation geometry, sizing, and shading so the woven motion reads more clearly.
Wrapped drafter controls more cleanly for narrower screens.
Fixed loom animation sizing issues.
Added warp-faced and weft-faced drawdown rendering modes.
Added shaft and treadle insertion controls, viewport-aware draft sizing, and more reliable refreshes when render styles change.
Added inverse-drafter entry points and cross-format draft loading.
Improved reset flows, print flows, file naming, favicon support, and cross-editor handoff between the drafter and inverse drafter.
Refined the drafter layout, rendering behavior, and visual details.
Updated rendering and zoom behavior.
Added heddle counts to summarize shaft usage.
Added early drafter variants while exploring the editing model.
Added realistic rendering and refined the fabric preview.
Started the editor project.