• Home
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • Videos
  • Hoops
  • About

Kamala Embroidery

all about the Brother SE400 Sewing & Embroidery Machine

How To Download Designs To The Brother SE400

By KAMALA in Tutorials • 818 Comments

Download designs with the USB port and cable

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the new USB port and downloading designs. This article will explain step-by-step how to download embroidery designs from your computer into a Brother SE400.

You can connect the Brother SE400 directly to your computer (PC or Mac) with the included USB cable. You can then download embroidery designs saved on your computer into the SE400 for stitching. You can also upgrade the internal software in the SE400 when Brother releases an upgrade.

NOTE: The USB port on the SE400 only accepts a USB cable that attaches to your computer. It is not compatible with USB drives, thumb or jump drives, memory sticks, etc.

Find Embroidery Designs that Work with the SE400

Check the design information
EmbroideryDesigns.com

There are many websites where you can purchase embroidery designs and download them directly to your computer. Most sites have free designs you can try. You can also obtain designs on CDs. Designs on CD can either be saved to your computer first or copied directly to the SE400.

Make Sure the Design File Is Compatible with the Brother SE400:

.PES or .DST Embroidery Data File Format

The Brother SE400 can only read embroidery data files in .PES and .DST format. The best format for Brother embroidery machines is .PES because it contains information about the design such as number of stitches, number of colors, thread color names, and allows displaying an image of the design on the LCD panel.

Tajima (.dst) formats have some limitations that make them less convienent. Only the first eight characters of the file name are displayed in the LCD control panel. The image of the design cannot be displayed. Because the .dst format does not contain the thread color information, the design is displayed with Brother’s default thread color sequence. You will have to look at the design and pick the color you want for each displayed color.

Sometimes embroidery design files that you download from the Internet are “zipped.” You’ll know because the file name ends with “.zip”. On Mactinoshes and Windows XP and later, you can just double-click the file to “un-zip” it. (If this doesn’t work on Windows, you’ll need to install a free utility such as WinZip.) Then you’ll see the .pes files.

Design Fits in the 4×4 Inch Embroidery Area

Although the maximum embroidery size is commonly refered to as a 4×4 inch hoop size, it really doesn’t depend on the hoop. The embroidery unit of the Brother SE400 is physically incapable of embroidering a larger size because that’s the maximum amount the unit will move. The actual maximum size is 3.93 inches (9.98 cm or 99.8mm).

Check the File Name

The SE400 won’t recognize embroidery files with special characters in the name. If you have a file name with special characters, rename the file before uploading it to the machine. It’s safest to use only letters (upper and lowercase), numbers, “-”) and underscore (“_”) in file names.

Connect Your Computer to the Brother SE400

Included USB Cable USB Cable to SE400 USB Cable to Computer SE400 Connected to Computer

USB Cable Included
With The Brother SE400

Plug the square end
into the SE400.

Plug the flat end
into the computer.

The Brother SE400
Connected to the Computer

Plug the square end of the included USB cable into the USB port on the right side of the SE400. Plug the flat end of the cable into a USB port on your computer.

Make sure both the computer and the embroidery machine are turned on.

Brother SE400 LCDOn the SE400 LCD screen, press the USB icon. This will take you to a screen that will give you information about the designs you’re downloading.

Look at the LCD Screen

It’s helpful to glance at the Brother SE400 touch screen while you’re copying files over. The message “Transmitting by USB” will appear briefly during the actual file transfer. And then you’ll see this screen giving information about the designs you have transferred over:

Brother SE400 Control Panel after copying file

The first number at the top left of the screen is the total amount of memory you’ve used. The second number is the total amount of memory space. The SE400 can hold up to 12 designs or 476KB of data in its memory. After that you have to delete some old designs if you want to download more designs.

Next there is the button (looks like a pocket with an up arrow) for retreiving the pattern.

Under the button, there is the number of the current page and the total number of pages. Two designs are displayed on each page. In the photo above, I’ve uploaded three designs. So I’m on page 1 out of 2 pages.

At the bottom, there are images of the embroidery designs on the current page.

Copy the Embroidery Design Data Files to the Brother SE400

For Windows Computers (For Macintoshes, See Below.)

Back on your PC, you’ll have “Removable Disk” listed in “My Computer”:

Removable Disk on My Computer

Open the folder on your computer where you keep the embroidery files. Navigate to the particular design you want to download to the SE400. Right-click on the design file. Click on “Send to: Removable Disk”

Removable Disk on My Computer

Do not copy .zip files. You must unzip them first.

Do not copy folders to “Removable Disk.” The SE400 cannot recognize folders or find embroidery files in folders. The individual files must be added to “Removable Disk.”

Do not copy more than 12 designs to “Removable Disk.”

Embroidery Files in Removable Disk

For Macintoshes (For PCs, Skip This Section.)

Although the manual says the SE400 is only compatible with PCs, it’ll work just fine with a Macintosh.

The SE400 will show up as an external hard drive, named “No Name.” Just drag and drop the embroidery files to this drive.

No Name Drive on Macintosh

Do not copy .zip files. You must unzip them first. Just double-click it.

Do not copy folders to “No Name.” The SE400 cannot recognize folders or find embroidery files in folders. The individual files must be added to “No Name.”

Do not copy more than 12 designs to “No Name.”

A weird thing happens on the Macintosh. The Macintosh system puts invisible system files in “No Name” which the SE400 transfers over. So the amount of memory used can be 16 to 28KB when the machine is first connected to the computer, even before you’ve downloaded any designs. These files aren’t embroidery designs so there aren’t any images. Only the amount of memory used increases. This is isn’t a problem unless you’re pushing the memory limits with large embroidery files.

Retrieve the Embroidery Pattern

Move to the screen that displays the image of the embroidery design you want using the Next Page [<] and Previous Page [>] buttons on the right. Select the design by touching the image. The selected design will be displayed in reverse highlighting.

Retrieve the Embroidery Pattern

Then, press the Retrieve key (circled in red in the photo above).

The embroidery screen appears. From here you can check the colors, adjust the pattern, embroider it and/or save it to the machine’s memory.

embroidery screen

Embroider the Design

You can either embroider the pattern now or save it in the SE400’s memory to use later. If you want to embroider it now, make any adjustments you like, set the machine up for embroidery, and press the Start button to begin stitching.

Saving Embroidery Designs

Unsaved designs are lost when the SE400 is turned off. So if you want to use a design again without copying it from your computer, you must save it to the SE400’s memory. This is a convenient way to save names and designs that you use frequently. Or if you’re starting a project or several projects that involve several designs, you can transfer them all over at once and save them. I do this so I don’t have to keep moving my computer next to the SE400 because I don’t have a large working space.

You can save up to 12 designs or 476KB of data.

After retrieving the design you want to save by pressing the Retrieve Key and going to the embroidery screen, press the Memory button. “Saving…” appears while the pattern is being saved.

Saving the embroidery pattern

Retrieving Saved Embroidery Designs

From the first menu, press the Retrieve Key.

Retrieving the embroidery pattern

The saved designs are displayed. Go to the design you want using the Previous and Next Keys. Select it by pressing it. You can then delete it or retrieve it to embroider.

Retrieving the saved embroidery pattern

Hope This Helps

I get a lot of questions about how to download designs into the Brother SE400 and the manual isn’t very clear. Being able to easily transfer designs from my computer with USB is very important to me because I’m always wanting something different. So I hope this article helps you do it too.

Now that you’ve saved your designs, you might want to delete some. See my article, “How to Remove a Saved Design“.

If you don’t have your embroidery machine yet, check out my Brother SE400 review for detailed information. Click here to see today’s price on Amazon.com.

Related Posts

  • What Is The Difference Between The Brother SE-400 and Brother SE-350?What Is The Difference Between The Brother SE-400 and Brother SE-350?
  • Brother PED-Basic Software for Downloading Embroidery DesignsBrother PED-Basic Software for Downloading Embroidery Designs
  • Machine Number in Control PanelHow to Find the Brother SE400’s Machine Number
  • Brother SE-400 vs. Brother HE-240

Our Readers Respond ...

  1. Melanie Nickerson says

    May 5, 2020 at 8:59 pm

    I need to download a logo from a restaurant to print onto the mask I am making for the workers. How can I download a logo from my computer?

    Reply
  2. Cynthia Gilliam says

    April 5, 2020 at 11:45 am

    I’m just learning how to transfer from the computer to my embroidery machine. I get so confused. I was getting free designs to learn before I actually buy them. Sometimes I can get them most times I can’t and when I do get them, I can’t remember what I did to get them in the first place.

    I get so overwhelmed that I just put my machine up

    Reply
  3. Linda says

    January 7, 2020 at 3:12 pm

    I have the brother SE 625 I need to learn step by step instructions on how to download from computer to flashdrive.

    Reply
  4. Betty Hilton says

    January 6, 2020 at 9:37 am

    My husband bought me a PED-Basic several years ago we tried to use it and had no luck with it! Put it back in the box in the closet. I have been buying patterns from Etsy! Now there is a problem with that! I have Windows 10 on my laptop! After reading your site I thought I would try again to use it, what I need to know is it still viable with Windows 10? I have the SE400.

    Reply
    • Betty Hilton says

      January 6, 2020 at 9:42 am

      My husband said I need to tell you the version we have is Ver. 1.07.

      Reply
  5. Patty Marchionno says

    December 17, 2019 at 6:32 pm

    I have an SE400 Brother machine- also my Babylock Ellageo can longer be fixed. I have a no of cards used with Ellageo and some list Brother as if it were compatible, It doesn’t say which Brother. Wanted to check on which cards are compatible Se400.

    Reply
  6. Cathie says

    November 25, 2019 at 2:09 pm

    Hi Kamala,
    You’ve given a lot of information but just one question, what software should I use for the .pes files?Will I need something like Pedesign11? or Embrilliance?
    Thanks for your help. I have an SE400.

    Reply
  7. Rhonda says

    November 10, 2019 at 2:44 pm

    Hi, I am on a mac and trying to retrieve a design. I find the download in finder but can’t seem to find no name. any suggestion
    Thanks

    Reply
  8. Maureen says

    November 2, 2019 at 4:44 pm

    Hi Kamala, Question, have you ever downloaded a design onto your machine that downloads but does not show up on screen?

    Reply
  9. Fatima says

    October 15, 2019 at 9:09 pm

    Hi Kamala,
    I have brother NV950 (Innov-is950) would the above work with it?
    Could I connect directly to the computer and save the designs on the machine? or do i have to purchase the software?

    Regards
    Fatima

    Reply
  10. Peggy says

    September 7, 2019 at 7:43 pm

    My Dell Computer crashed and now my new computer runs Windows 10….which I dislike. Because of this every embroidery file I purchased and other downloads automatically converts to a JPEG which will not work in Brother 400 embroidery machine. I cannot get them to save to a file format that will work. Please advise how to convert to something I can use….out $150 of purchased files

    Reply
    • Kamala says

      September 8, 2019 at 10:56 am

      Hi Peggy,
      I’m very sorry you’re have this problem. But I can’t help you. I don’t know anything about Windows. I only use Macs/Apple. However, a wild guess from general computer knowledge, it sounds like a settings problem. I can’t imagine wanting all my downloads automatically converted to anything. Maybe it’s just adding the .jpg extension to the file. I suggest you consult with someone who knows about Windows because this is more a problem with the way your computer is setup than an embroidery problem. Good luck. Best Regards, Kamala

      Reply
« Older Comments
Newer Comments »

Please Join The Conversation Cancel reply

I do love to hear from you, and I’ll answer your comments as quickly as I can. But if I’m traveling or otherwise away from the computer, it could take me a few days.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome to my BrotherSE400 Blog

Kamala Kelly, Brother SE400 EnthusiastHi, I'm Kamala. I love all the textile arts and started making my own clothes when a young child. As an embroidery machine, the Brother SE400 was my first love, and I started this website to share my experiences, discoveries, and also to provide reviews on anything related to the Brother SE400.

My goal is to help you avoid the time and confusion I went through when choosing my first embroidery machine.

Kamala Signature

P.S. Please click the "Like" button to join me on Facebook.

Kamala Embroidery

Categories

  • Accessories and Supplies
  • Brother SE400 Reviews & Comparisons
  • Embroidery Around the World
  • Embroidery Thread for Brother SE400
  • Hoops for Brother SE400
  • Projects
  • Questions & Answers
  • Software
  • Tutorials
  • Videos

Recent Posts

  • What Settings Does the Brother SE400 Have?
  • Assisi Embroidery – A Unique Style
  • Brother PED-Basic Software for Downloading Embroidery Designs
  • How do you make a 3 letter monogram with a larger middle letter?
  • How to Remove a Saved Design

About  |   Privacy Policy  |   Disclaimer  |   Disclosure  |   Terms of Use

www.BrotherSE400.com is an unofficial website, dedicated to giving you information about the Brother SE400 Embroidery and Sewing Machine. I have no connection to Brother International Corporation. I just love my Brother SE400.

Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. If you click on one of my special links and buy something, I may receive a small commission. This in no way affects the price you pay except you may find a better deal through my research. I do not receive review products or any other compensation in exchange for the reviews which are written objectively and honestly.

I have compiled the information on this site to the best of my ability from my own personal experience and from other reliable sources. Despite all reasonable efforts, it is impossible to guarantee the accuracy of the information which changes frequently.

Copyright 2009-2021 www.BrotherSE400.com and respective copyright owners. All rights reserved worldwide.