I use a lot of the Dakota Treasure chest designs, and found that if I take them into Designshop, I can throw away all the excess stuff- leaving just the 'fill' areas-then do auto fill, etc. from that with Designshop. Typically I can cut 30% of the stitch count out. Also, just decreasing the design overall 'size' 10% can make a huge difference in stitch count and the customer won't notice! Roland