For more information on how to digitize directed jumps, you will find a free video on the monthly Studio Digitizing lessons page. And while you are there, be sure to check out the lessons on digitizing.

Happy Digitizing!

There are “mouse” people and then there are “keyboard” people.   I have to admit that I fall into the category of a keyboard person as I always find it much faster to use shortcuts.  But then if you are trying to teach others how to use a program, I run into the problem of using shortcuts and confusing people.   You can usually find the shortcuts in programs as they are usually right beside the command, but some shortcuts are not obvious.   My favourite two shortcuts are for copy and paste and I am always amazed how many people don’t know these shortcuts.   For those of you who really want to know some of the shortcuts, a very brief listing of some is below.

Windows program key combinations

• CTRL > C Copy
• CTRL > X Cut
• CTRL > V Paste
• CTRL > Z Undo
• CTRL > B Bold
• CTRL > U Underline
• CTRL > I Italic

General Folder/Windows Explorer shortcuts

For a selected object

• F2 Rename object
• F3 Find all files
• CTRL > X Cut
• CTRL > C Copy
• CTRL > V Paste
• SHIFT > DELETE Delete selection immediately, without moving the item to the Recycle Bin
• ALT > ENTER Open the properties for the selected object
• To copy a file – Press and hold down the CTRL key while you drag the file to another folder.
• To create a shortcut – Press and hold down CTRL > SHIFT while you drag a file to the desktop or a folder.

General folder/shortcut control keys

• F4 Selects the Go To A Different Folder box and moves down the entries in the box (if the toolbar is active in Windows Explorer)
• F5 Refreshes the current window.
• F6 Moves among panes in Windows Explorer
• CTRL > G Opens the Go To Folder tool (in Windows 95 Windows Explorer only)
• CTRL > Z Undo the last command
• CTRL > A Select all the items in the current window
• BACKSPACE Switch to the parent folder
• SHIFT > click > Close button For folders, close the current folder plus all parent folders

Enjoy!

What do you need to do to fix this design? Two or three simple steps and you will have a useable image.

· Change the size of the background around the design.

· Enlarge the design to at least 400 pixels by 400 pixels at a resolution of 100 pixels per inch (the graphic at that size will fit “exactly” within a 100 mm square hoop in Embird Studio).

· Sharpen the image.

Working with Paint Shop Pro X3, the image began as a very small grouping of tulips as shown in the image to the left.  After changing the size of the background around the design and enlarging it to 400 pixels, the image is now suitable for digitizing.  Notice how the background is not even around the design, with more background at the top and less at the bottom, allowing the digitizer to complete the stems and leaves of the tulips at the bottom of the design and perhaps add some grass or other objects to finish this section of the design.   Square designs will draw your eye to the centre, which is not always what you want with scenic designs but by having more open space at the top, the eye will see more of the entire design as it will not be drawn to the centre of the design but rather will focus on the largest or brightest area of the design, which could be the tulip flowers if they are bright or the stems and leaves as they will be the largest objects.

The image below shows the graphic open as a background image in a 100 mm workspace in Embird Studio.  Quite a difference from the original image, isn’t it?

Don’t forget to check out the Flying Needle Digitizing lessons available with a new and always timely digitizing project each month.

There are many sites that do specialize in selling clipart for digitizing.    If you Google “clipart for digitizing” you will see a list of several sites you can check out.   I found that entering that phrase into Google gave me 184,000 results, but usually the first two or three pages are all you will want to check into.   

Over the years I have used quite a few different sites for clipart but the one thing missing from most sites is originality and useability.   Quite often the clipart is either childish or too complicated and requires far too much editing to be useful as background images for digitizing.   The one site I do feel comfortable recommending for all types of clipart, both simple and more advanced, covering the gamut from clipart for chldren’s designs to the more sophisticated adult designs is Diddybag clipart.    I am not affiliated with Diddybag, but whenever I find something that is useful for digitizing purposes, I do want to pass it on.   So be sure to check out the clipart at this site, you won’t be sorry you did.  

At times you may need to edit the clipart slightly, so always be sure to ask the digitizer if you can edit the clipart after you purchase it.   Next week I will go into some easy steps to edit clipart in Paint Shop Pro, the graphics program I use to edit graphics for digitizing.

We are now required to keep passwords for almost everything in our lives, and it all seems to be computerized.

For safety on the web, be sure to choose good passwords and keep them in secure locations. It would be nice to just memorize all your passwords, but it would be impossible to memorize every password you have.

Use different passwords for different websites. This will help limit the amount of information stolen in case you are hacked.  You can easily pick the first half of any name and append a special number to the end to create passwords on the fly that you can recall easily. Never use your debit pin number for anything online though.

Passwords should be 8-10 characters long. Numbers and/or symbols should be included along with lower case and upper case letters. Don’t use your kid’s names or anything else that would be easy for a thief to figure out.

Change your passwords every three to six months just to be safe. You can use a password auto-generator if you can’t come up with unique, difficult to crack passwords on your own.

Recently I was forwarded information on an article that should be a must read for everyone who deals with passwords – and I am sure that would be all of us. Lauren, the person who sent the article to me, said that she became interested in techniques to remembering passwords after she was assigned a research project which led her to the article at http://www.onlinehumanresourcesdegree.org/remember-password There is a wealth of information on this site and it is well worth taking the time to read through the various articles.

One of the advantages of digitizing applique objects or combining applique objects in a design with fill or column objects is the variety of fabrics you can use in your applique objects.  There is no way you can replicate different types of fabrics with fill objects but by combining fabric with fill objects you will have unique one=of-a-kind designs for clothing, home dec or many other applications.  

The “Applique – a Story in Fabric and Stitches” tutorial will teach you the easy way to digitize applique designs and best of all, there is a sale on the tutorial until April 3rd, 2011!   There is also a free download on the bottom of the page to get you started with applique.

Enjoy Embird Studio and digitizing unique applique designs!

The March 2011 lesson focuses on using the trace tool for design sections, and after completing the lesson I found this graphic , which was a really suitable design to work with, using the trace tool for sections of the design.   The plaid seat area of the design was digitized with the fill object trace tool and then edited where necessary to complete this section of the design and, of course, changing the angles of objects.   And no, this design will not look like a colouring book design because the trace tool was used.  You can successfully use the  trace tool  without worrying about having too simplistic a design.   To complete this section of the design it was outlined using the auto outliner.   The rungs of the chair were digitized using the outline trace tool.  

The side of the chair was digitized with the fill auto trace tool in example 1 with the angle set to –140 degrees.  As you can see, the angle is suitable along the left edge, but when it goes around the curved area and then the  bottom of the design, the angle is not suitable.   Figure 2 shows the same area of the design digitized with the column with a pattern tool.  You can see how the angle follow the angle of the object exactly.   Figure 3 shows both curve areas of the design in a closer view.  All examples are shown in 3D preview mode.   Remember that you always need to do a sample sewout to see how the design will sew out and if there are any problems with the design.   Preview mode will show you how it should look but a sewout shows you how it does look.  

There is much more information in the March Studio lesson on not only using the trace tool, but also other quick and easy tools to make digitizing much easier in Studio.

Enjoy Studio.

You may also find that if you are new to Studio that some of the icons and tools are really mystifying – and downright confusing at times!  I do have a “Beginning Steps Tutorial” free download that you may find helpful.   You can find the tutorial at the bottom of the Monthly Studio Digitizing Lessons page. And while you are there, be sure to check out the latest monthly lesson – each lesson is unique and a lot of fun.

Enjoy digitizing with Studio!

When digitizing designs in Studio, the global settings for tie-off stitches can be set to any number from a maximums of 6 stitches to 0 (zero) stitches but bear in mind that if you set the tie-off stitches to 0 it will eliminate tie-offs for all objects of that type (either outlines, columns or fill objects), in the design you are working with, depending on which object you have selected. The maximum length of the tie-up stitches can also be changed.

At present (and hopefully that will change in future builds of Studio) , if you want to change the tie-off stitches for only one object, those tie-off stitches will need to be manually edited after the design is sent to Editor.

Embird Studio does add a default knot to each object if it isn’t connected to another object of the same color. The default knot is three stitches in the same place. While that may work for some fill types and fabric combinations, there are some fill types and/or fabric combinations where these stitches can cause holes in the fabric or other problems. These tie-off stitches can be found and edited in Editor if they need to be changed. A triangle shape or small asterisk * will do a much better job of tying off stitches, especially with high speed embroidery machines.
The reason why tie-off stitches have to be edited in Editor is that stitches don’t really
exist unless you have digitized objects with manual stitches or have converted an object to editable stitches; everything else you see is a preview of how your stitches will look when you actually convert the objects into stitches.

Once you compile your design and send it to Editor, stitches are assigned and you can then view and edit the design. If you are going to do major editing, the design must be re-opened in Studio (not sent back to Studio through Editor), make any necessary changes and then compile and send to Editor. Minor editing such as editing tie-off stitches, colour changing or other minor changes would be completed in Editor.

Another workaround to having multiple objects starting and stopping at the same point is to change the start/stop points of objects when digitizing in Studio. An example of this is applique designs where you have two runs of underlay and the final satin stitches, all beginning at the same point, putting down multiple tie-off stitches. Moving the tie-off stitches for the second and third runs of stitching for the applique object and adding connection stitches between the objects will eliminate the problems with thread knots on the reverse of the fabric and/or holes in the fabric from too many stitches in the same location.

When in Editor you will need to find the tie-off stitch and then edit the ties manually. You don’t normally have to edit tie-off stitches, except for special threads or specialty fabrics that may fray with too many stitches in one position. A triangle or small asterisk would prevent the repeated stitches in one position.

The first step in Editor would be, of course, to find the ending stitch. Open the design in Editor and make sure it is selected. Looking down at the right in the lower toolbar you will see the total stitch number in the design, i.e. 3042 stitches. You now know that your last stitch is #3042.

Click on the find stitch icon ; specify the stitch number in the pop-up window. Click on ok. Do not move the mouse; the mouse will point to the position of the last stitch (Note: once you move the mouse, you will not see the position of the last stitch). You can also find the last stitch position by running the sew simulator at a slow speed.

If you are having trouble locating the last stitch, another option is to click on view > stitch points. Zoom in very closely and you will see a darker stitch with a triangle in the centre of it. That is your tie-off stitch.

Click on the points editing icon ; draw a rectangle around the area of the tie-off stitch; edit the tie off stitches to a suitable position and you are finished. The object on the right is zoomed in very, very large, the triangle will not be visible when you embroider the design.

Make any other necessary small editing changes, save the design and you are ready for embroidery.

As a final note, keep in mind that some embroidery machines will automatically add tie-off stitches if they do not see marked ties in the design. That is to prevent sewing out a design without tie-offs. Do not automatically add tie-off stitches to any design in Editor, without checking first to see if there are tie-offs, as the software has no way of knowing that you already have tie-off stitches. If you add additional tie-offs that are completely unnecessary, you may, and probably will be causing problems at the embroidery machine by having too many tie-off stitches.