USER GUIDE
GETTING STARTED
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2016. Wilcom Pty Ltd, Wilcom International Pty Ltd. All Rights reserved.
No parts of this publication or the accompanying software may be copied or distributed, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into any human or computer language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, manual, or otherwise, or disclosed to any third party without the express written permission of:
Wilcom Pty Ltd. (A.B.N. 43 001 971 919)
Level 3, 1-9 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe
Sydney, New South Wales, 2037, Australia
PO Box 1094, Broadway, NSW 2007
Phone: +61 2 9578 5100
Fax: +61 2 9578 5108
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.wilcom.com
TrueView™ and Point & Stitch™ are trademarks of Wilcom Pty Ltd. Portions of the imaging technology of this
Product are copyrighted by AccuSoft Corporation. The EPS File Import/Export Converter used in this Product is copyrighted by Access Softek, Inc. All rights reserved.
Wilcom Pty Ltd makes no representation or warranties with respect to the contents of this publication and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantable quality or fitness for any particular purpose. Further,
Wilcom Pty Ltd reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes in it from time to time without obligation of Wilcom Pty Ltd to notify any person or organization of such revisions or changes.
The screen illustrations in this publication are intended as representations, not exact duplicates of screen layouts generated by the software. The samples used to illustrate software features and capabilities may not be exactly duplicable, depending on inclusions provided with your software model or product level. Some artwork for design samples is kindly provided by Digital Art Solutions.
Subject to any warranties implied by law which are incapable of limitation or exclusion, the software is purchased
‘as is’ without any warranty as to its performance, accuracy, freedom from error or to any results generated through its use and without any implied warranty of merchantability or of fitness for any particular purpose for which the software is being acquired. The purchaser relies on its own skill and judgement in selecting the software for its own use and assumes the entire risk as to the results and performance of the software. Wilcom Pty Ltd specifically does not warrant that the software will meet the purchaser’s requirements or operate without interruption or error.
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CONTENTS
Getting Started ............................................................................................................................ 1
Working with embroidery .................................................................................................................... 1
The user interface ....................................................................................................................... 2
Design window ..................................................................................................................................... 2
Menu & toolbars .................................................................................................................................. 3
Toolboxes ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Dockers ................................................................................................................................................ 3
Status bar ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Multi-hooping mode ............................................................................................................................ 5
First things first ........................................................................................................................... 6
Sample designs & artwork ................................................................................................................... 6
Rules of good embroidery .................................................................................................................... 7
Stitch out an existing design ........................................................................................................ 8
Study sample designs ........................................................................................................................... 8
Adjust view settings ............................................................................................................................. 8
Change fabric type ............................................................................................................................... 9
Assign threads ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Preview stitchout ................................................................................................................................. 9
Preview design worksheet ................................................................................................................. 10
Output design .................................................................................................................................... 11
Modify a design ......................................................................................................................... 12
Open design ....................................................................................................................................... 12
Adjust thread colors ........................................................................................................................... 12
Resize design ...................................................................................................................................... 13
Rotate objects .................................................................................................................................... 13
Visualize design .................................................................................................................................. 14
Hoop design ....................................................................................................................................... 14
Create simple lettering .............................................................................................................. 15
Open design ....................................................................................................................................... 15
Add lettering ...................................................................................................................................... 16
Adjust baselines and other settings ................................................................................................... 16
Advanced lettering .................................................................................................................... 17
Monogramming ................................................................................................................................. 17
Flair script ........................................................................................................................................... 17
Lettering stitch effects ....................................................................................................................... 18
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Lettering art ....................................................................................................................................... 18
Customize designs ..................................................................................................................... 19
Combine designs ................................................................................................................................ 19
Transform designs .............................................................................................................................. 19
Reshape designs ................................................................................................................................. 20
Apply artistic stitch effects ................................................................................................................. 20
Auto-digitizing ........................................................................................................................... 21
Using artwork ..................................................................................................................................... 21
Bitmap artwork conversion................................................................................................................ 22
Next steps ................................................................................................................................. 24
Special embroidery features .............................................................................................................. 24
Happy embroidery! ............................................................................................................................ 24
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Getting Started
GETTING STARTED
If you are new to embroidery design software or machine embroidery, you are probably asking yourself ‘where do I start?!’.
It’s safe to say that you will spend many hours, both rewarding and at times frustrating, learning how to get the most out of your embroidery machine and the design software which supports it. The two work together handin-hand and it takes practice and patience to master both the creation and production of fine embroidery.
The results, however, will speak for themselves, making the time you invest all the more valuable. With each project you complete, you will gain in experience and confidence and be ready to tackle the next challenge.
Working with embroidery
Let’s take a look at the scenarios that you will find yourself working with. Typically, you will be involved in one or all of the following:
Take a ready-made design and sew it out
Make global changes to a design
Combine lettering with a design
Create a monogram design
Adapt an existing design
Create embroidery from artwork using automated techniques
Create embroidery manually
Use special embroidery features
Let’s look at those cases one by one. This section outlines the main uses you will make of your embroidery software, together with references to sections of the User Guide where you can obtain more in-depth information.
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The user interface
THE USER INTERFACE
The embroidery software can be opened via the desktop icon or MS Windows® Start menu.
Design window
Your embroidery software has a single workspace or ‘design window’. This allows you to modify or create embroidery designs using the extensive toolset. You can have multiple designs open simultaneously and toggle between each via the design tabs.
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The user interface
Menu & toolbars
The main menu and toolbars are normally docked at the top of the screen above the design window. Use both to access common commands. As you get more familiar with them, you can speed things up by using keyboard shortcuts. For a list of available toolbars, go to the Window menu...
The software includes a 'Context' toolbar which changes according to the selected tool. If you have no tools selected, you will see a machine list as well as a hoop list. Here you can also set your measurement units – Metric or U.S. – and adjust screen background settings.
Toolboxes
Toolboxes are like toolbars in that they contain software tools.
However, each toolbox represents a typical scenario you will be engaged in, such as customizing designs or editing objects. Some tools may appear in more than one context. As such, toolboxes are organized in order of common operations, starting with managing your designs.
Dockers
The software includes a number of ‘dockers’ for key functions. These include operations to do with thread selection, object sequencing, cutwork, ‘carving stamps’, as well as viewing and modifying object properties. Dockers are normally docked to the right of the design window. They may also be ‘floated’ by dragging the caption bar to the design window or double-clicking. For a list of available dockers, go to the Window menu.
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The user interface
There are three dockers you will make constant use of:
Docker Purpose
Object
Properties
The most important of these is the Object Properties docker. Use this together with the
Context toolbar to access and modify the many properties of selected embroidery objects.
Resequence The Resequence docker offers an easy way to selectively view and resequence color blocks and objects in designs.
My Threads The My Threads docker allows you to select thread charts and assign threads to the current design. The My Threads docker works in conjunction with the Design Palette toolbar.
Status bar
A Status Bar at the bottom of the design window provides continuous display of current cursor position status as well as instructions for use of selected tools.
Information displayed includes...
Field Notes
Prompt message
To guide you through use of selected functions
Design size Width and height
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The user interface
Field Notes
Coordinates Current needle position (X/Y), and length (L) and angle (A) of current stitch. See also
Grids & guides.
Stitch count Total number of stitches in design
Current fabric Fabric settings take into account the type of fabric you are stitching on. See also Auto fabrics & densities.
Grade of design
Native EMB designs are classified in four grades depending on how the file was created.
See Supported embroidery files.
Multi-hooping mode
Here is a screen image from the multi-hooping workspace which is accessed via the Multi-
Hooping toolbox. If your embroidery is too large or contains a number of designs spaced around an article, you can split it into multiple hoopings.
This means you can create embroidery designs that are larger than can be stitched in a single hooping. The multi-hooping workspace allows you to set up the position and sequence of each hoop.
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First things first
FIRST THINGS FIRST
You don’t need experience to start using your software. You can simply open a design and send it to machine for ‘stitchout’. And this is the best place to start. As you gain experience, you will be able to
‘read’ designs and identify which are good and which may cause problems.
Sample designs & artwork
Your software contains many ready-to-stitch designs, samples and projects. These can be found in the installed Embroidery Library. The most valuable thing when starting out as a new user, is to spend some time exploring these designs and getting to know what’s available.
There are also artwork files for use as digitizing backdrops. These are installed to your Pictures folder. See also Import Images in the online user guide.
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First things first
There are many other sources of ready-made embroidery designs which you can purchase online and adapt as you wish. Just be aware of any copyright issues that may be attached to designs you find on the web.
Rules of good embroidery
Keep the following points in mind when looking at embroidery designs, both your own and others:
Stitches are neat, smooth and even
Design looks good – shapes, colors, balance
Shapes are filled with correct fill and outline stitches
Stitches are angled to match shapes
Shapes are stitched correctly – no unwanted gaps
Details are clearly defined
Lettering is clear and easy to read.
The stitchout should also have the following characteristics:
The design sews efficiently on the machine
The fabric does not pucker around stitched areas
The design is free of loose ends.
Good embroidery quality starts with good design. You then need a good quality machine to stitch it out. But even that is not enough if you do not use the correct fabric, threads, backings, tension, and so on. Consult your machine manual for advice and get as much advice from other embroiderers as you can.
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Stitch out an existing design
STITCH OUT AN EXISTING DESIGN
For many embroiderers, it is enough to take an existing design and stitch it out. This is certainly where most will start. Once you have found a design you like, you will want to preview it to see how it will sew out. A number of steps are involved. We outline the main ones here with reference to the online User Guide.
Study sample designs
Use Manage Designs > Open Selected to open design(s) selected in the embroidery library.
Use Manage Designs > New From Selected to create new designs based on designs or artwork selected in the embroidery library.
Open a design from your Embroidery Library. See Open Design Files.
Adjust view settings
Use View > Show Design to show or hide design elements. Click to open droplist of view settings.
Adjust viewing settings as preferred. See View Designs.
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Stitch out an existing design
Change fabric type
Use Customize Design > Auto Fabric to change the properties of the design for stitching on a different fabric.
Check the fabric type and change as necessary via the
Customize Design toolbox or Design Settings menu. See Auto
Fabrics & Densities.
Assign threads
Use Design Palette > Change Design Color to show or hide the My Threads docker to find threads from different charts and change design colors.
Go to the Design Palette and check the thread colors. If necessary, change charts to suit one you are using. See Design Colors.
Preview stitchout
Use View > Stitch Player to simulate embroidery design stitchout onscreen in either stitch or
TrueView.
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Stitch out an existing design
Press <Shift + R> to preview the stitchout so you understand how the design will sew on the machine. See Travel Through Designs.
Preview design worksheet
Use Output Design / Standard > Print Preview to preview design worksheet. Print from preview window.
Preview the design via the Standard toolbar or Output Design toolbox and print a design worksheet as preferred. See Print Designs.
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Stitch out an existing design
Output design
Use Output Design > Export Design to convert current design to a format other than your selected machine.
Use Output Design / Context > Transfer Design to transfer current design to the design folder.
Right-click for settings.
Send the design to machine via data media (usually memory stick). Or by file transfer. See Output
Designs.
Check your machine documentation for steps involved after transferring the design to machine.
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Modify a design
MODIFY A DESIGN
Once you are used to the steps involved in sewing out designs – either clipart or ones you have purchased – you will soon want to make global design modifications such as resizing, or changing thread colors and fabric types. These are all relatively simple operations. We outline some of the common ones here with reference to the online User Guide.
Open design
Use Manage Designs > Open Selected to open design(s) selected in the embroidery library.
Use Manage Designs > New From Selected to create new designs based on designs or artwork selected in the embroidery library.
Open the design you want to use. See Open design files.
Press <Ctrl + A> to select all objects and press <Ctrl + G> to group them.
Adjust thread colors
Use Design Palette > Change Design Color to show or hide the My Threads docker to find threads from different charts and change design colors.
Use Customize Design > Cycle Used Colors to cycle through combinations of used colors. Left- or right-click.
Adjust design thread colors as preferred. Try cycling used colors to find a combination that suits the background color of the fabric. See Design Colors.
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Modify a design
Resize design
Use Context > Size + 10% to increase the size of selected objects in 10% increments.
Use Context > Size - 10% to decrease the size of selected objects in 10% increments.
Check design dimensions, and resize as required. For example, if you are stitching a left chest design, maximum size will be approximately 4.25" or 108 mm square. See Transform Objects.
Rotate objects
Use Context > Rotate Left 15° to rotate selected objects in 15° anti-clockwise increments.
Use Context > Rotate Right 15° to rotate selected objects in 15° clockwise increments.
Use selection handles or the Context toolbar to rotate objects into position.
See Transform Objects.
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Modify a design
Visualize design
Use Customize Design / Context > Background and Display Colors to set colors, fabrics, or articles as design backgrounds.
Go to the Customize Design toolbox and use the Design
Background tool to visualize the design on a garment or article. See Backgrounds.
Hoop design
Click View > Show Hoop to show or hide hoop. Right-click for settings.
Choose a hoop via the View toolbar or Context toolbar. Make sure the design fits within the stitching area. See Hoop Selection.
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CREATE SIMPLE LETTERING
Once you are used to sewing out designs and resizing, changing colors and fabric types, you will certainly want to create your own lettering designs. While it takes practice to obtain a good quality stitchout, it is as simple as typing letters on-screen to create an attractive lettering design.
Create simple lettering
Designs, fonts and other elements used in this video may not be available in your software, depending upon purchased options.
Open design
Use Manage Designs > Open Selected to open design(s) selected in the embroidery library.
Use Manage Designs > New From Selected to create new designs based on designs or artwork selected in the embroidery library.
Open a design. Typically you’ll want to add lettering to an existing design. Go to the Manage
Designs toolbox and choose from one of the many samples. See also Manage Designs.
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Create simple lettering
Add lettering
Use Lettering / Monogramming > Lettering to create embroidery lettering onscreen using native embroidery alphabets or TrueType fonts.
Add embroidery lettering to designs quickly and easily, either on-screen using current settings or via ‘object properties’. See Create Lettering.
Adjust baselines and other settings
It’s then a simple matter to adjust baselines, formatting, spacing settings, and colors. See Lettering
Layouts.
Try stitching out your lettering design. Study the stitch quality. Be aware that different alphabets sew out better at different sizes.
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Advanced lettering
ADVANCED LETTERING
Once you have tried your hand at creating lettering designs and sewing them out, you will want to do more adventurous things, such as monograms, fancy lettering, flair scripts, raised lettering with trapunto, as well as special ‘elastic lettering’ effects. The creative possibilities are endless. Your appetite to try new things will be stimulated as you gain experience and confidence. Part of that involves becoming adept at using your sewing machine as well as sampling and checking design quality.
Remember to study the sample designs included with your embroidery software installation.
Monogramming
Use Lettering / Monogramming > Monogramming to create personalized monograms using a selection of pre-defined styles, border shapes and ornaments.
The software makes the creation of monogramming designs simple with the Monogramming tool.
Optionally include lettering, ornaments, and/or up to four concentric borders in your monograms.
See Embroidered Monogram Pillow.
Flair script
Use Lettering / Monogramming > Lettering to create embroidery lettering onscreen using native embroidery alphabets or TrueType fonts.
Flair script is a special font which allows you to add decorative flairs to the end of text objects, mimicking flamboyant handwriting flourishes. See Special Lettering.
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Advanced lettering
Lettering stitch effects
Use Object Properties > Effects > Feather Edge to create rough edges and shading effects, or imitate fluffy textures.
By default, lettering objects are filled with satin stitching. You can apply other fill stitch types, such as
Step or Fancy, as with any embroidery object. See
Stitch Types.
Lettering art
Use Lettering / Monogramming > Lettering to create embroidery lettering onscreen using native embroidery alphabets or TrueType fonts.
Apply 'lettering art' effects to embroidery lettering to make it bulge or arch, stretch or compress. See Lettering Layouts.
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Customize designs
CUSTOMIZE DESIGNS
Customizing designs is perhaps the most common scenario in embroidery. You will sometimes want to create a new design, usually from artwork, but more often you will want to take an existing design and ‘re-purpose’ it. We’ve already seen how to make global changes such as sizing, changing colors and fabrics. It won’t be long before you want to try more ‘invasive’ changes such as reshaping, removing, combining, duplicating, resequencing, changing stitch types and effects, etc.
Here is a sampling of the things you may want to try.
Remember to study the sample designs included with your embroidery software installation.
Combine designs
Use Customize Design / Standard / Layout > Insert Design to insert another embroidery design into the current design. Design palettes are merged. This tool is also available via File menu.
One technique you will undoubtedly use is combining design elements. This will in turn teach you a lot about other editing operations such as resizing, positioning, rotating, sequencing objects, as well as removing underlying stitching. See Insert Designs.
Transform designs
Use Layout > Mirror-Copy Horizontal to mirror and copy selected objects horizontally.
Use Layout > Mirror-Copy Vertical to mirror and copy selected objects vertically.
Depending on the type of design work you are doing, you can make use of your software tools for duplicating, rotating, and mirroring designs to create wreathes, kaleidoscopes, and other effects. See Transform Objects.
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Customize designs
Reshape designs
Use Edit Objects / Select > Reshape to reshape an object outline, stitch angles or enveloping.
Reshaping operations may be called on for anything from minor modifications to object shapes to reshaping letters for special effects. In most cases, if it is selectable, it can be reshaped. See Reshape Objects.
Apply artistic stitch effects
Use Object Properties > Fill > Embossed to create decorative patterns of needle penetrations while keeping the appearance of solid stitching. Choose from a pattern library.
Use Object Properties > Fill > Motif to create decorative open fill stitching. Choose from a motif library.
It won’t take long before you get bored with simple fills and outlines and want to try out some of the many artistic stitch types and effects your software provides. See Stitch
Types.
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Auto-digitizing
AUTO-DIGITIZING
If you have graduated this far in exploring your machine and embroidery software, you are doing well. You can already achieve a great deal without having to actually do your own digitizing. However, if you have got this far, that is probably exactly what you want to do!
One of the quickest ways to get started is to use the automated techniques that the software provides. While there are limitations to what can be done this way, auto-digitizing nevertheless allows you to prototype design ideas relatively simply and may be sufficient for your purposes.
At least for now!
Using artwork
Use Artwork > Prepare Artwork for Embroidery to prepare bitmap images for automatic digitizing by reducing colors, removing image ‘noise’, and sharpening outlines.
To create good quality embroidery, you need to choose suitable artwork. Possible sources include:
samples in the Picture folder
books of embroidery patterns and children’s story books
printed table cloths or tea towels
business cards, post cards and wrapping paper
clip art libraries of your word processing or graphics program
Internet or CD clipart libraries
original artwork – e.g. children’s drawings.
Artwork that is not in digital format needs to be scanned correctly to produce good quality images.
For both manual and automatic digitizing purposes, ‘clean’ artwork with a limited number of solid colors and well-defined outlines works best. The Artwork toolbar contains tools for inserting, scanning, and preparing artwork for automatic digitizing. See Electronic artwork.
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Auto-digitizing
Clean picture with well-defined outlines
Clean picture with well-defined color blocks
Complex picture, needs editing to create clean color blocks
Unless you are an experienced digitizer, don’t use artwork which is too complicated.
Bitmap artwork conversion
Use Auto-Digitize > Click-to-Fill to digitize large artwork shapes with weave fill, preserving any holes within.
Use Auto-Digitize > Click-to-Outline to digitize boundaries of shapes with run stitching using current properties.
Bitmap artwork consists of colored dots or pixels. When you zoom in on a small area, outlines become jagged and ‘pixelated’. The Click-to-Fill tools in the Auto-Digitize toolbox provide everything necessary to digitize bitmap shapes automatically. See Digitize with Click-to-Stitch.
Use Auto-Digitize > Auto-Digitize Instant Embroidery to create embroidery designs directly from imported images using default settings.
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Auto-digitizing
Use Auto-Digitize > Auto-Digitize Embroidery to create embroidery designs directly from imported images using conversion settings.
An extension of this technology, Auto-Digitize makes decisions about the most suitable stitch types to use and can digitize whole designs. See Auto-Digitize Embroidery.
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Next steps
NEXT STEPS
If you have reached this point, you have already mastered 90% of the techniques that most embroiderers need. However, coming to grips with manual digitizing is the next step in becoming an embroidery master. You can start with quite simple projects and work your way up to more complicated designs with more complicated stitch effects. See
Digitize Objects.
Special embroidery features
Once you have mastered manual digitizing, you are in a position to take advantage of the full range of stitch types and effects that the software offers. Many of them you will be familiar with, having already adapted existing designs for different purposes. Some of the many techniques supported by the software include:
Freehand
Embossed fills
Curved fills
Buttonholes
Refer to the online User Guide or the many online resources.
Happy embroidery!
Do good work with your machine and software. With this equipment you have everything you need to create top quality, fully professional embroidery.
Remember to make good use of the packaged designs and clipart. When in doubt, go back to first principles. And when you find you want to expand and extend your repertoire, study the sample designs carefully to see how it’s done.
All the best. And have fun!
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