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Quick Start Lessons - Learning the Program
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Quick Start Lessons - Learning the Program
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The best way to see all of the possibilities is to perform the steps in the Quick Start lessons. Upon completing the Quick Start lessons, you will have used all of the functions of the program and can start creating on your own.
In the process of going through the Quick Start, if you find you want to know more about the individual features used, refer back to the “Reference” section of this manual. Each feature is in alphabetical order and can be easily found.
You will find several other Quick Start lessons. Other features may be turned on or off, depending on the different plug-ins purchased for this platform.
1. Quick Start I - Learning How to Use "Manual Stitch"
2. Quick Start II - Learning How to Use "Run Stitch"
3. Quick Start Lesson III - Using Standard Satin Stitches
4. Quick Start Lesson IV - Advanced Use of Satin Stitches
5. Quick Start Lesson V - Basic Steil Stitch
6. Quick Start Lesson VI - Complex Steil Stitch
7. Quick Start Lesson VII - Complex Fill Stitch - Advanced
8. Quick Start Lesson VIII - Complex Fill with Voids - Advanced
9. Quick Start Lesson IX - Applique Stitch
10. Quick Start Lesson X - Cross Stitch Basic
11. Quick Start Lesson XI - Cross Stitch Advanced
12. Quick Start Lesson XII - Cross Stitch with Voids.
Make NOTE:
In some cases the different products share features. In the case of Digitizing Pro III you will find the same features and abilities in the products below. Please read and follow the Quick Start Lessons to take full advantage of your purchase.
Notes:
While there are no absolute rules for any setting in embroidery, the following guidelines will help create smoother running designs.
Pathing represents the traveling route the design follows from start to finish. There are two important considerations when planning your design pathing. The first is machine efficiency. This means that you want your embroidery machine to sew in an efficient manner without constantly jumping from one part of the design to another or to place numerous amounts of unnecessary trims in the design.
The second consideration is the primary material that will be sewn. Take into consideration the characteristics of the material. A firm non-stretchy material such as denim will be more forgiving and allow less color changes while a thicker material such as fleece has more give and will need to be broken up into more sections. As a general rule , for garments, you want to work a design from the center of the design and start with larger areas and move to smaller areas. For hats, you will work from the center out to each side and start at the bottom and work up toward the top. Complete each section before moving on to the next. A hat design will typically have more trims and color changes to ensure proper registration and avoid pinching of the material in the center. Understanding the Medium Embroidery in it’s truest sense is a 3D medium, where screen printing, drawing and painting is 2D. With embroidery you will be creating artwork like sculpting but with thread instead of claw, rock or metal. The type of sculpting you will be doing is called a “Relief” or “Rilievo” (from Italian, rilievare: “to raise”) In sculpture, any work in which the figures project from a supporting background, usually a plane surface.
This can be done with success, by first looking at the design and planning on what parts of the design should have more depth than others and at what direction it should be sewn. This is easily done by using Satin and Complex fills together. You can get great success by changing the direction of fills to each other and using the ambient light in the room to reflect the light off the stitches. With of little bit a practice, every design you create becomes a piece of artwork.
The Underlay is the foundation of the design. The “Underlay” helps to stabilize the material and helps the threads lay properly on the garment. In many cases, when you need to increase stitch coverage of a shape, you can add more underlay versus adding more density to your shape. This helps provide added coverage while minimizing the risk of puckering and high stitch count designs.
Stitch Choices
For the most part, stitch choices are entirely up to you as the design creator. Following are some general guidelines for stitch type selection.
Run
Use for travel stitches from one area to another or for thin areas of detail where the stitch width is less than 1mm.
A steil stitch should generally not fall below 1mm in thickness or exceed 8 to 10 mm.
Complex Fill
A complex fill is used for large areas, where you would like to incorporate texture.
Connecting Stitches
You can generally connect portions of the designs without a trim command if the distance is 2 mm or less. Beyond 2 mm, it is a good idea to instruct the machine to trim if your machine comes with trimmers. If your machine doesn't have trimmers, then it might be desirable to jump to the edge of your design, drop two stitches and jump back to the next part of the design. This will make it easier to trim out these parts when the design is completed.
Lock Stitches
Lock stitches prevent thread from becoming unraveled after completion. A lock stitch should be used any time you have a trim command activated in both the segment that has the trim and the segment following the trim.
Pull Compensation
When a needle penetrates the fabric and forms a stitch, (depending upon the thickness and stability of the fabric), you can experience a reduction in column width from what is programmed on the screen. To avoid this reduction, you should use pull compensation to increase your column widths.
Overlap
When you have two stitch sections side by side with the same stitch direction, it is necessary to overlap the two sections. Otherwise it is possible for a gap to form between the two sections.
Digitizing Settings
There is no single golden rule for any setting or technique. Embroidery and digitizing is an ever-learning process. There are some basic settings you can take advantage of by using the drop down menu “Tools” and clicking on General Options. Before digitizing, you can set your environment as close as possible to the type of garment you plan to sew on. This can be found under the tab called “Environment” and feature “Default style:” You can choose from 19 different material settings or styles. These styles have all the settings preset to the individual material listed. Remember “there is no single golden rule for any setting or technique”.