general rules of thumb for digitizing...and how to spot a bad design.

proost · November 13th, 2016, 12:19 PM

digidana, thanks a lot for the informative post. Yesterday, I took one of my friend's vector logos for his business and spent all day in Wilcom practicing my digitizing. First ever. Would you be will to take look at the file and offer a critique? One area I know I need to look and redo is a T in the logo - exactly what you described in the "I" above.

I did two runs - first was autodigitizing. Did a large format design and then shrunk it and then for the second, just made a small cap sized design by hand. Stitch size came in half.

So so much to learn. Will ultimately go live with my biz on Jan 1 - from home on a SWF 1501C and probably outsource a fair amount for the complex stuff.

Thanks again for the great post!

proost · November 13th, 2016, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by proost

digidana, thanks a lot for the informative post. Yesterday, I took one of my friend's vector logos for his business and spent all day in Wilcom practicing my digitizing. First ever. Would you be will to take look at the file and offer a critique? One area I know I need to look and redo is a T in the logo - exactly what you described in the "I" above.

I did two runs - first was autodigitizing. Did a large format design and then shrunk it and then for the second, just made a small cap sized design by hand. Stitch size came in half.

So so much to learn. Will ultimately go live with my biz on Jan 1 - from home on a SWF 1501C and probably outsource a fair amount for the complex stuff.

Thanks again for the great post!

Robert Young - you as well if you don't mind!

digidana · November 13th, 2016, 04:48 PM

sure, i'd be happy to take a look. feel free to email over the dst, or the emb file. robert is zip lining in costa rica for a couple of weeks. :0)

proost · November 13th, 2016, 05:16 PM

Great!! Thank you! I'll zap it over when I get home!

naldopr · November 15th, 2016, 02:23 PM

so much to learn! I want to become a digitizer any suggestion? books videos etc?

I appreciated your help

digidana · November 15th, 2016, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by naldopr

so much to learn! I want to become a digitizer any suggestion? books videos etc?

there are a couple of books. one by helen hart, and another by strawberry stitch that i know of. do you currently embroider? a background in embroidery definitely would help. you need to learn how the machine works and watch some well-digitized designs stitch (there are way more bad ones than good ones out there). then pick a software, go to training class, watch videos, etc. learning the software is the easy part. there is actually a LOT to learn for the actual technique. it takes time, a lot of trial and error and error and error, and quite an investment. i paid about $16,000 for my first software and just switched to wilcom in july and put out thousands more. i would not suggest starting digitizing without an embroidery machine. you'll need to be able to stitch every design you do for years. i think i stitched every design for probably my first 10 years before i was 100% confident in not doing sewouts. and then once you get good at it, you get to combat overseas digitizers charging $10/design.

Dave F · November 16th, 2016, 10:35 AM

This is awesome thanks, I have been doing digitizing and embroidery for like 8 years.. you would think I would be better than I am at it. I got the job way back with no experience, and just had to start working with software I have never used and had no clue how to digitize. Mostly everything I have learned I have just figured out, but I know don't understand A LOT, I find I'm much better visual learner than anything, when I read the books, I just won't understand and I can't ask it a question. But This is a good read for sure and helps a lot. Thanks!

digidana · November 16th, 2016, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave F

This is awesome thanks, I have been doing digitizing and embroidery for like 8 years.. you would think I would be better than I am at it. I got the job way back with no experience, and just had to start working with software I have never used and had no clue how to digitize. Mostly everything I have learned I have just figured out, but I know don't understand A LOT, I find I'm much better visual learner than anything, when I read the books, I just won't understand and I can't ask it a question. But This is a good read for sure and helps a lot. Thanks!

happy to help! i didn't have any embroidery or digitizing experience when i started either. my mother had been an embroiderer for years and got me into it thinking it would be easy because i had a background in graphics. turned out that there was a lot more to it than i thought. i went to the software training class and learned some of the software basics, but that didn't help at all with the actual digitizing technique. my mother didn't know anything about digitizing either....other than knowing my early designs sucked....and she SURE let me know! hahaha i've never taken a digitizing class....just picked up a lot from trial and error.

Dave F · November 16th, 2016, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by digidana

happy to help! i didn't have any embroidery or digitizing experience when i started either. my mother had been an embroiderer for years and got me into it thinking it would be easy because i had a background in graphics. turned out that there was a lot more to it than i thought. i went to the software training class and learned some of the software basics, but that didn't help at all with the actual digitizing technique. my mother didn't know anything about digitizing either....other than knowing my early designs sucked....and she SURE let me know! hahaha i've never taken a digitizing class....just picked up a lot from trial and error.

Im pretty decent with more designs, when it comes to logos with fills, they are my nightmare for the most part, especially big fills on hats, I can never make them look right. Also I noticed the other day when I changed my travelling route along the edges it does the fill better, but I dont understand why really, lol. And if I have along the edges selected than I cannot use overlap lines, but if I have along the middle I can have overlap lines.

proost · November 16th, 2016, 11:42 AM

As digidana is painfully aware, I'm in the throes of newbieness. But I love it and found that the hours slip away while I learn how to digitize.

I use Wilcom but haven't broken the book once. What I have done is explore what is intuitively obvious like importing graphics and navigating around the software. Then, I go watch some training videos because like you Dave, I'm a visual guy. Then I apply what I learn. Hit a wall and go watch more videos. Then I test. More videoa. More trying. I did that for a full weekend and at some point, I'll grab the book and continue my learning as I come across something I want to do but can't figure out. I guess that's how I've always learned.

At some point, I'd like to attend one of Wilcom's in-house training courses and would love to hear if anyone has attended one of those in Atlanta.

Thanks to digidana for the assist and advice. I have enough to keep me busy for another full weekend!