What digitizing software to use?

LaurieH

I am a newbie to Embroidery Machines, getting my feet wet with a Brother SE350. While I know I can go out and begin purchasing embroidery files that others have made, but, well, I want to create my own.

I did get Embroidery Magic, but it's kind of confusing to use, though I'm getting better at it. Of course, I want something that converts automatically. I know that I have to pay more, but I don't want to purchase something only to find that it doesn't do what I want.

DRAWings4 looked like it could be a good program, and I was able to download an evaluation edition, but when I digitized a picture, it gave me more colors than I wanted. On one portion that had two colors where all I needed was one, I removed a portion, then was unable to get the vectors to move to where I wanted them. Upon reading more, it said something about needing a separate vector-manipulating program.

I'm just trying to get opinions on what others use. And maybe I shouldn't worry about creation of new designs - just use ones that I already have.

My problem is that I want it all and I want it now.

Lizd

Have you seen the Embroidery Magic 2 tutorials at http://www.creativeseries.com/cs2_trainingreg.asp ? In my opinoin, EM2 is a great program to learn digitizing and it has a nice range of features to allow you to create designs much better than anything you would get from an auto-digitizing program. I have yet to find an auto digitizer that can do anything but the most basic artwork without having to have lots of editing. --Liz

karensemb

I use Wilcom, which is expensive. It is one of the best, I think.

I do not like the Embroidery Magic software. Yes, it is in-expensive, but I have edited designs for other people who use it and you cannot re-size a design and it sew out good. It does not take out stitches when you make the design smaller and does not add stitches when you make the design bigger. Therefore, when you do a sewout it will not look good.

Karen Castillo
Karen's Embroidery & Digitizing

garagewear

Look at Floriani from RNK.

Bill

Web Star

I agree. There's no program can do perfect auto digitizing.
Even program as sophisticated as WILCOM can't give you that.
You'll always end up getting weird stitches running in
all the wrong directions in your design.

Need a human pro? Come see-->
http://www.webstar88.com

LaurieH

Thank you for all the answers! Yeah, I should probably learn to digitize for myself instead of using an auto-digitizer. My problem with Embroidery Magic 2 is that I don't know how to go back and correct something if I don't like what I've done.

However, since Lizd has so kindly given us a link to those tutorials for EM2, I'll look at them.

And yeah, Web Star, I'll take a look at your site.

garagewear

Floriani has their software setup so you can manually digitize parts of the design but not the whole design. It works best from bmp or jpg images. The auto function does not create your overlap however it is easy to select the opject after it is auto digitized then add an overlap. You can download it and try it for free however you can't save with the free version. So far it is the easiest to understand that I have seen. Check www.rnkdistributing.com DJ Anderson at RNK can answer questions for you as you are learning it or there is a user forum you can go to. We had used Stitch Vista and Drawings 2 & 3 in the past but Floriani takes the pain out of many of the issues. They are also very open to suggestions for new features and you get free upgrades after you purchase. The entire suite is $1300 however since you can try it and learn you can get a good feel for it. You can also purchase the individual modules if you don't want everything. did notice when you install it the icon it puts on the desktop is actually for the thread converter module. To get to the editor go through your start menus / programs and select the Demo.

Bill

LaurieH

RNK's website is closed for maintenance.

That's a big thing - I do like the "try first" mode - which is what I was looking for with Floriani.

Maybe later...I bookmarked the site.

creativedesignsjl

I have had Janome , generations and compucon Janome is excellent for starters, then compucon. Have you checked the software drawings which is a brother product. If purchased through a dealer they should train you Free

middletownink

I have the Generations Program with Dongle for sale bought it a year ago. Works very nice and I "taught" myself and had a lot of luck with it. The manual is very easy to read and follow. The tech support is awesome. They answer the phone and they don't make you feel stupid. Asking $900.