cut through the hype and advertising claims to ﬁnd the ... · embroidery machine back in 2001....

Cut through the hype and advertising claims

to find the RIGHT digitizing software!

Copyright 2010 by Holly and Larry Pike. All rights reserved.

7 SECRETS OF DIGITIZING SOFTWARE

www.Embro ide ryHighway. c om i

http://www.EmbroideryHighway.com


It all started with this email...

"I want to learn to digitize but my software is (___________). I've tried reading the manual but it is very confusing to me. Can I learn from your class even though you have a different software? I don't want to invest the money for your class if it's not going to be a benefit with me on different software. Are they all basically the same process?"

I have shortened her email down to just the essence of her question and removed the name of the digitizing program she currently owns. Holly and I don’t believe in saying anything bad about other people or other products. We would rather present truthful and relevant information so you can make informed decisions and then let the chips fall where they may.

The software she referred to is a well-known program that has been around since the 1990’s. Her reference to “your class” is that she is thinking of attending one of our "Digitize In A Day" workshops that we teach around the USA. In those workshops we provide each student with a full working copy of Generations+ digitizing software to use for the day.

Her questions and statements then are...

“I haven’t been able to learn digitizing by reading the owners manual.”

“Could what I learn in your class be applied to the digitizing software I already own?”

“Is the digitizing process the same regardless of the program you are using?”

“Are all digitizing programs basically the same?”

I’m going to add in a couple more questions that I am also asked every week to round out the email above with the other commonly asked questions...

“How does Generations compare to (__________) digitizing software?”

“Do you have a comparison chart of all the different digitizing programs?”

“I saw (__________) and it “auto-digitizes” designs... It looked so easy!”

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7 S e c r e t s O f D i g i t i z i n g S o f t w a r ew w w. E m b r o i d e r y H i g h w a y. c o m

http://www.digitizeinaday.com/

http://www.digitizeinaday.com/



The Truth About Learning To Digitize Is...

I wish I could say that everything you learn transfers from the software we use in our classes to your own software, but it doesn't. While the “basic tools” are the same in all good digitizing programs, that’s about where the similarities end. All true digitizing programs have a line tool, an area fill tool, and a satin stitch tool. How you use those tools is basically the same in all digit-izing programs. You usually click to set a point for a straight line. There are a couple options for how you set a curved point. Also the concept of bringing a piece of artwork into your software and then using it as a guide is the same in all true digitizing programs.

Beyond those similarities, there are a lot of differences in the software. The location of the tool-bars is different from one program to the next. The icon used to represent the tools is often dif-ferent. And in many programs you must change the screen that you are viewing before you even see the tool icon you are trying to access.

When you are very familiar with one digitizing program, you will find it much easier to learn a second digitizing program. That is because one of the key ways humans learn is by a technique called “association”. The term “association” refers to the mental connections we make like the following...

"This tool works just like that tool that I already know how to use.” Or...

“It’s the same tool that I already know how to use in XYZ Software, I just have to remember to hold down the control key when I’m in ABC Software to get the same effect."

If you are just beginning to learn digitizing, then your brain does not have the previous knowl-edge that you can use to connect up with the new information. That means totally new pathways must be created in your brain for storing this new knowledge. When you go home from our dig-itizing class you will have learned how to use our tool to make a line or create an area and many other techniques, however you will have to find the tool in your own software that does the same thing in order to make it all work with your own program.

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If you are already an experienced digitizer with one software program then your brain will make all the connections almost instantly. That said, only a small percentage of the people who come to our workshops are already experienced at using any digitizing software. We usually see one person out of twenty who can already digitize. The rest of our students are likely to already own at least one digitizing program and want to learn to digitize but have run into “barriers” in doing so up until now.

We will provide you with a copy of Generations+ software to use when you take one of our workshops. You will also have the option of taking home that copy of the program and continu-ing to learn digitizing at home with our help via CD and web-based learning. We simply ask you to return our software when the trial period expires (usually 30 days) or to pay for the trail copy if you don’t return it to us.

If you are attending one of our online workshops, then we will send you a copy of Generation+ before the workshop begins. You can return it to us at the end of the trial period (usually 30 days) and we will refund the deposit you paid for the trial version of the software.

Before I go on to actually comparing software programs, I have to say something about the Generations company and what they are doing today. Holly and I appreciate not only their soft-ware, but also the way they have made it possible for people to try out their software before mak-ing a decision to buy it.

The first time we bought digitizing software (it wasn’t Generations) was when Holly got her first embroidery machine back in 2001. When we were buying the embroidery machine, the store owner said... “You’ll need digitizing software if you want to make your own designs” and we said “okay” and paid $2,000 more for software to “go with the embroidery machine.” We didn’t even know what the software was for at the time. Many people reading this report have had the same experience.

Later on, we found out what digitizing was and Holly decided that she wanted to do it. She also found out that the software we had purchased with her machine was not a good fit for her and we started looking for better digitizing software. She eventually ended up with Generations and has been using it ever since.

I would not buy a new car without first taking a test-drive in it. I want to know if I fit in the seat (I’m a big guy), is there enough head-room (I’m 6’3”), does it feel stable and safe on the road, does it accelerate quickly, and so on.

Generations is one of the few digitizing programs that will let you take a full test-drive before deciding to buy it. That way you know you can learn to digitize before making a decision.

Kudos!

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http://www.testdrive3.com

http://www.testdrive3.com



Why Has Learning To Digitize Been So Hard?Multi-Screen programs make learning harder...

In lots of older programs you have at least two (and sometimes more) different screens to view your work in. You use one screen for doing one type of work like "designing" and a different screen for doing other types of work like "editing". Some tools are used in one view while other tools are used in the other view.

This concept seems to be prevalent in a lot of programs that started out in the 90's and they have carried the system forward to today's versions of their programs. My guess is that back in the '90's most people with a home computer only had a monitor resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and you just couldn't see enough detail to pack all the tools onto one screen.

That's just my guess on why they made two or more screens to work in back then. With today's monitors often being 17", 22" or even 30" there is no need to make users switch screens for one set of tools and switch again for another set of tools.

This multi-screen concept is still used on many of the currently available digitizing programs. But programs like Generations, Bernina Digitizer, MasterWorks-II (and possibly others) have just one screen and all the tools are accessed from that one screen. There may be other programs that put everything into one screen too, but I'm not sure which other ones do or don't so I can't name all of them.

I don't think there is a common name given to that concept of "all-in-one screens" but it's an im-portant idea for making digitizing software EASIER TO LEARN AND USE.

For simplicity, I will just dub these all-in-one-screen programs as "Single-Screen" programs. The others I would call "Multi-Screen" programs.

Helpful Tools...

There are several other concepts that are found in most good programs like "auto-underlay crea-tion", "removing hidden stitches", and so on. These tools make digitizing faster as well as easier to learn.

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A Comparison Chart Of Digitizing Programs...

It would be nearly impossible to list all the differences in a side-by-side comparison chart of all the available digitizing programs. Software companies often make “comparison charts” showing all the features of their software and showing competing programs in a side-by-side graphical chart. You can read the chart and the "Yes" or "No" next to each feature.

The way to keep from falling for this sales technique is to realize that the only features listed on the chart are the ones that the people making the chart have in their software. If another software maker is putting together a chart, then THEIR program would be all "Yes" and the other pro-grams listed would have "Yes" and "No" in their lists.

As an example, let’s say that “Software A” has the following tools...

Line Tool, Area Tool, Satin Tool, Automatic Underlay, Pattern Fills and an auto-digitizing feature they call “Magic Stick”

Let’s also say that “Software B” has the following tools...

Line Tool, Area Tool, Satin Tool, Merge Feature, Auto-Applique and an auto-digitizing feature they call “Wonder Tool”.

Here is what the comparison chart made by company A would look like...

Our Software Competitor

Line Tool Yes Yes

Area Tool Yes Yes

Satin Tool Yes Yes

Auto-Underlay Yes NO

Pattern Fill Yes NO

Magic Stick Yes NO

It would seem by looking at this chart that software A is better than software B...

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But, here is what the comparison chart made by company B would look like...

(Company B’s Comparison Chart...)

Our Software Competitor

Line Tool Yes Yes

Area Tool Yes Yes

Satin Tool Yes Yes

Auto-Uplique Yes NO

Merge Yes NO

Wonder Tool Yes NO

According to this chart, software B is better!

If we tried to make a comprehensive comparison chart covering all digitizing software we would end up with pages and pages of different features listed along the side and no way to actually make a valid comparison. Instead of a comparison chart, let’s approach this from a different way.

Let’s look at what is really important in digitizing software...

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What Really Matters?Instead of making a never-ending 20 page long comparison chart, let me suggest a very short list of criteria for what makes one digitizing program better than another one. For the most part, it is not really what you would normally think of as making this one better than that one.

This is what I consider to be important in a digitizing program...

1) Is it a “bug-free” program?

2) Are there manual digitizing tools in the program? (READ THIS ONE CAREFULLY!)

3) What features are included beyond the basic manual digitizing tools?

4) How do YOU like the user interface?

5) What is "the truth" about their support system?

6) What about the "Total Cost"?

7) What education is available for the software?

1) Is it a solid bug-free program?

Software that has lots of bugs and that crashes often is obviously not something anyone would want to use. All the mainstream programs qualify as "solid" in my opinion. "Main stream" meaning... Generations, Artista, PE-Design, Palette, MasterWorks-II, Viking 4D, Janome, Em-bird Studio and a possibly few others.

If I left out a program that qualifies to be here, please understand that I don’t know all the pro-grams that have been available in the past or will be available in the future. I don’t mean to slight anyone’s software if it belongs on this list.

Instead, let me point out a couple of easy ways to determine if a program belongs on the list...

The ones that don't qualify as "solid" tend to be new programs created by startup companies that are just breaking into the market. One of the first clues that a program may not be solid is the price. If a program is offered at $65 or $200, or "it's free but you pay $50 for shipping the CD to you from (another continent)". You might consider the price as a really big clue. :-)

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Another clue is when your gut instincts tell you that something is wrong here. We all know that you can’t buy a new Mercedes for $5,000 today. The cost of the materials and manufacturing make it impossible. Why would you believe that you can buy a quality digitizing program for $100? The cost of writing, testing, distributing and supporting the software make it impossible.

2) Are there manual digitizing tools in the program?

Even if you think you will never use manual digitizing tools, you will quickly regret buyng soft-ware that will not allow you to manually edit a design that has been auto-digitized! Some soft-ware will only auto-digitize a design. That means you bring in a piece of artwork, click an icon and "presto" you have an embroidery design.

Auto-digitizing looks really impressive at first and and it would seem very easy to learn, but the reality is that there is NO SUBSTITUTE for a human being able to correct the mistakes in a de-sign that has been auto-digitized. And there generally ARE plenty of mistakes in an auto-digitized design!

For example, look at this this artwork...

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When software auto-digitizes this artwork it will probably make the shirt (which is a large blue area) into a "filled area". The small piece of the sleeve on the arm would probably be translated into a "satin stitch".

In the software's auto-digitizing programs set of rules...

“Big areas” get fill-stitches

“Little areas” get satin stitches

The software doesn't understand that both objects are parts of the same shirt and therefore should be done with the same stitch type. The software only knows that there is a large blue area and a small blue area.

Score one for human beings!

This is just one example of what is "wrong" with auto-digitizing. There are an unlimited number of mistakes that an auto-digitizing program can make because the program lacks human reason-ing skills that we take for granted.

Some auto-digitizing programs are bundled in with a graphics manipulation program so you can "clean up the artwork" before you digitize it. But in the example I just gave, no amount of "cleaning up the artwork" will solve the simple problem created by the software's algorithms re-garding "size = stitch type". So if you are going to use auto-digitizing then you also need to abil-ity to make manual changes to the design after it has been digitized, otherwise there are many pieces of artwork that you can never digitize properly.

There are some programs that consist of high end graphics software bundled together with an auto-digitizing program (also known as a “stitch engine”. In short, those are auto-digitizing pro-grams only. The price tags on those programs can exceed $1,000 so you can't tell the auto-digitizing programs from the full-featured programs based only on price.

The artwork used to demo those programs is often very carefully selected to make the program's digitizing prowess look great to the casual observer. The term in the industry for this type of demo is "Flash And Dazzle".

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The tip-off is when you look for the manual tools to edit

the auto-digitized designs and there are none!

If there are no manual tools in the program, then you will have designs that you can't stitch out very well most of the time. It would frustrate the heck out of anyone to see the problem with the design, but not have the tools required to correct the problem.

When we first started in the embroidery digitizing business we were shown a new program and the salesperson assured us that it had manual digitizing tools in it. We bought the program for the introductory price of $1,000 and took it home to begin learning. We quickly found out that the salesperson had lied to us and there were no manual tools in the program...

About a year later this same company contacted us about buying the "upgrade to version-2" of this program. They assured us that the upgrade now had manual digitizing tools built in and was just another $1,000.

We don't know if version 2 actually DID have manual tools in it since we were not going to give this company another penny (let alone another $1,000) when they had lied to us and sold us what is commonly known as “crapware” under false pretenses...

Fool me once, shame on you!Fool me twice, shame on me!

They are still pedaling their software to the embroidery community today. And no, unfortunately I won't say who they are as I don't care to make my lawyer any richer than he already is today but I guess you can tell that I’m still ticked off about this purchase.

To protect yourself from this type of unscrupulous con-artist, ask all the questions you want to and then get information from the REAL WORLD USERS, not just the salesperson, before you buy. You wouldn't be the first person that a salesperson lied to!

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3) What features are included beyond the basic manual digitizing tools?

You should have a "line tool", an "area tool", and a "satin stitch tool". Those are the basic man-ual digitizing tools.

Once you verify that the basics are in place you can now turn to the other features in the software. These are the bells and whistles that make digitizing faster, easier, and more fun. The list of possibilities are endless and include stuff like a way to turn a filled area into a motif, a stamp patterns, continuous line drawing, a tool to remove stitches under an area that would oth-erwise have two layers of stitches in it, a tool to create an outline automatically around a filled area, and on and on and on.

These additional features are like the old USA vs USSR "arms race". The makers of the top-of-the-line software programs often compete with each other to see who can add the best new tools and features into the next version of their software.

These extras are fun to have, but only if the program does everything else right do they make a difference. In other words, an auto-digitizing-only program may include some wonderful new tool that makes 3D floral designs automatically (just an example I made up), but without the ba-sic ability to correct "auto-mistakes", the extra features are worthless. Look for the basics first, that is to say manual digitizing tools, then look at extra features.

4) How do YOU like the user interface?

Some people like chocolate ice cream. Some people like vanilla ice cream. Neither group is "right". What's important is what do you like when it's your turn at the order window?

Look at the interface on the digitizing software you are considering buying. Does the way they layed out the tools seem logical to you? Is everything at hand when you need it? Or do you have to drill down through ten commands to get to a tool that you need all the time? Unfortu-nately this is a hard question to answer if you are not already familiar with digitizing software because you don't know what tools are important and which ones are not.

In that case, the only way to determine this is to watch someone who is an experienced digitizer using the software. Does what they do make sense? Are they able to explain what they are do-ing and why? Does their explanation make sense to you?

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5) What is "the truth" about their support system?

Notice I didn't say what do THEY SAY about their support system, but what is the truth! Every software company will TELL YOU about how wonderful their support system is and how fast they fix problems "if there ever were any problems which there won't be", etc. Riiiiiggggghhhhttttt!

Find a users group and ask ordinary customer what their experience has been with the support from the company or from the dealer. Take what the dealer tells you about support at a "substan-tial discount". Take what the users tell you about it as pretty darn close to the truth. There may be a user or two who had a bad experience or just had an unreasonable request, but for the most part you'll get the truth from this group of users.

A little common sense helps too. I know of one program made in South America and imported to the US that has zero support. No big surprise there! Another program I know of is written in China and the screens are “loosely translated” from Chinese to English. You can imagine what it's like to read their help files!

Common sense tells you that it helps a lot if the software is manufactured and headquartered in the USA. Even then you should ask real users what their experience has been with support from the manufacturer.

6) What about the "Total Cost"?

As the story I told earlier about the $1,000 program with the $1,000 "upgrade" a year later illus-trates, the total cost for software can keep growing over the years. We bought one program in 2003 for $800 then paid $300 for an upgrade a year later to version 3, another $300 for version 4, another $300 for version 5, another $300 for version 6, another $300 for version 7. We won’t be paying another $400 for the upgrade to version 8.

The total cost for that software has been $2,300 over a period of 7 years. Some of the updates have added nice new features. At least one of the upgrades had very few new features that we could discern at all. I think that was actually a bug-fix release, but they charged us $300 for it too.

While most people would be tempted to just stick with their original version and not buy the up-grades, you really can't do that if the program you own runs fine on Windows-XP, but your old computer dies and you have to buy a new one. If the new computer that has Windows 7 on it, you would be FORCED to upgrade or no longer be able to run your program at all. I have seen this happen with lots of programs with minor variations.

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Following are statements my customers have told me dealers have said to them...

"Version 3 won't run in Vista. You'll need to upgrade to version 4. It's only a thousand dollars." (Yes, they actually used the word "only" and "$1,000" in the same sentence!)

"In order to run (_________) on Windows 7 you to upgrade to version 8. Since you're on ver-sion 5 now, you'll also have to buy the 5 to 6 and 6 to 7 upgrades too in order to get to version 8 now."

"You'll have to upgrade because the company will no longer support the old version as of Sep-tember."

"Since your new computer doesn't have a parallel port, you'll have to upgrade to the new version of our program that has a USB dongle..."

Be aware of the hidden costs of choosing a program. Does the company charge for updates? If so, how much and how often?

The "Free" Trap...

I have seen one program that has been given away with the purchase of a top-of-the-line machine many times over the years. While that's really nice initially, the user then feels that they must keep updating that program in order to use their machine.

Hmmmmm... I think we're onto a great investment idea here. Give someone something for free then make them pay for "updates". Pay for seven upgrades at $300 each over a period of seven years and you've paid $2,100 for a "free" program.

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7) What education is available for the software?

I've saved this question for last but it may be the single most important factor of all. If you have ever started up a digitizing program then you know that you are not doing to figure out how to digitize by reading the owners manual.

Learning to digitize by reading the owners manual is like

learning to drive by reading the book inside the glove box!

So the question to ask before you buy any digitizing software is...

Who, what, when, where and how am I going to learn to use this program???

There ARE sewing stores that have wonderful digitizing teachers available and that do a great job of educating their customers in how to use the software, but that is not the norm.

Usually the local dealer will tell you that they offer classes. That sounds great until you call to register for the next class and find out that the next one will be in January and this is only June. So you wait until January and go to the class where you learn that the teacher doesn't really know anything more about the software than what you saw when it was demonstrated to you in the store last June.

Optimistically, you look forward to the February class, but when you go to the second class it's the same teacher that stumbled through the first class in January and they are teaching the same material again!

Don't blame it on the teacher in the store! They are quite often one of the store employees who is by default "the expert" on this software because they are the only employee that owns the pro-gram and are therefore the most qualified person in the store to teach the class. They may also be the teacher because the boss told them that they will be. Viola! Instant expert!

As my friend Gerry used to say...

"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!"

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Making The Final Choice...I've covered a lot of ground here and given you a lot to think about on how to evaluate digitizing software. Follow these logical steps to make your software choice...

First eliminate programs that don't have a proven track record of being around for at least a couple years or doesn't have a community of users that you can locate and ask questions.

Then eliminate programs that do not include manual digitizing tools!

From the programs that are left...

Ask questions from the folks in the community that you found about what kind of support they get from the manufacturer. Do they like the answers they get? How is the support? Can they find teachers of the software? Are there any really good teachers they would recommend?

Determine if the price you pay for the software initially is the only price you pay for the pro-gram, or if you will be shelling out several hundred dollars a year for software updates.

If you like everything else about the program, regular update fees may not be a show-stopper for you, but at least you will know what you are getting into ahead of time!

Can you get a trial version to really see how the program works before you spend your money?

Does the interface seem logical to you given a short explanation by someone familiar with the program?

Consider what the bells and whistles are and how they will affect your use of the program. Are they useful or just "gee whiz" stuff?

And finally... Who will teach you how to use the software? Be sure you can understand their teaching style and are comfortable that they are a serious USER and teacher of that software. The only way to know that you can learn from a teacher is to take a class with them either in-person, online, or on pre-recorded video.

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Compare everything you can learn about different programs...

If the software makes it through questions 1 through 5 then it should be a finalist!

You just need to determine how you feel about the answers you find to questions...

#6 (“Total Cost”) and

#7 (“How Will I Learn This Software”)

...and then make your choice of digitizing programs.

I can fill in the answers for you on Generations software...

1) Generations has been on the market continuously since 2002 and was derived from another quality program that was on the market since the 1990s.

2) Generations has full manual digitizing tools as well as the best auto-digitizing program on the market. Any design that is auto-digitized can be manually edited completely all the way down to moving the location of a single stitch. You can ask Generations users questions about the pro-gram in the Yahoo group at... http://tinyurl.com/382nh74 Or if you are a member of ArtisticThreadWorks.com you can ask the users in the Generations forum there at... http://tinyurl.com/38wz9dd

3) Generations has almost every bell and whistle included with all the other programs on the market COMBINED. It also has several exclusive features that no other programs offer yet that I'm aware of such as, divide with a line, divide with a curve, building blocks, and several others.

4) Generations has all tools built into one workspace window. Everything is right there at hand for easy access. And you can move the tool bars all around the screen to suit your personal preferences.

5) Generations company is headquartered in the St Louis suburbs. When you call them a real person answers the phone. Usually it is Ruth but it could be anyone from their sales manager Neil to Bob Mattina himself, the owner of the company. When you need tech support, it's right here in America!

6) Generations came out with a two new modules in 2007. If you wanted to add those two mod-ules, they were about $100 each. But if you didn’t need them then you didn’t have to buy them and the company still supports the software you have. They also have provided updates at no ! xvi


http://tinyurl.com/382nh74

http://tinyurl.com/382nh74

http://tinyurl.com/38wz9dd

http://tinyurl.com/38wz9dd



charge to their customers when needed over the years. That has included updates to make Generations work with Vista and now with Windows 7, including 64-bit systems. To get up-dates, customers just login to the Generations website and download the latest version of their software. Since buying Generations in 2002 we have spent $0 on updating the program. When Vista came out the update was free. When Windows 7 came out the update was free.

7) I happen to think that my wife, Holly Pike is the best Generations teacher in the world. Now, I may be a bit biased but the good thing is that you can find out for yourself by viewing some of her sample tutorial videos online. Holly teaches Generations in online group webinars with hundreds of people watching at one time. She also holds small online group lessons with 2 to 10 students. In these small classes she can view the students screen to help out when they are stuck. She also teaches one-on-one private classes online. She also teaches live, in-person, hands-on workshops with small groups as well as larger lecture-style classes. You can watch some of Holly’s tutorials here... http://www.digitizeinaday.com

Have fun learning to digitize!

We would be happy to help you in your quest. Visit our free websites for more information at www.embroideryhighway.com and www.digitizeinaday.com.

Larry Pike

Copyright 2010 by Holly and Larry Pike. All rights reserved.

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http://www.digitizeinaday.com


http://www.embroideryhighway.com

http://www.embroideryhighway.com





cut through the hype and advertising claims to ﬁnd the ... · embroidery machine back in 2001....

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